, namely a socioeconomic order structured upon the ideas of common ownership of the means of production and the absence of
, and, in some cases, the state. As such,
.
as well as the political ideologies grouped around both, all of which share the analysis that the current order of
stems from capitalism, its economic system, and mode of production, namely that in this system
there are two major
social classes, the relationship between these two classes is exploitative, and that this situation can only ultimately be resolved through a social
revolution. The two classes are the
proletariat (the
working class), who make up the majority of the population within
society and must work to survive; and the
bourgeoisie (the capitalist class), a small minority who derives profit from employing the
working class through private ownership of the means of production. According to this analysis,
revolution would put the
working class in power and in turn establish social ownership of the means of production which is the primary element in the transformation of
society towards
communism.
After 1917, a number of states were identified as
communist: these states espoused Marxism?Leninism or a variation of it. Along with social
democracy,
communism became the dominant political tendency within the international socialist movement by the 1920s. In practice, the model under which these nominally
communist states operated was, in fact, a form of state capitalism or a non-planned administrative-command system and not an actual
communist economic model in accordance with most accepted definitions of ?
communism? as an economic theory.
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