Communist Society

The communist society is the society postulated by the ideology of communism: a society which is classless and stateless, based upon common ownership of the means of production with free access to articles of consumption, the end of economic exploitation.

The term "communist society" should be distinguished from "communist state", the latter referring to a state ruled by a party which professes the communist ideology.

In Marxist theory, communism is a specific stage of historical development that inevitably emerges from the development of the productive forces that leads to a superabundance of material wealth, allowing for distribution based on need and social relations based on freely-associated individuals.

In a communist society, economic relations no longer would determine the society. Scarcity would be eliminated in all possible aspects. Alienated labor would cease, as people would be free to pursue their individual goals. This kind of society is identified by the slogan put forth by Karl Marx: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

Marx never clearly said whether communist society would be just; others have speculated that he thought communism would transcend justice and create society without conflicts, thus, without the needs for rules of justice. It would be a democratic society, enfranchising the entire population.

Marx also wrote that between capitalist and communist society, there would be a transitory period known as the dictatorship of the proletariat. During this preceding phase of societal development, capitalist economic relationships would be abolished and in place would arise socialism. Natural resources and earth would become public property, while all manufacturing centres and workplaces would become owned by their workers and democratically managed. Production would be organised by scientific assessment and planning, thus eliminating what Marx called the "anarchy in production". The development of the productive forces would lead to the marginalisation of human labour to the highest possible extent, replacing with automated labour.

A communist society would also have no need for a state, whose purpose was to enforce hierarchical economic relations (thus Marx wrote of "the withering of the state").