What's the difrence between a dictatorship and communism?

[billydan225]

So what's the difference between communism and all those dictatorships in Africa?

[Taters]

:confused: Other than everything, you mean?

[LOLseph Stalin]

Communism is a stateless, classless society. I think that says enough to let you know what the differences are ;).

[conmharáin]

Which ones, specifically?

Those tend to be ruled by military juntas. I believe their violence towards one another and their own people, direct or indirect, stems directly from the problems of global capitalism. The chaos of competing commanders fighting off pressure to open their countries up to economic exploitation by world powers is a consequence of colonialism and imperialism ravaging the continent. Other dictatorships have been forged by capitalism more directly, and terrorism against blacks in Africa extends far beyond the regimes I've described. In an odd way, some regimes are not all that different from socialistic regimes that have been deformed by capitalist pressure.

[billydan225]

I know what communism is I just was wondering about how a dictatorship is different

[conmharáin]

I know what communism is I just was wondering about how a dictatorship is different

In a dictatorship, a class uses state violence to protect their property and oppress another class. Communism has no classes and so no need for a state.

[billydan225]

In a dictatorship, a class uses state violence to protect their property and oppress another class. Communism has no classes and so no need for a state.

Thanks

[ind_com]

I smell a troll.

[billydan225]

im not a troll

[Sidagma]

Some forms of communism are a kind of dictatorship. A dictatorship is a government that has extreme power. A communist dictatorship is a government that has extreme power and uses it to remedy class inequalities in society, as some historical communist states have done. Keep in mind that in the USA at least "dictatorship" is sometimes an epithet used to shit-talk on things that you don't like, rather than a technical term. So it's like, if someone calls, say, Cuba a dictatorship, it's not because they're describing it neutrally but because they disagree with Cuban politics. Especially in the USA, there is power involved, because the USA sees itself as an entity with an entitlement or a responsibility to topple foreign dictatorships. The reality is that the USA supports dictatorships all over the world, but that's not the way things are phrased in popular discourse.

Not all communist states are dictatorships, and not all dictatorships have a communist ideology. The Mubarak regime in Egypt, for example, had a formal state of emergency declared for decades which granted the state powers that it shouldn't have had. But the Mubarak regime didn't have a communist ideology and didn't use that power to aid the working class so much as to perpetuate its own existence and aid US military hegemony in the region.

Follow?

[BIXX]

im not a troll

Well you smell like one. Or a kid who just learned about the USSR in freshman year of HS.

[Zostrianos]

You have to differentiate the goals of communism from what governments have done in the name of communism. Unfortunately nearly all regimes that called themselves communist have been oppressive dictatorships, but what they did is the complete opposite of what real communism aims to achieve.

[conmharáin]

Poimamdres's answer is a little simplistic. Consider what else has been said in this thread.

[Nevsky]

Dictatorship is a mere form of political power. Communism is an entire system of thought as well as - in its final stage - an entire form of society with unique features. There can be a communist dictator but there can be no dictator in communism.

[billydan225]

No I'm a sophomore and I've know about communism since I was in 8th grade

[conmharáin]

Sure is coolface in here.

[billydan225]

sure is coolface in here.

😡

[billydan225]

Fuck you

[#FF0000]

Well you smell like one. Or a kid who just learned about the USSR in freshman year of HS.


I smell a troll.

There are not helpful responses. You're in the learning section.

As for the question, communism is a movement and an ideology that aims for the abolition of money, private property, and the state. Dictatorship is an autocratic form of government. The differences are pretty large in that communism and dictatorship are two different sorts of things entirely.


There can be a communist dictator but there can be no dictator in communism.

I have to disagree -- the aims of communism sort of make a "communist dictator" impossible. There couldn't be a "democratic dictator", could there be? In name only, maybe.

[l'Enfermé]

Thank you #FF0000 for pointing out to the comrades above that this forum is indeed the learning forum. This is not the place for patronising crap. If you think someone is a troll, there is a thread for reporting those. Want to make a post here? Please be helpful, then.

