This article is about the hypothetical stage of socioeconomic development. For the economic systems of the former Soviet and Eastern Bloc communist states, see Soviet-type economic planning. For communistic society, see Intentional community.
Part of a series on
Marxism
Theoretical works
Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
The Condition of the Working Class in England
The German Ideology
The Communist Manifesto
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
Grundrisse
Capital
Critique of the Gotha Programme
Dialectics of Nature
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
What Is to Be Done?
The Accumulation of Capital
Philosophical Notebooks
Terrorism and Communism
The State and Revolution
Essays on Marx's Theory of Value
History and Class Consciousness
History of the Russian Revolution
Prison Notebooks
The Black Jacobins
On Practice
Theses on the Philosophy of History
Dialectic of Enlightenment
A Critique of Soviet Economics
The Long Revolution
Guerrilla Warfare
The Wretched of the Earth
Reading Capital
Monopoly Capital
The Society of the Spectacle
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses
Ways of Seeing
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
Social Justice and the City
Women, Race and Class
Marxism and the Oppression of Women
Imagined Communities
Hegemony and Socialist Strategy
The Sublime Object of Ideology
Time, Labor and Social Domination
The Age of Extremes
The Origin of Capitalism
Empire
Late Victorian Holocausts
Change the World Without Taking Power
Caliban and the Witch
An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital
Capitalist Realism
How to Blow Up a Pipeline
Capital in the Anthropocene
Philosophy
Alienation
Dialectical materialism
Ideology
Philosophy of nature
Philosophy in the Soviet Union
Reification
Critique of political economy
Capital (accumulation)
Crisis theory
Commodity
Concrete and abstract labor
Factors of production
Falling profit-rate tendency
Means of production
Mode of production
Capitalist
Socialist
Productive forces
Scientific socialism
Surplus product
Socially necessary labour time
Value-form
Wage labour
Sociology
Base and superstructure
Bourgeoisie
Class
Class consciousness
Classless society
Commodity fetishism
Communist society
Critical theory
Cultural hegemony
Democracy
Dictatorship of the proletariat
Soviet
Radical
Exploitation
False consciousness
Human nature
Immiseration
Imperialism
Lumpenproletariat
Metabolic rift
Proletariat
Private property
Relations of production
State theory
Working class
History
Class struggle
Historical determinism
Primitive accumulation
Proletarian revolution
World revolution
Theory of historical trajectory
Aspects
Aesthetics
Archaeology
Criminology
Cultural analysis
Cultural Studies
Ethics
Film theory
Geography
Historiography
Literary criticism
Marxism and religion
Sociology
Philosophy
Common Variants
Structural
Autonomist
Marxism–Leninism
Guevarism
Maoism
Titoism
Trotskyism
Neo-Gramscianism
Regulation school
Third-worldist
Hegelian
Budapest School
Frankfurt School
Humanist
Neue Marx-Lektüre
Open
Political
Praxis School
Both
Black
Classical
Communization
Feminist
Leninism
Neo
Post
Western
Other Variants
Analytical
Austromarxism
Centrist
Council communism
Eurocommunism
God-Building
Instrumental
Marxism–Leninism–Maoism
Nkrumaism
Orthodox
Revisionist
Situationist
Socialism with Chinese characteristics
Wertkritik
Workerism
People
Marx
Engels
Morris
Lafargue
Kautsky
Plekhanov
Du Bois
Connolly
Lenin
Luxemburg
Liebknecht
Kollontai
Bogdanov
Stalin
Trotsky
Grossman
Zinoviev
Bloch
Lukács
Korsch
Bukharin
Ho
Serge
Gramsci
Galiev
Pashukanis
Bordiga
Benjamin
Mao
Basu
Mariátegui
Horkheimer
Dutt
Brecht
Marcuse
Kalecki
Fromm
Cox
Lefebvre
James
Adorno
Padmore
Sartre
Deutscher
Beauvoir
Sombart
Nkrumah
Sweezy
Emmanuel
Hill
Bettelheim
Draper
Jones
Hobsbawm
Althusser
Hinton
Williams
Freire
Mandel
Sivanandan
Miliband
Cabral
Thompson
Bauman
Fanon
Kosik
Berger
Castro
Guevara
Liebman
Heller
Guattari
Mészáros
O'Connor
Wallerstein
Mies
Tronti
Debord
Amin
Hall
Nairn
Parenti
Negri
Jameson
Dussel
Harvey
Laclau
Bahro
Poulantzas
Vattimo
Badiou
Harnecker
Altvater
Anderson
Löwy
Vogel
Sison
Easthope
Rancière
Berman
Przeworski
Cohen
Therborn
Ahmad
Losurdo
Ture
Postone
Rodney
Bannerji
Spivak
Newton
Sakai
Wood
Federici
Wolff
Balibar
Eagleton
Kurz
Hartsock
Rowbotham
Mouffe
Geras
Brenner
Davis
Massey
Cleaver
Bishop
Haraway
Panitch
Clarke
Jessop
Davis
Wright
Fraser
Burawoy
Holloway
Rose
Screpanti
Tamás
Hampton
Cano
Žižek
Berardi
Sankara
Hennessy
McDonnell
Douzinas
Roediger
Foster
West
Ghandy
Marcos
Heinrich
Prashad
Kelley
Dean
Lordon
Linera
Fisher
Li
Coulthard
Malm
Seymour
Toscano
Bhattacharya
Moufawad-Paul
Srnicek
Horvat
Hamza
Saito
Journals
Antipode
Capital & Class
Capitalism Nature Socialism
Constellations
Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory
Historical Materialism
Mediations
Monthly Review
New Left Review
