The first factor that contributed to the failure and eventual collapse of communism was the fact that all communist administrations’ domination was illegitimate from the beginning. In fact, communism is a strict regime that was achieved by undemocratic methods such as rigged elections, terror, and threats. For example, in Soviet Union, Lenin came to power after a Civil War between those who supported Lenin and those who opposed the Soviet regime. Terror was to become the chief instrument of power and Lenin was to assume the role of dictator. Therefore, it can clearly be seen that starting from the establishment of the state communism never had popular public support, in other words, communism never really had the support of the people. Of course, no regime that has not the support or trust of public can stand for a long time, because nobody wants to be controlled by power he never wants. As a result, the power of communist regime had lost its activity on society after the 1980s, so public pressure on politic power was an important reason for collapse of communism. Now, these countries have successful political environment after the communist regime. According to based on an analysis of 18 successor parties in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, Ishiyama (June 1997) finds that the success of ex-communist parties can be understood partially by the political environment under communism from which the new parties emerged.
Another important reason that contributed to the collapse of communism was the conflict between communism and the fields of the social life and religion. People were not allowed to form an opinion contrary to that of the communist state. Furthermore people were also not allowed to choose their own religion or follow their own personal religious beliefs, because according to communist regime all citizens should be equal not only in economic situation but also in beliefs. Therefore the state outlawed and censored religious propaganda and publications. For example, the Soviet State actively persecuted the churches. As a result of this undemocratic and non-freedom situation, people started to revolt against this strict regime. Therefore, these strict rules of communism became the reasons of its own end.
The next contributing factor to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and USSR was its economic failure. As it is known that communism is a regime that reject the individual capitalism and that establish on the state capital. Also, the most important reason of why these countries accepted the communism was that they could not experience the industrial revolution as much as in other developed countries in Europe in the past. However, communism was never a solution for bad economies, on the contrary it caused serious problems in economies. For instance, “the major problems in the economy for these countries were the wasteful use of resources, the lack of innovation, a poor division of labor, too many costly products being produced, ineffective use of resources and low productivity”(Sakwa, R. 1990). Wages were low and the mechanisms involved in introducing a new idea or practice were time-consuming and complicated. There was a strict prohibition for private enterprises that have important aid in developed countries’ economies. Lastly, there was also a lack of investment in new ideas and industry. After all the results of these economic problems, it can be seen that communism was an economic disaster, and these economic problems had a very significant role to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and USSR.
In conlusion, communism in Eastern Europe collapsed for a number of reasons. It had no political basis or popular support. It was riddled with economic problems and, in comparison to capitalism, was a complete failure. Communism was rejected because it is not as good as alternative systems of satisfying humans material wants. Besides, it denied the expression of civil liberties, opinions, and thought and it was also a forced rule which was only enforced by terror, not acceptance or majority ruling. “Although there were a number of external contributory influence to the collapse of communism, communism as an ideal cannot hope to survive for long in anything more than a theoretical sense, as it is inherently contrary to the basic drives of human nature”(02 January, 2002).
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Bukoswski, C. & Racz, B. (1999). The Return of the Left in Post-communist States. Northampton: Edward Elgar.
Feher, F. (1995). Doğu Avrupa Devrimleri. İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları.
Ishiyama, J. T. (1997). The Sickel or the Rose? Previous Regime Types and the Evolution of the Ex-communist Parties in Post-communist Poitics. Cheltenham: Comparative Political Studies.
Sakwa, R. (1990). Gorbachev and his Reforms 1985-1990. London: Philip Allan.
Why did communism collapse in Eastern Europa. [Online]. Retrived 02 January, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.4essays.com/essays/communism_1.htm
Zaremba, A., Yau, V., & Jones, K. Absolute Power. [Online]. Retrived 02 January, 2002 from the World Wide Web:
Bukoswski, C. & Racz, B. (1999). The Return of the Left in Post-communist States. Northampton: Edward Elgar