Communism: The Specter and the Struggle

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outrage against the "coercion and violation of human rights on a massive scale" and the "arbitrary power" that the Communist regime of Poland has used in its effort to crush Solidarity, Reagan sounded more certain than ever that Communism is evil, but less confident than before that it is doomed. His ambivalence is understandable. It reflects a contradiction that is inherent in Soviet-style Communism, which is not primarily a system for making sure that people are fed, housed, healthy, safe, productively engaged and free to pursue happiness.

Instead, first and foremost, Soviet-style Communism is a system dedicated to the acquisition, consolidation, preservation and extension of power. Generally, that means the power of the state, but more particularly, the power of a self-perpetuating elite. As such, the Soviet system is one of the most formidable inventions of all times.

In theory, Communism was originally, and supposedly remains today, a social and political doctrine based on economic goals and means. The chief goal is an equitable distribution of the wealth that society produces. The principal means is a command economy, in which the state, rather than private individuals or enterprises, takes responsibility for all production and distribution.

The founders of Communism and its present-day defenders have always maintained that economic conditions determine social relations and political institutions; therefore, economic considerations should presumably enjoy a special precedence in the formulation of social policy. Yet practice has made a mockery of theory. The practitioners have done their utmost to divorce the art of the possible from the dismal science of economics. They have made power politics both paramount and as independent as possible from those concerns that govern the welfare of society.

In that sense, Communism today is a different sort of phenomenon from capitalism and democratic socialism. While bolstered by elaborate political superstructures, capitalism and socialism are still primarily economic systems that succeed or fail on how well they channel the energies of their producers and meet the needs of their consumers. The numerous, severe troubles afflicting capitalism and socialism today—inflation, recession, unemployment, poverty and urban decay—are all basically economic ills with political side effects.

Communism, by contrast, is not attached to a political superstructure: it has become that superstructure. That transformation explains why Communist politics, despite the crippling defects of Communist economics, has come to dominate about 1.5 billion people in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean—more than a third of the world's population, inhabiting more than a quarter of the earth's land surface.

Since World War II, banners bearing variations of the hammer and sickle have been unfurled in 15 countries. The victory of Marxists in nations as diverse and far-flung as the Seychelles, South Yemen, Ethiopia, Angola and Nicaragua led Richard Nixon to proclaim that World War III has already begun and that the other side may be winning. Without resorting to quite the rhetorical excesses of his former boss, Secretary of State Alexander Haig uses almost every occasion he can to raise the alarm: "Moscow is the greatest source of international insecurity