-snip-
You sir, are horribly misinformed.
You may read it if you wish, but if you want to know what Communism/Socialism are, read this. You said you were curious earlier, so I hope you have the curiosity to still read. In any case, knowledge is power.
There are 2 kinds of economies on a spectrum: Socialism and Capitalism
There are 2 main kinds of governments on the spectrum we are talking about here. We are leaving out Totalitarianism for the sake of time. These include Dictatorships, Monarchies and Feudalisms, where there is 1 leader, and the leader's word is law. There are hybrids of this, such as constitutional monarchies.
Here is the basic spectrum:
Socialism Capitalism
Communism Socialism Representative Socialism Democracy Republic Oligarchy
<--|---------------------|------------------|-------------------------|---------|--------------|-->
(At either end of the spectrum, governments tend to end up in a Totalitarian government.)
The difference between each of these governments listed above (Some are left out because they are not important here) are the power structures within each group. There are sometimes subtle differences between each government. Since I need to explain quite a few governments here, I will quote Wikipedia on these governments for the sake of time. However, Representative Socialism is something I structured myself, and therefore need to explain in my own words.
- Oligarchy -
Oligarchy (from Greek ὀλιγαρχία (oligarkhía); from ὀλίγος (olígos), meaning "a few", and ἄρχω (archo), meaning "to rule or to command") is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small number of people. These people could be distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, education, corporate, or military control. Such states are often controlled by a few prominent families who pass their influence from one generation to the next.
- Republic -
A republic is a form of government in which state affairs are considered a "public matter" (Latin: res publica), rather than the private concern of a monarch. Offices of state are subsequently directly or indirectly elected or appointed. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of state is not a monarch. The word republic is derived from the Latin phrase res publica, which can be translated as "the public affair", and often used to describe a state using this form of government. - Democracy -
Democracy is an egalitarian form of government in which all the citizens of a nation together determine public policy, the laws and the actions of their state, requiring that all citizens (meeting certain qualifications) have an equal opportunity to express their opinion. In practice, "democracy" is the extent to which a given system approximates this ideal, and a given political system is referred to as "a democracy" if it allows a certain approximation to ideal democracy. Although no country has ever granted all its citizens (i.e. including minors) the vote, most countries today hold regular elections based on egalitarian principles, at least in theory. - Representative Socialism -
Representative Socialism is a system of government in which the citizens determine most of the actions of government by speaking through a network of officials that represent the people in higher parts of government. The governmental structure is closer to a republic in structure, except that it contains 4 branches of government that balance each other. The Economy is partially regulated by government, and partially regulated by citizens. The government sets an acceptable price range for all goods to be sold in markets and the citizens selling the goods set the price of the item within legal range. The government commands the nation as a whole, but there is a strict veto and petition system that keeps these leaders in place. - Socialism -
Socialism /ˈsoʊʃəlɪzəm/ is an economic system characterised by social ownership and/or control of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy, and a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises, common ownership, direct public ownership or autonomous state enterprises. There are many variations of socialism and as such there is no single definition encapsulating all of socialism. They differ in the type of social ownership they advocate, the degree to which they rely on markets versus planning, how management is to be organised within economic enterprises, and the role of the state in constructing socialism. - Communism -
Communism (from Latin communis - common, universal) is a revolutionary socialist movement to create a classless, moneyless, and stateless social order structured upon common ownership of the means of production, as well as a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of this social order. This movement, in its Marxist-Leninist interpretations, significantly influenced the history of the 20th century, which saw intense rivalry between the "socialist world" (socialist states ruled by communist parties) and the "western world" (countries with market economies).
Marxist theory holds that pure 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. The exact definition of communism varies, and it is often mistakenly, in general political discourse, used interchangeably with socialism; however, Marxist theory contends that socialism is just a transitional stage on the road to communism. Leninism adds to Marxism the notion of a vanguard party to lead the proletarian revolution and to secure all political power after the revolution for the working class, for the development of universal class consciousness and worker participation, in a transitional stage between capitalism and socialism.
Essentially, what you are saying,
Communism = trouble. You're not the most peaceful player here either.
Socialism is just a slow and sinister form of communism, only main difference is that Communist countries tend to get more involved in world affairs, like you do Swat, with your ever growing ever upgrading horde of soldiers.
Is backwards. Communism is a form of Socialism. Socialism is a type of economy and government type. Representative Socialism is a form of Socialism, but is closest to the middle as one can get, since people have freedom to exercise their voice in government, at least loosely. It is true that Representative and non-Rep. Socialism are slower than Communism, but that's only due to the fact that the central government has to answer to more parties and more people in the process.
The worst mistake to misunderstanding Socialist governments as a whole is this:Expecting they are all bad for what they are.So far, all Socialist governments have been against US policy and therefore are all suddenly "hostile."
The other side to it is that not all leaders of Communism were good representations of a good government. Stalin killed ~35 million people due to his paranoid nature. He, however, made the Soviet Union grow technologically very fast to meet modern standards. As a leader. Good. As a person. Bad.
And back to that little comment about my "Ever-Growing army of soldiers," I recall correctly that your ally, Aemilius uses its entire male populous in its army. I don't
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