source of all poverty and misery.” Babeuf’s Mani-
festo of the Equals(1796) argues for community own-
ership of land and the same education and diet for
everybody.
Twentieth-century communism (as practiced in the
SOVIET UNION, China, and other countries) came from
the ideas of Karl MARX. In Marxism, or “scientific
socialism,” communism is the final stage of history,
which ends economic classes, EXPLOITATION, and
oppression. Like other socialist theories in the 1800s,
Marx saw socialism and communism as solving the
problems of poverty and misery brought on by the
Industrial Revolution. Capitalism would inevitably
lead to socialism (public ownership of large property
and economic planning by the STATE), and technologi-
cal advances would finally lead to communism (a
heavenly society of FREEDOMand prosperity with no
economic classes, no need to work, and no exploita-
tion, poverty, misery, or war). These bright promises of
Marxist communism, along with his view that history
was moving inevitably toward socialism, caused many
people to work for its realization. Many a Communist
political Party formed in Europe, and Marxist revolu-
tions occurred in Russia and China. The promised
abundance and freedom of communism was disap-
pointed. A society and economy completely controlled
by the state for the sake of equality became oppressive
and inefficient. After a 70-year experiment with com-
munism, the Soviet Union abandoned the system for a
more market-oriented economy. Other socialist coun-
tries modified the state-planned system with greater
private property ownership and individual economic
freedom. Socialism and communism did not deliver on
their promise to end human egoism and competition
by community means. Instead, they caused worse
poverty and misery than the system they overthrew.
However, the ideas in communism to provide univer-
sal education and a basic level of economic abundance
were adopted by capitalist countries through social
welfare programs and a “mixed economy” of private
business and government assistance to the poor and
disabled.
Further Readings
Babeuf, G. “Manifesto of the Equals,” S. Lukes, transl. A.
Arblaster and S. Lukes, eds. In The Good Society. New York:
Random House, 1991.
Beer, M. A History of British Socialism,vol. I. London: G. Bell &
Sons, 1923.
Corcoran, P. ed. Before Marx: Socialism and Communism in
France, 1830–48.London: Macmillan, 1983.
communitarian
A political theory that emphasizes the RIGHTS, INTER-
ESTS, and good of the whole community or nation over
the individual. For example, ROUSSEAUheld that the
community, through the GENERAL WILLof society, could
control the individual citizen (or his activities or prop-
erty) for the benefit of the larger good. Because the
individual person as part ofthe whole community is
beholden to the society for his or her existence, this is
not an infringement of his or her rights, and if the
individual participates in making the community laws
under which he lives, this total control is not oppres-
sive.
Critics of “communitarian DEMOCRACY,” following
the British LIBERALISM of John LOCKE, claim that no
rights or interests exist above the individual and that
government is designed only to protect individual per-
son’s rights. Much of Western liberalism sees the
“whole” interest of communitarian thought as a fiction
that is simply used by a part of society to impose its
will on others. They fear that communitarian theories
lead to FASCISM(absolute obedience to the state) and
COMMUNISM(state control of the economy).
In contemporary AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT, Ben-
jamin BARBER’s Strong Democracyshows communitarian
tendencies, though he eschews the title communitarian.Further Reading
Plant, R. Community and Ideology.London: Routledge, 1974.Comte, Isidore Auguste Marie François
Xavier (1798–1857) French philosopher
Isidore Auguste Comte was the leader of the positivist
school in France. He was one of the founders of sociol-
ogy. Comte developed a HUMANISTreligion that called
for the replacement of God with a supreme being who
was centered on the essence of humanity. Although he
was overshadowed by figures such as MARX, Comte
influenced diverse thinkers including George Eliot and
John Stuart MILL.
Comte was born in Montpellier, France, to a
staunch Royalist and Roman CATHOLIC family who
rejected the REPUBLICANISMof the French Revolution.
He entered the École Polytechnique at age 16, but he
rejected the royalism of his family. After being expelled
from the Polytechnique, Comte settled in Paris where
he became the secretary to the reformer and SOCIALIST
Claude-Henri de SAINT-SIMON. While with Saint-Simon,Comte, Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier 67