Communism And east Germany Flashcards
Explain communism in the view of Karl Marx
-Observed human beings impart value to the objects they create by investing their own time and labour in them. This value can be greater than the cost of creating the object
Eg. Chair maker spends $50 to build the chair that sells for $60 the extra $10 reflects time and energy of the maker.
- surplus of labour stays with the object and makes it useful to anyone
-marks concluded the ability to create objects with their own and eight value since humans apart from animals but leads to economic injustice
Explain surplus value of labour and exploitation
Surplus value of labour- value invested in any human made good that can be used by another person
Exploitation-Results when one person or group extracts the surplus value from another
What is the superstructure?
Non-economic institutions in a society(religion, culture, national identity)
These ideas and values derive from the base to serve to legitimize The exploitation
False consciousness
Buying into the superstructure
What is the base
Economic system of society made up of technology(means of production) and class relations between people(relations of production)
What is the difference between the proletariat and the bourguise
Proletariat the working class Bourgeoisie the property on in class
What is dialectical materialism
- process of historical change that’s revolutionary
- Base and superstructure conflict with new technology generating growing opposition resulting in revolution
What is the vanguard of the proletariat?
Lenin’s argument that because of false consciousness and elite communist party would have to carry a revolution otherwise historical conditions would not automatically lead to capitalism’s demise
Diagram Marx’s phases of human history
Feudalism ➡️ revolution:Rise of the bourgeoisie➡️
Capitalist democracy➡️ Revolution:Rise of the proletariat➡️
Dictatorship of the proletariat➡️ weathering away of the state➡️
Communist utopia
Who led China and Russia is communist revolutions and when?
Russia- Vladimir Ulyanov or Lenin (1917)
China- Mao Zedong (1949)
What is the nomenklatura?
Politically sensitive or influential jobs in the state, society or economy that were staffed by people chosen are approved by the communist party
How was the communist party structured?
General Secretary - chief executive
Politburo- (political bureau) and Central committee- acted like cabinet and legislature shipping national policy and confirming the decisions of the party leadership
Below Central committee‘s various other bodies extended all the way down to individuals places of work or residence we’re party members were assigned to basic party organization called cells
How did communist systems deal with the market?
Illuminated the market forces of supply and demand,
-Chose to replace the market with the state bureaucracy which explicitly allocated resources by planning which should be produced anyone amounts, setting final prices of these goods and deciding where they should be sold also known as central planning
What were the two important factors that brought down the failure of communism?
1) reemergence of struggles btw Soviet Union and US
After cuban misslie crisis detante period (peaceful coexistance) then came ron Regan and invasion of afghan by soviet union
2)costly stage of cold war- new arms race- Gorbechev and his reforms on IR and domestic politics
What were the Domestic reforms Gorbachev initiated?
Twin policies of :
Glasnost (openness)- encouraged public debate on systems faults would help foster change and increase regimes legitimacy
Perestroika (restructuring) - actual institutional reforms in the economy and Political system
-Reforms were expected to include some limited forms of democratic participation in market based incentives in the economy moderate reforms
What were the international reforms Gorbachev proposed?
- began to loosen countries control over Eastern Europe which was controlled by the Soviet Union since the end of World War I in order to reduce Soviet unions military burning and improve relationship with western countries
- Limited liberalization ease tensions with Europe in the USA enabling expanded trade and other economic ties
What were the effects of Glasnost and Perestroika?
- glasnost- people began to challenge the very nature of the political system, ethnic groups and citizens of eastern European states agitated for greater freedom for Russian domination
Perestroika- Seeking economic and Political reform, those width of the party who had benefitted from status quo where threatened
-nomenklatura Resisted the reform taking a stance leading to infighting and instability
Post communism-what were the two processes of transforming the economic institutions?
Reestablishing separation of state and economy
Privatization: The transfer of state property into private hands
Marketization::The re-creation of the market forces of supply and demand
Timur Kuran reading “Now out of Never: The element of surprise in the east European revolution of 1989” (1991)
- Emphasis on the element of surprise in communism’s demise
- preference falsification- authoritarian systems, individuals express in private preferences for political change that differ widely from those the express in public
- difference leads to why divergence between what behaviour is observed within the community and what potential for political change lies beneath the surface
- existence of organized opposition combined with signals from the USSR to certain types of political reform would be tolerated helped shift private Preferences to the public sphere
- people felt safe to express grievances publicly without fear of reprisal and organized opposition helped push the bandwagon into motion
- Concluded that this interaction between private preferences and structural factors means that revolutions will continue to surprise in the future
Marx and Engels
How do they defined the state
Executive committee managing the affairs of the bourgeoisie state is instrument of the bourgeoisie and those in power make the rules
What is the SED and who lead it from 1950-1971?
Socialist unity party of Germany
Walter Breicht
How was the German democratic republic formed? Who was in control
- Claimed 1949 in
- Moscow controlled all communist parties in Europe up until World War II, Hitler was not communist, April 1946, SED formed and social Democrats and communists came together
- Walter ulbreicht SED leader controlled by moscow but was dictatorial
Who was Eric Mielke and the stasi?
Meilke - Head of the Stasi from 1957-1989
Stasi was state security service or the secret police
When and why was the berlin wall built
-Germany was split after World War II splitting Berlin in half and to stop the migration of people from east to west Germany especially the educated the wall was built 1960
