Capitalism & Communism

The purpose of this research is to examine capitalism and communism, with a view toward offering a comparison and contrast of these two economic and philosophical systems. The plan of the research will be to set forth a working definition of the key concepts to be examined, to provide a frame of investigative reference in which the comparison may occur, and then to discuss in detail the record and features of each system that illustrate differences, similarities, and as it were their pros and cons.

For purposes of discussion, working definitions of communism and capitalism are required. The basis of communism is economic. The encyclopedic definition of communism identifies it as a "form of collectivist social economy in which the means of production and distribution are owned and controlled by the community. . . . Until the ultimate stages . . . communism involves various degrees of abolition of private property" (6:358). As a practical matter, countries in which communism has been adopted as the prevailing economic system, the means of production and distribution have been and are officially controlled by the state. The encyclopedic definition of capitalism (or free enterprise system) is almost its antithesis, inasmuch as "its most distinctive single feature is private ownership of most capital [i.e., wealth used to create more wealth], particularly the factories and other industrial production facilities [i.e., means of production]" (4:129). Curiously, although

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describer. He views capitalism in particular as the product of a system of government that is grounded in freedom; communism is grounded in something very like slavery. In general, he appears to believe that the less governmental interference in what ought to be purely economic affairs, the better for capitalism and for society as a whole. This is the thesis he develops: "By relying primarily on voluntary cooperation and private enterprise, in both economic and other activities, we can insure that the private sector is a check on the powers of the governmental sector and an effective protection of freedom of speech, of religion, and of thought" (7:3). To put it another way, capitalism, or the private ownership of the means of production, has been a beneficial economic system inasmuch as it has allowed political freedom and growth. When the private sector, which is to say private property interests, is threatened by government intervention and policy, then political freedom suffers as well as the integrity of the capitalistic system itself. He advocates competitive capitalism as the best "system of economic freedom and a necessary condition for political freedom" (7:4). What he objects to are government controls on what should be

Category: Economics - C