White I mostly agree with you #FF000, I don't think that describing communism as an ideology is helpful actually. In Marx and Engels, "ideology" is something that is by definition false and is used almost as a slur by them(see the German Ideology, for example).

[#FF0000]

White I mostly agree with you #FF000, I don't think that describing communism as an ideology is helpful actually. In Marx and Engels, "ideology" is something that is by definition false and is used almost as a slur by them(see the German Ideology, for example).

I have a real difficult time finding a word for it. I don't think "movement" is quite entirely it neither are "Ideology" and "school of thought" really.

[Deity]

Communism and dictatorships are basically opposites. Communism (past the vanguard in some cases) will have no leader, which obviously would make a dictatorship impossible.

[Orange Juche]

So what's the difference between communism and all those dictatorships in Africa?

If by communism you mean what was seen in the USSR, and in Cuba, etc (which are also referred to as dictatorships):

- African dictatorships are usually things like military coups, different militant factions fighting for power under the reign of their one leader.

- The idea behind the USSR, Cuba etc is that it's the "dictatorship of the proletiariat" - dictatorship meaning "rule by one" in this case one class, the working class. According to Leninists, this would be done through a vanguard party that represents the working class... these parties elect a chairman (in the same way a parliament might elect a prime minister) who isn't a "dictator" in the sense of "one person controlling everything", but who is a strong, influential leader.

Personally, as a non-Leninist, I think "the dictatorship of the proletariat" should take a radically different form from what it supposedly did in Leninist countries, but that's a whole other topic.

[billydan225]

When chilie had that revolution in 1973 did they become communist

[Einkarl]

No I'm a sophomore and I've know about communism since I was in 8th grade

Oh god, my sides.

All I can say is lurk more. There is a great page here on Revleft which is Engle's Principles of Communism, it is a little bare bones and simplistic, but I think it will help you grasp the basic gist of it.

http://www.revleft.com/vb/communist-theory-faq-t23569/index.html


When chilie had that revolution in 1973 did they become communist

Pinochet was a U.S. backed fascist piece of shit. A lot of capitalist sympathizers really liked Pinochet's economics, I think those two facts should answer your question.

[Comrade Nasser]

So what's the difference between communism and all those dictatorships in Africa?

>Implying that these 2 ideologies have ANYTHING in common

[Comrade Nasser]

Oh god, my sides.

All I can say is lurk more. There is a great page here on Revleft which is Engle's Principles of Communism, it is a little bare bones and simplistic, but I think it will help you grasp the basic gist of it.

http://www.revleft.com/vb/communist-theory-faq-t23569/index.html



Pinochet was a U.S. backed fascist piece of shit. A lot of capitalist sympathizers really liked Pinochet's economics, I think those two facts should answer your question.

Anyone who the U.S. supports usually ends up being a piece of shit, don't you think? :laugh:

[Akshay!]

One could argue that every system is authoritarian to someone - namely, to the people who are a threat to the stability of that particular system. The difference is that in capitalism a bunch of people own and control everything so they have to be authoritarian towards (and sometimes kill) millions of people around the world, whereas in communism, the system is, by definition, created to benefit the majority of the people so they only have to be authoritarian to very few people - those who are actively trying to overthrow it and go back to capitalism. So, in conclusion, everything is a dictatorship. It depends who is in power. One person, a small number of people, or almost everyone (minus those crazy boneheads).:D

[ind_com]

There are not helpful responses. You're in the learning section.


Thank you #FF0000 for pointing out to the comrades above that this forum is indeed the learning forum. This is not the place for patronising crap. If you think someone is a troll, there is a thread for reporting those. Want to make a post here? Please be helpful, then.

Sorry for my previous post. I thought that he was a capitalist troll asking provocative questions. Someone who identifies as a Trot or any other communist tendency usually has some knowledge about the basics of communism.

[Brutus]

Communism has direct democracy, equality, no classes, no state. Dictatorship is the opposite.

