Communism - Criticism

Criticism

Some people have criticised socialism and by extension communism, stating that the two systems have distorted or absent price signals, slow or stagnant technological advance, reduced incentives, and reduced prosperity, as well as on the grounds of its feasibility and its social and political effects.

Part of this criticism extends to the policies adopted by one-party states ruled by communist parties (known as "communist states"). Some scholars are specially focused on their human rights records which are claimed to be responsible for famines, purges and warfare resulting in deaths far in excess of previous empires, capitalist or other regimes. However, such state regimes do not fit the definition of communism as a stateless and international workers' democracy, as repeatedly advocated by Marx and Engels, and subsequent orthodox Marxists.

The Council of Europe in Resolution 1481 and international declarations such as the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism and the Declaration on Crimes of Communism have condemned some of the actions that resulted in these deaths as crimes.

Stéphane Courtois argues that communism is responsible for the murder of almost 100 million people in the 20th century, but two of the main Black Book's contributors, Nicolas Werth and Jean-Louis Margolin, disagreed and publicly disassociated themselves from Courtois's statements.