Modern Effects of the Cold War (Entry 1)

Part 1:
Diffen Communism vs Democracy – https://www.diffen.com/difference/Communism_vs_Democracy

Part 2:
To understand the simplicities of the Cold and its modern effects, one must understand what the war was fought for. After World War II, the US and the Soviet Union (USSR) established themselves as the superpowers around the globe. To maintain their geopolitical superiority, the countries sought to expand their political influence upon other countries. America’s plan was to spread democracy and Soviet Union’s plan was expand communism. The source that’s used breaks down the origins and deeper ideological meaning and intentions of both forms of government. The origins of democracy goes back to Ancient Greece where they practiced a direct democracy where only men were chosen to vote. There are many variations of democracy but the one America uses is a representative Democracy where the people elect officials through voting to make decisions for them. Modern day communism was introduced by Karl Marx in his book, Communist Manifesto, and took political effect in the Bolshevik Revolution under Vladimir Lenin. Ironically, the form of communism practiced in Russia at that time was ‘Leninism’, meaning ‘for the proletariat’ or working class. Unlike democracy, communist governments control everything including the rights of the people and all businesses.

Part 3:
The article states criticism both forms of government receive. Communism was criticized for having slow innovation, high rate of poverty, and little incentive to work. Democracy has been criticized for allowing the majority to abuse its power at the expense of minorities: “Communism has been criticized as an ideology because it leads to slow technological advance, reduced incentives, and reduced prosperity. It has also been criticized as unfeasible.” “Democracy has been criticized as inefficient and a creator of wealth disparity. It is criticized as a system that allows the uninformed to make decisions with equal weight as the informed, and one which allows for oppression of minorities by the majority.” I agree with both of these criticisms. For communism, most communist countries are destitute and don’t meet 1st world country standards. A good example is China because most cities within China are polluted due to its population size and coal usage. I also agree with the criticism democracy receives because US history has displayed majority over minority rule since the Constitution was founded. Good examples include how the white majority has treated Native Americans and African Americans with laws such as the Indian Removal Act and Jim Crow laws. There is a lot more information to unpack to understand modern day effects of the Cold War but understanding the main forms of government is a good place to start. Other information I’m researching includes the factors that lead to the fall of the USSR, proxy wars fought at the time, how certain wars were received at home and nuclear weapons.

Part 4:
“Current communist states are the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Cuba, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Some people also consider North Korea to be a communist state.”

“According to Freedom House, there are currently 123 electoral democracies in the world. The World Forum on Democracy claims 58.2% of the world’s population live in democracies.”