Chapter 8 and 10

Chapter 8 Current and Former Communist Regimes
I. Communism:
a.China, North Korea, Cuba, and a few other countries are the only communists countries left.
b. The first communists regime was the (USSR) The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
c. the Leninist State: 1. The Communists Party completely controlled political life. 2. Until the late 1950’s the Soviet Union controlled the entire Communist World. 3. In the late 1950’s the Communist world began to splinter.
d. Command Economy: The government owned all industrial enterprises and retail sales outlets.
e. In the 1980s the Communist countries found themselves in deep economic trouble.
II. Socialism, Marxism, Leninism
a. Socialism: Four characteristics
1. means of production are flawed.
2. most liberals are satisfied if a society can achieve equality of opportunity, which theoretically offers everyone the same chance to succeed.
3. democracy as practiced in liberal, capitalist society is too limited.
4. socialisms claim that providing for public ownership and control of a substantially more egalitarian society will improve human relations in general.
b. Marxism
1. Karl Marx
2. believed that societies passed through stages, evolving from primitive groups of hunters and gatherers and eventually turn into an industrialized society.
3. societies shift from one stage to another in a process called dialectic.
4. progress occurs as a result of changes in the distribution of economic power, historical materialism.
5. process occurs as a result of conflict between classes.
6. Marx thinks capitalism is a step forward
c. Stalinism
1. Joseph Stalin
2. totalitarianism: Stalin used the party, the mass media, and campaigns of terror to subjugate the population and then mobilize the people in pursuit of the leadership’s goals.
d. De-Stalinization
1. de-Stalinization: when his colleagues replaced him and they had a period of relaxation and reform
III. The Marxist-Leninist State
a. The Party State
b. The intuitions of the party state were its secretariat and politburo
c. The most important individuals were the general secretary and the members of the Politburo
d. Western observers called these regimes totalitarian
IV. The Crisis of Communism Suicide by Public Policy
a. In 1985 the European Communism’s final act began.
b. Glasnost: more openness in the political system
c. Democratization, beginning with the introduction of a degree of competition to the way the Communist Party was run.
d. Perestroika, economic restructuring, including a degree of private ownership
e. New thinking in foreign policy, especially improved relations with the West.
f. Revolutions first started in Poland
g. There are only 5 communists countries left: China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba.
V. Transitions
a. most conditions have improved in these countries

3 questions:
1. I think it was interesting how Marx says that society is slowly making progress over time even when they have their downs they are still slowly headed upward.
2. I am just curious in these countries with communist’s leaders how does the leader come to power. Like how does the country decide who will be in charge of everything since they can not vote?
Since the countries that call themselves communists are not really fully communists why do they object to becoming capitalists nations when they do not fully accept communism either?

Chapter 10: China
I. Thinking about China
a. The worlds most populated country.
b. remains a very poor country even though all the progress it has made
c. Hu Jintao currently governs China
II. The Evolution of the Chinese State
a. Confucianism: a code of social conduct that revolves around a few key principles.
b. China has gone through stages of ups and downs
c. Sun Yat-sen- one of the first Chinese to be westernized
d. Kuomintang or Nationalist Party
e. May Fourth Movement- against Confucianism
f. Mao and the Longest March
g. Zhou Enlai- form a united front to fight the Japanese
h. Lin Biao-gained control of Manchuria and started moving south
i. Great Leap Forward- where China attempted to make rapid progress in the transition to socialism and communism under Mao’s rule
j. Jiang Qing- eliminating anything Western and non-ideological from the theatres and airwaves.
k. The Gang of Four-Jiang, Zhang, Yao, and Wang
l. In 1973, Zhou announced that China would concentrate on the four modernizations-agriculture, industry, science and the military.
II. Political Culture and Participation:
a. Collectivism
b. Struggle and Activism
c. Egalitarianism and Populism
d. Self-Reliance
e. The average citizens actually participate in political life more than their counterparts in the west.
f. Democracy Wall-1978
g. Democracy Movement: the first large, reasonably well-organized protest movement against the CCP and its policies.
h. Falun Gong- organization that is hard to fit into western conceptual schemes.
III. The party State
a. one common denominator in Chinese politics since 1949- domination by the CCP.
b. The CCP has a smaller population the total population than the communists party of the Soviet Union.
c. The CCP leadership still controls all major appointments in the government and in the party itself.
d. Central Advisory Commission- advise the politburo and the rest of the official leadership.
IV. Public Policy: Perestroika Without Glasnost
a. some believe china will make one of the worlds leading economic powers in the near future.
b. China has remained one of the worlds poorest countries and has taken steps towards improving its conditions.
c. Special Economic Zones-created in 1979, foreign investors were given special tax rates and other incentives in these areas

3 Questions:
1. Hauss says that china will become one of the worlds economic powers someday, if so they why has the country been so poor?
2. I wonder why China is so set at rejecting western ideas.
3. I also why China claims to be a communists country but is communism light, they are not fully communists.