Communism Retreat/Communism Reform - Research Paper Example

The last two principles were ideological in nature. They ensured that there was a sense of belonging to world wide communist movement based on aspirations to build communism, and stateless society of the future. These principles differentiated the communist society from socialist parties of a social democratic type.2 The influence of communism has faded in Europe, but there remains the influence of communism in running of some government in the world. In fact, in the remaining communist states such as China, and Vietnam they have abandoned the communist economic system.

3 However, they have managed to retain the political power structure.4 Additionally, change is underway in countries like Laos and Cuba as outside influence start to take shape. However, North Korea remains unchanged, but with recent changes, it is less likely to remain unaffected in the near future. The propagation of communist ideas largely took place in 19 the century. This happened in the 19th century with the advent of an industrial working class, and theories of Lenin and Engels.5 Even after the rise of communism in the first half of 20th century, the fall in the second half was unprecedented.

This paper seeks to delve on communism reform and retreat. Communism Reform/ Communism Retreat Communism reforms were only possible after Mikhail Gorbachev took over authority in 1985. He was a radical reformer holding the most powerful office in the communist authority. He took an initiative to adopt pluralism that later turned out to be political pluralism. This was important as it gave radically reformist party officials opportunity to criticize already existing system of government.6 Gorbachev himself was against the communism government power because it was not derived from the people.

He noted that in future to justify the powers of communism it was to be based on contested elections.7 Gorbachev pronouncements had devastating consequences that resulted to withdraw of members from the union. This was evident as communism started to collapse in both Poland and countries of East-Central Europe. Moreover, it is argued that the communism reform were because of economic decline as the economic situation in the 1980’s was worsening. As Gorbachev took over power, a complete overhaul was needed to save the economy that was suffering from the cold war.

8 This necessitated reforms to take place both political and economic. In fact, Gorbachev noted what problems USSR was going through. The significant of them all was the declining economic fortune characterized by a slow economy growth rate in a rate that was never experienced before.9 With the decline of the country national income and growth rate, the country was going through a period of economic decline from 1972 to 1987.10 The initiative taken before to revive the economy failed and this called for an alternative solution.

Products continued to be sold at a higher rate to cater for money required for increased work force that used to produce goods. The artificial labor shortage prompted workers to be paid unearned bonuses and higher wage. Therefore, economic reforms were necessary to reverse such trend. Secondly, reforms were also necessitated by international challenges. In the 1980’s inflation was at the highest rate while the living standards had fallen. At this time, the economic situation was dire as compared to the united state that acted as a main rival.

This is because of ideological, political and military