Race & Class
Rethinking Marxism
Science & Society
Socialist Register
Related topics
21st-century communist theorists
Anarchism
Creative destruction
Conflict theory
Criticism of Marxism
Communism
Communalism
Economic determinism
History of communism
Left-wing politics
Marxian economics
New Left
Old Left
Municipalism
Political ecology
Socialism
Authoritarian
Democratic
Market
Reformist
Revolutionary
Utopian
Left-wing populism
Universal class
Vulgar Marxism
Economism
Worker cooperative
Workers' council
Outline
Communism portal
Philosophy portal
Socialism portal
v
t
e
Part of a series on
Utopias
Mythical and religious
Arcadia
City of the Caesars
Cloud cuckoo land
Cockaigne
Eden
Elysium
Fortunate Isles
Garden of the gods
Shangri-La
Golden Age
Satya Yuga
Great Unity
Ketumati
Kingdom of God
Opona
Libertatia
Mag Mell
Mahoroba
Merry England
Mezzoramia
Mount Penglai
Most Great Peace
New Jerusalem
Zion
Literature
List
The Republic
Utopia
Gulliver's Travels
Dystopian literature
Theory
Communitas perfecta
Communist society
Heterotopia
Ideal city
Sforzinda
Pantisocracy
Real utopian sociology
Third International Theory
Utopia for Realists
Utopian studies
Concepts
Arcology
Agriculturalism
Escapism
Millenarianism
New Man
Social harmony
Technological
Cyber-utopianism
Post-scarcity economy
Transhumanism
Utopian socialism
Practice
Architecture
HosPex
Open borders
Pirate utopia
UBI
Intentional community
Atarashiki-mura
Egalitarian
Huaxi Village
Nanjie
Sustainable
Communities by country
America
Finland
Germany
Organizations
Associationists
Anthroposophs
Lindisfarne
Millennium
WSF
Zeitgeist
v
t
e
In Marxist thought, a communist society or the communist system is the type of society and economic system postulated to emerge from technological advances in the productive forces, representing the ultimate goal of the political ideology of communism. A communist society is characterized by common ownership of the means of production with free access[1][2] to the articles of consumption and is classless, stateless, and moneyless,[3][4][5][6] implying the end of the exploitation of labour.[7][8]
Communism is a specific stage of socioeconomic development predicated upon a superabundance of material wealth, which is postulated to arise from advances in production technology and corresponding changes in the social relations of production. This would allow for distribution based on needs and social relations based on freely-associated individuals.[7][8][9]
The term communist society should be distinguished from the Western concept of the communist state, the latter referring to a state ruled by a party which professes a variation of Marxism–Leninism.[10][11]
Xue Muqiao wrote that within the socialist mode of production there were several phases.[12]
Su Shaozhi and Feng Langrui article created two subdivisions within the socialist mode of production; the first phase was the transition from the capitalist mode of production to the socialist mode of production—the phase in which the proletariat seized power and set-up the dictatorship of the proletariat and in which undeveloped socialism was created. The second phase was advanced socialism; the socialism that Marx wrote about.[13]
The notion that socialism and Communism are distinct historical stages is alien to Karl Marx work and only entered the lexicon of Marxism after his death.[14]
It is said that Karl Marx distinguishes between two phases of marketless communism: an initial phase, with labor vouchers, and a higher phase, with free access.[15]
^Steele, David Ramsay (September 1999). From Marx to Mises: Post Capitalist Society and the Challenge of Economic Calculation. Open Court. p. 66. ISBN 978-0875484495. Marx distinguishes between two phases of marketless communism: an initial phase, with labor vouchers, and a higher phase, with free access.
^Busky, Donald F. (July 20, 2000). Democratic Socialism: A Global Survey. Praeger. p. 4. ISBN 978-0275968861. Communism would mean free distribution of goods and services. The communist slogan, 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs' (as opposed to 'work') would then rule
^O'Hara, Phillip (September 2003). Encyclopedia of Political Economy, Volume 2. Routledge. p. 836. ISBN 0-415-24187-1. it influenced Marx to champion the ideas of a 'free association of producers' and of self-management replacing the centralized state.
^Engels, Friedrich (2005) [1847]. "What will be the course of this revolution?" Section 18 in Principles of Communism. Translated by Sweezy, Paul. "Finally, when all capital, all production, all exchange have been brought together in the hands of the nation, private property will disappear of its own accord, money will become superfluous, and production will so expand and man so change that society will be able to slough off whatever of its old economic habits may remain." Retrieved 18 August 2021 – Marxists Internet Archive.