[Luís Henrique]

"Communism" is an "economic" system, "dictatorship" is a political system (several, indeed; there are many kinds of different - "all those dictatorships in Africa" are very different from Hitler, or Stalin's, dictatorships). So your question is more or less like asking what is the difference between a sophomore and a college student.


When chilie had that revolution in 1973 did they become communist

No. That wasn't a revolution, it was a coup d'Etat, and Chile (it is not a kind of pepper) didn't went communist in 1973 (or at any other time, to be precise); on the contrary, the motivation of the 1973 coup was extremely anticommunist - the gorillas feared that Salvador Allende's constitutional government was leading Chile in the direction of communism, and ousted him.

Luís Henrique

[billydan225]

i was just wondering what was a dictatorship and how it compares to communism I already know what communism is

[billydan225]

I'm leaving this forum since everyone thinks I don't know a damn thing about communism
Goodbye

[The Idler]

Where's the equality in a dictatorship? There isn't and communism is about equality.

[Nevsky]

I have to disagree -- the aims of communism sort of make a "communist dictator" impossible. There couldn't be a "democratic dictator", could there be? In name only, maybe.

I originally intended to put the "communist dictator" in inverted commas, too. Stalin for example was a dedicated communist but he ruled with dictatorial power. His ideology wasn't "dictatorship", his aims were not to build up "dictatorship" in the USSR but socialism (and communism in the long term).

[Tim Cornelis]

You have to differentiate the goals of communism from what governments have done in the name of communism. Unfortunately nearly all regimes that called themselves communist have been oppressive dictatorships, but what they did is the complete opposite of what real communism aims to achieve.

No regime in history has called itself communist.


i was just wondering what was a dictatorship and how it compares to communism I already know what communism is

From that question we can conclude that you may not know what communism is. That doesn't mean some users should patrionise you for it, but keep in mind that you may not know what communism is according to communists.

[Lord Hargreaves]

Thank you #FF0000 for pointing out to the comrades above that this forum is indeed the learning forum. This is not the place for patronising crap. If you think someone is a troll, there is a thread for reporting those. Want to make a post here? Please be helpful, then.

But the initial question had quite a provocative, hostile tone to it, wouldn't you agree? It threw a lot of people off, me included. It was troll-like in that the guy hasn't even pretended to care about the sensibilities of people who post here when he asks his questions.

[Sidagma]

It didn't have a "provocative, hostile tone." Probably a lot of people, especially in the west, were there once. I know I was. It's not like people come out of the first ten or so years of American public schooling super educated on political matters.

Sure is a lot more fun to make fun of people than to actually answer their questions without being a jackass, isn't it? Disgraceful.

[#FF0000]

But the initial question had quite a provocative, hostile tone to it, wouldn't you agree? It threw a lot of people off, me included. It was troll-like in that the guy hasn't even pretended to care about the sensibilities of people who post here when he asks his questions.

No it didn't and there's no excuse.

If anyone thinks someone is a troll, go to the troll thread and say it there.

For real people on revleft have the worst troll-dar

[Sidagma]

And in the process of having that horrible troll-dar, they become the trolls themselves.

They literally just bullied somebody into leaving the forum.

[Althusser]

Wow guys... I didn't know the difference between communism and a dictatorship Sophomore year of high school. This person took the initiative to understand the difference and people are being ridiculously hostile.

If it was me asking this years ago, I might just have abandoned the left for good after being talked down to like that.

[Althusser]

When chilie had that revolution in 1973 did they become communist

Definitely not. It was a fascist military coup funded by the United States to re-privatize the copper and regain political control of the region in an imperialist fashion.

Salvador Allende was a social-democrat who was elected president democratically in 1970. He promised reforms and certain things to benefit the people of Chile. The west responded by funding Augusto Pinochet and a fascist military coup that ousted Allende.

[Rafiq]

Key phrase here is class interest: What class are they ruling on behalf of?

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