[kom-yuh-niz-uh
m] 
| 1. | a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state. |
| 2. | (often initial capital letter) a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party. |
| 3. | (initial capital letter) the principles and practices of the Communist party. |
| 4. | communalism. |
| com·mu·nism (kŏm'yə-nĭz'əm) n.
[French communisme, from commun, common, from Old French, from Latin commūnis; see commune2.] |
An economic and social system envisioned by the nineteenth-century German scholar Karl Marx. In theory, under communism, all means of production are owned in common, rather than by individuals (see Marxism and Marxism-Leninism). In practice, a single authoritarian party controls both the political and economic systems. In the twentieth century, communism was associated with the economic and political systems of China and the Soviet Union and of the satellites of the Soviet Union. (Compare capitalism and socialism.)