^Bukharin, Nikolai; Preobrazhensky, Yevgeni (1922) [1920]. "Distribution in the communist system". The ABC of Communism. Translated by Paul, Cedar; Paul, Eden. London, England: Communist Party of Great Britain. pp. 72–73, § 20. Retrieved 18 August 2021 – via Marxists Internet Archive. Also available in e-text.
^ ab"Full Communism: The Ultimate Goal". Economic Theories. Archived from the original on 5 June 2009.
^Kropotkin, Peter (1920). The Wages System.
^Busky, Donald F. (July 20, 2000). Democratic Socialism: A Global Survey. Praeger. p. 9. ISBN 978-0275968861. In a modern sense of the word, communism refers to the ideology of Marxism-Leninism.
^Wilczynski, J. (2008). The Economics of Socialism after World War Two: 1945-1990. Aldine Transaction. p. 21. ISBN 978-0202362281. Contrary to Western usage, these countries describe themselves as 'Socialist' (not 'Communist'). The second stage (Marx's 'higher phase'), or 'Communism' is to be marked by an age of plenty, distribution according to needs (not work), the absence of money and the market mechanism, the disappearance of the last vestiges of capitalism and the ultimate 'whithering away of the state.
^McCarthy, Greg (1985). Brugger, Bill (ed.). Chinese Marxism in Flux, 1978–84: Essays on Epistemology, Ideology, and Political Economy. M.E. Sharpe. p. 143. ISBN 0873323238.
^Sun, Yat (1995). The Chinese Reassessment of Socialism, 1976–1992. Princeton University Press. p. 184. ISBN 978-0691029986.
^Hudis, Peter (10 September 2018). "Marx's Concept of Socialism". In Hudis, Peter; Vidal, Matt; Smith, Tony; Rotta, Tomás; Prew, Paul (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Karl Marx. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190695545.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-069554-5.
^Steele, David Ramsay (September 1999). From Marx to Mises: Post Capitalist Society and the Challenge of Economic Calculation. Open Court. p. 66. ISBN 978-0875484495.
In Marxist thought, a communistsociety or the communist system is the type of society and economic system postulated to emerge from technological advances...
achieving socialism and progressing toward a communistsociety. There have been several instances of communist states with functioning political participation...
ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communistsociety, a socioeconomic order centered around common ownership of the means...
The Communist Manifesto (German: Das Kommunistische Manifest), originally the Manifesto of the Communist Party (Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), is...
proliferation of communist parties which rejected armed revolution, but embraced the Marxist ideal of collective property and a classless society. Although Marxist...
Family, Private Property and the State. Engels categorised primitive communistsocieties into two phases: the "wild" (hunter-gatherer) phase that lacked permanent...
insurrectionary anti-organizationalist section. Examples of anarchist communistsocieties are the anarchist territories of the Makhnovshchina during the Russian...
own small communistsociety in the years following Jesus' death and resurrection. Many advocates of Christian communism and other communists, including...
Communist symbolism represents a variety of themes, including revolution, the proletariat, the peasantry, agriculture, or international solidarity. The...
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term "communist party" was popularized by the...
developments have been made in communist theory and attempts to build a communistsociety, leading to a variety of different communist ideologies. These span...
The Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest communist party in India. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur on 26 December 1925. Although the CPI...
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was an international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world...
Communist propaganda is the artistic and social promotion of the ideology of communism, communist worldview, communistsociety, and interests of the communist...
he feels an anarchist communistsociety could look like. He points to the huge levels of production that modern industrial society achieved in terms of...
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China...
Council communism or Councilism is a current of communist thought that emerged in the 1920s. Inspired by the November Revolution, council communism was...
socialism. Karl Marx described a socialist society as such: What we have to deal with here is a communistsociety, not as it has developed on its own foundations...
construction of socialism and the advancement toward communistsociety". All parties, including the Communist Party, are prohibited from publicly advertising...
The Communist movement in Korea emerged as a political movement in the early 20th century. Although the movement had a minor role in pre-war politics...
protests Wikiquote has quotations related to Communist revolution. Class conflict Communist state Communistsociety The Persian Socialist Soviet Republic was...
rather than being individual communist states. The long-term goal of world communism is an unlimited worldwide communistsociety that is classless, moneyless...
The Communist Manifesto to a holy script, being acted upon and quoted by supporters that do not know the source of their belief. A Communistsociety utilises...
toward a communist society. These countries never describe themselves as communist nor as having implemented a communistsociety. Additionally, a number...
Mass killings under communist regimes occurred through a variety of means during the 20th century, including executions, famine, deaths through forced...
Left communism, or the communist left, is a position held by the left wing of communism, which criticises the political ideas and practices espoused by...
The Communist League (German: Bund der Kommunisten) was an international political party established on 1 June 1847 in London, England. The organisation...