Ness Tangjetanaporn 9B

IDEAOLOGIES: DEMOCRACY, COMMUNISM, CAPITALISM

Two German philosophers, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published a pamphlet suggesting a new ideology called communism because they believed that capitalism creates an unbalance society like the proletariat working harder but the bourgeoisie getting all the rewards. Communism is a system where private property is expropriated from its owners so the government holds all the property (control both private and public sectors). In addition, communism has a centralized economy and emphasizes on a classless society in which its population equally shares the means and output of production. I believe communism was implemented because of the imbalance of wealth in the population such as the upper classes being very wealthy and the lower class very poor. When communism was presented, it initially offered equality of distribution of wealth for all classes but it has ended up benefitting a small portion of the population. An example of communism is in Soviet Union in the 1917 during WWI that started from mutiny escalated to the execution of the Tsar, and then the Bolsheviks (communist party) took control of the provisional government. The second example is in Peoples Republic of China, which started in 1947 where Mao Zedong dictated Chinese Communist Party (CCP). When the Bolsheviks and CCP implemented the communism, the many starved to death and resulted to millions of casualties and possibly cannibalism. This is due to the unequal distribution of vital resources. The problem in communism is that everyone has the same profit, despite the working hours, skill, and engagement. Current countries governed through communism are Cuba and North Korea.

Capitalism is an economic system where means of production (capital), distribution and ownership of capital goods are in private hands for financial advantage and controlled rather than publicly or state-owned and controlled. Under capitalism, prices and wages are determined by the supply and demand. Business owners in a capitalist economy aim for the highest profit at the lowest possible cost. There is competition for low prices that attract consumers. Inefficient companies that cannot generate greatest amount of profit will be forced out of the market. In a capitalist lead economy, the government can protect legal rights (e.g enforces health care, social security, minimum wages) in the economy to a certain extent. Some of the characteristics include lower taxes as well as the ability of owning a business, ability to adapt to a changing environment, ability of determining the production of goods and an economic choice of actions and investment. Examples of current country's economies using the ideology of capitalism include USA, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, UK, Spain, Germany, Japan, Denmark, etc. In all of these countries, it is free markets where people are able to

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make their own profit, own their own business, able to decide the means of the businesss future and the economy is also run by private sector.

Democracy is when power and responsibility is exercised through citizens and elected officials which contrasts from totalitarianism and dictatorship. Democracy avoids an overpowered central government and supports the idea of majority rule with fair elections and majority vote wins. The execution of laws, decisions, and policies will needed to be decided on by the government run by the citizens. In addition, human rights, equality, religion, freedom of speech, justice, diversity are the key points of democracy. There are many forms of democracy such as direct, representative, parliamentary, presidential and constitutional. New Zealand, Norway, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Austria and Germany are current countries under the democratic government.

As there are various types of ideologies in the world, there are different beliefs and judgments of systems to govern an economy or politics in a nation. These different aspects can clash and cause disagreement between sides and can lead to serious conflicts and war seen by the conflicts in the 19th century. For example, Hitler strongly believed in the survival of the fittest (Darwinism), thus he was against socialism because he believed it went against nature. This was one of the many reasons he hated the Jews, in which caused the passing of the Nurnberg Law and the beginning of WW2. Another example is in Cambodia, around 4 million anti-communists were killed whom belonged to the previous government or had talent that the communist were highly against. These examples show a difference in beliefs and method to control the economy and politics. In addition, it can cause inter group conflict, animosity and enmity as there are varied rankings in the hierarchy. I believe it can cause disagreement that can lead to global conflict, especially because leaders are very powerful and have access to war weapons even nuclear power.

From discussing and investigating the 3 different ideologies, I believe that a democratic government that has a capitalist economy work best. This is because citizens have freedom of speech and is able to direct the path of the country (one man, one vote) through a system of representation and elections as well as they are able to own property, businesses. Unlike communism that has a centralized economy controlled by one leader, one government party in which citizens do not have personal freedom. Seen by the communist-led economy in the 1960s, millions were killed in the Cultural Revolution which the CCP were in charge of, as well as there was as starvation. I think that communism has a good starting idea of eliminating social classes but it just mismanaged a country because it is

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hard to provide the essentials equally for everyone and almost every attempt of implementing communism has failed and caused a downfall to the country. There is no perfect ideology to lead the world. But capitalism is proven for the last many centuries to be most effective. Developed and world-leading countries like the US can see this. Without capitalism, our economic development would progress much slower, fewer expansions, less innovations, possibly very less technology. Without democracy, human rights will be abused especially if ruled less than one dictator. Thus, I believe that democratic capitalism (combination of the type of economy and governing) is the best because it can provide more happiness, viable alternatives, freedom of speech, better governance due to transparency, respects human rights, advances various aspects of life, promotes equality and health.