Communism vs Democracy

Communism is an original system of society, quite different from Democracy in many ways. While total democracy is not widely spread, many forms of it are prosperous throughout the world today.

One of the first and major differences between a Communist and Democratic government is their contrary economic systems. In a communist government, the community owns the major resources and means of production. The goal of such a system is to prevent any one person or group of people from becoming radically rich, while others are extremely poor. The system attempts to eliminate lower class by balancing the wealth between rich and poor, therefore giving everyone equal pay and ownership. Unfortunately, this results in an increased lower class. However, in a Democracy, free enterprising is permitted, and smiled upon. ? Here, free enterprising helps the economy to flourish. People can organize their own businesses and receive their own profits if it succeeds, or debts if it fails. In this system, the harder a person works, the more money they receive, allowing them to ‘make ends meet.’ The downside to democracy is that people can get a high paying job through education, but may work just as hard at a lower paying job and receive less money. As Winston Churchill once said, "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." Generally, Democracy’s seem be more successful economically.

In a democracy, money is the most dominant incentive. On the contrary, in a communist government, a person can work a million times harder than the person sitting next to him, and receive equal pay. This results in no incentive on the part of the worker whatsoever. When there is nothing to achieve by working harder, people become slothful, which does little good for a country’s economy. In most attempts, past and present, communism has failed economically, whereas democracies have a commendable success rate.

Communism is most widely taken up by Third World countries striving for national independence and sudden social change (Russia, Cuba, and Northern Korea). Forms of democracy however, are usually exercised by countries, which have a long-range goal to succeed, or improve economically (Britain, U.S.A.). Most widely first heard of through Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, communism hasn’t been around nearly as long as democracy, which is first known to have existed in the city-states of ancient Greece and Rome.

In theory, everyone is equal in a communist government, however this is not true in many aspects. When only one person controls a communist government, it’s not far off from totalitarianism, as that one voice is the only one that really matters. In a democracy, however, every citizen has an equal say in government. Suffrage rights apply to men and women alike, regardless of race, past education, heritage, etc. Even in ancient Greece and Rome, every citizen could vote individually at an assembly, with a vote from a farmer counting as much as a vote from an artist.

As you can see, Communist and Democratic forms of government are very contrary to each other. As they both have benefits and disadvantages, people continuously argue over the superior choice, despite history.