7.1.3

Communism

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The Principle of Communism

Communism is the belief that collectively owned wealth should form the basis of society.

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Communism

  • Communism believes that wealth in society should be commonly owned by all individuals.
  • A communist economic system has a planned economy and public ownership of industries.
    • In a planned economy, the state owns and controls all means of production such as land, capital and labour.
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Karl Marx and Communism

  • Karl Marx's ideas are important within communism.
  • Karl Marx believed capitalism would be brought to an end by the exploited working class revolting and overthrowing the owners of capital in society.
    • For Marx, the revolution by the working class would cause capitalism to end.
  • For Karl Marx, communism exists when there are no social classes of people in society, and all individuals cooperate and live peacefully.
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Communism examples

  • The communist belief that business owners exploit the working class in society exists in organisations today.
    • Topshop's employees have protested in the past over their pay which they complained was less than the 'Living Wage' of £9.40 in London and £8.25 for the rest of the UK.
    • TNS Knitwear, a clothes supplier to the store Primark, was found by a BBC investigation in 2009 to pay its workers £3.50 an hour in its factories, and employ illegal workers in poor conditions in Manchester.

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1Democracy & Participation

2Political Parties

3Electoral Systems

4Voting Behaviour & the Media

5Conservatism

6Liberalism

7Socialism

8The UK Constitution

9The UK Parliament

10The Prime Minister & the Executive

11Relationships Between Government Branches

12US Constitution & Federalism

13US Congress

14US Presidency

15US Supreme Court & Civil Rights

16US Democracy & Participation

17Comparing Democracies

18Feminism

19Nationalism

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