COMMUNISM.—A theory of community of property among the members of the state. The theory has been supported partly on economic grounds, partly on ethical. Its pleas are, that by united production, and equal distribution, an increase to the comfort and happiness of human life would be secured; and that by the same means the jealousies and bitterness of competition and class interests would be ended. Its criticism of the existing order, under recognition of rights of private property, is that it involves multitudes in poverty and suffering, while others accumulate wealth. The theory in some cases passes to an attack on the social life as based on the constitution of the family, alleging that this is another fortress of class interests. In this extreme form the levelling process, after reducing men to a herd, would put the guidance of individuals under command of political government, for distribution of food, clothing, work, and for regulation of all social conditions. This theory proceeds on a disregard of personal rights, and assigns impossible functions to civil government.
| Aristotle has said:—»It is the preserving a just and equal balance of power which is the safety of states… All cannot govern at the same time, but either by the year or according to some other regulation or time. By this means every one in his turn will be in office, as if shoemakers and carpenters should exchange occupations, and not always be employed in the same calling» (Politics, II. 2). «There are two things chiefly inspiring mankind with care and affection, the sense of what is one’s own, and exclusive possession, neither of which can find a place in this sort of community» (ib., II. 4). |
Communism has had its theories and experiments in ancient times, as in the Republic of Plato and the government of Sparta; and also in modern times, as in the Utopia of Sir Thomas More, and in various schemes in France, Britain, and in the territory of America. The leading names associated with the theory are those of St Simon, Fourier, Augustus Comte, Louis Blanc; and in our own country, David Dale and Robert Owen. Aristotle’s Politics and Economics; Hobbes’s Leviathan: on Comte’s Social System, Caird’s Social Philosophy and Religion of Comte: for the fundamental ethical positions as to personal industry and rights of property—Calderwood’s Handbook of Moral Philosophy, ch. III. pp. 31-33.
