A Concise Overview of the History and Ideologies of Communism (Part 8)
The Politics and Social Structure of Communism
It is often difficult for people who have never lived under communist rule to understand the nostalgia for the communist era in many countries. After all, the communist political system was, in practice, elitist and fundamentally undemocratic. Most consumer goods were scarce and often of poor quality, and for at least part of the communist era, many countries were ruled by regimes characterized by repression and terror. To understand this nostalgia, it is necessary to examine some of the positive aspects of communist power, particularly its social welfare policies. Understanding communist societies also requires considering the social gaps in specific countries and how communists attempted to address these issues.
Social Welfare
Social welfare can be defined as the provision of public goods and services by communist systems, such as free education, free healthcare, and heavily subsidized housing. “Soviet citizens paid an average of only 5.3 percent of their income for housing at the end of the 1970s, while most Hungarians paid no more than 10 percent, and public transportation and services were so extensive that these states were often described as cradle-to-grave welfare states.”
It was not a communist country, but Germany under Wilhelm I, that first introduced the welfare state. The rationale was that a good state should not only defend its citizens against aggressors but also provide them with ongoing care. Thus, Germany was the first country in the world to implement a universal state health insurance scheme in 1883, under Chancellor Bismarck. A number of other European countries, including Hungary, had well-developed health and other welfare programs long before the communists came to power. However, the communists took the concept of state welfare to new levels. Here, we will focus on three elements of this: healthcare, education, and employment.
Healthcare, Education, and Employment
One of the first priorities of communist governments in the field of social welfare was the provision of free and universal healthcare. This goal was achieved in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and in all communist countries of Eastern Europe by the end of the 1940s. China had a nearly comprehensive healthcare system by the early 1950s, although it was more commune-based than centrally organized. China’s healthcare system was more preventive than curative, reflecting its traditional practices. Eastern European and Soviet systems were more curative; in short, while communist systems agreed in principle on the need for government-provided healthcare, they differed in how best to organize it. This was partly due to diverse cultural traditions.
Another important priority in communist countries was education. Education was mostly free and compulsory, and the average minimum number of years of schooling in most countries increased over time. For example, in most parts of the Soviet Union, the average minimum number of years of schooling increased from seven to ten years between 1957 and 1970. The gains in literacy rates were also impressive. Although many non-communist countries likewise achieved significant success in increasing literacy rates in the twentieth century, their averages and rates were generally lower than in the communist world. However, it is important to note the various limitations of communist education systems. One limitation was the emphasis on learning by memorization rather than on developing critical and creative skills. This method, sometimes referred to as “sponge education,” may be effective in certain subjects, such as language acquisition. However, it also reflects a lack of state support for individual creativity. The truth is that raising literacy levels and the structure of education systems were generally designed to produce students with communist values, often in ways that many individuals from non-communist backgrounds would find intrusive. This approach hindered the development of individual critical thought, which many consider a fundamental right, not only in a true democracy but also in an egalitarian society.
Finally, some remaining communist countries have, in recent years, adopted completely non-communist approaches to education. For example, Vietnam has been encouraging the development of the private sector in education since the 1990s and has allowed state educational institutions to receive salaries.
Structural unemployment, as it is now known almost universally, was not generally a feature of communist systems. This understanding helps to explain why, for example, “Russia had no unemployment insurance system from the 1930s until the early 1990s—it was considered unnecessary—and only in July 1991 did it open its first unemployment office.” This explanation also accounts for why individuals who experienced unemployment and insecurity in the post-communist era sometimes feel nostalgic for the past. This job security had its downsides; as with the other areas of social welfare we have discussed, there were trade-offs. From an individual perspective, many jobs that guaranteed full employment were monotonous and unchallenging. While this may also be true of jobs in non-communist systems, many people may prefer boring work to unemployment. From a societal perspective, the commitment to full employment led to a decline in productivity, contributing to long-term economic stagnation in most communist countries since the 1970s.
Another negative aspect of the communist full employment policies, aside from guaranteed jobs, was that citizens were required to work. For example, if someone wanted to pursue a living through art but was not a government-approved artist, they could face repercussions. In many cases, especially in the early years, citizens were required to work as government employees immediately after graduating from higher education institutions, leaving them with little choice.
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