Communism

Communism is a way of running an economy and a government, in which the means of production (factories, equipment, the things which allow other things to be produced) are commonly owned, and which has no state, money, or social classes. It is also a political way of thinking and an idea of how to get to such a society. Communism says that the people of any and every place in the world should all own the factories and farms that are used to make goods and food and be able to make decisions about them together. This social process is known as common ownership. The main differences between socialism and communism are that, in a communist society, the state and money do not exist. Work is not something a person must do to stay alive but is rather something people can choose whether or not to do.

Philosophy
According to Communist writers and thinkers, the goal of communism is to create a classless society by eliminating the power of the bourgeoisie (the ruling class, who own the means of production) and creating a dictatorship of the proletariat (the working class). Communism is not anti-individualism, but they do believe that decisions should be made to benefit the collective population rather than to serve the greed of one or several individuals.

Politics
Some socialists believed that socialists could take state power in democratic elections. They tried to make socialist parties in their own countries win elections. Others thought that the state was created to maintain capitalism and that capitalists would never allow communists to take power. They thought there needed to be a war or revolution in order to create a new workers' state.

Most of the countries that claimed to be workers states either had a violent revolution or were invaded by a country that left behind a government. Some democratic countries today have active communist parties, such as in India, Italy and France.

In some countries, especially those that used to be ruled by communist parties, the communist party is illegal or discouraged from holding power (like in Eastern Europe). They also have elections.