In reality, communism is not so much a political order, as a social one. It attempts to do through a social revolution what democracy failed to do in a political one; make all citizens equal. It was the philosophers answer to the industrial revolution and all the evils brought with it. Unfortunately, the ideology was lost on men like Stalin, who transformed the Soviet Union into a world super-power, but sacrificed true communism to do so. In theory, communism begins with a revolt by the proletariat. Once the revolution is achieved, a social system in which all possessions are distributed equally among all is established. The government is originally strong, in order to create unity and peace in a recently war-torn nation, as well as to over-see the distribution of goods. In theory, the government of communist states is to begin large and powerful and slowly dwindle away until a state of anarchy, or libertarian communism, is achieved. In this system, people would have lived their whole lives in a communistic society, and would therefore have no qualms about working together for their common good.
