Communism
Details:
Although the concept of communal ownership of property has existed in various forms throughout history, Communism as a modern political and economic movement arose from the social upheaval of the 18th and 19th centuries.
In their definitive Communist Manifesto German social philosophers [co-founded by] Karl Marx* and [co-founded by] Friedrich Engels* attribute the turmoil of the period to class conflict, specifically the rise to prominence of the "bourgeoisie," a powerful and wealthy middle class who overthrew the agrarian feudal social order and replaced it with a new system of world capitalism.
According to the Manifesto, the other class arising from modern social and economic conditions, the "proletariat" [...], was an exploited and impoverished laboring underclass who provide the labor necessary to produce society’s wealth while earning only enough for basic subsistence. The Manifesto urges the proletariat to unite against their bourgeois oppressors, just as the bourgeoisie had risen against their aristocratic oppressors in the French Revolution, as the sole solution to class strife and social imbalance.
A "dictatorship of the proletariat" was viewed a transitional phase preceding a stateless, classless society. Marx’s materialist philosophies differed from other more utopian theories in the socialist tradition in that he laid out a practical plan how to bring about major change and a detailed social theory to explain much of the conflict enveloping European society of the time.
Appealing to many intellectuals and workers alike throughout the world confronted with appalling social conditions, Marxian Communism played a decisive role in such major historical events as the Bolshevik and Maoist Revolutions, WWI, WWII, the Cold War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
Although with the fall of the Communist regimes of the Soviet Republics it has ceased to be a dominant force in international economics or policy, some scholars and politicians consider the ideology still to be a major threat.
Oneliner: Communism is a left-wing to far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement
Bibliography:
- Encyclopedia Britannica.