The Structural Failure of Authoritarian Communism: A Contrast with Democratic Socialism
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc in the late twentieth century is often cited as the definitive failure of communism. This historical judgment is accurate, but the reasons for the failure must be precisely understood. The demise of the Soviet model was not a refutation of all forms of collective social organization, but rather a catastrophic failure rooted in the structural exclusion of fundamental democratic, legal, and economic principles. The authoritarian communist regimes, generically known as Marxism-Leninism, demonstrated that the pursuit of economic equality without the bedrock of political freedom inevitably leads to tyranny, economic decay, and collapse.
