communist state

A map of current communist states (China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam).

A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a socio-economic form of government that combines the state leadership of a communist party, Marxist–Leninist political philosophy, and an official commitment to the construction of a communist society. Modern communism broadly grew out of the socialist movement in 19th-century Europe as a program to replace capitalism with a stateless, classless, and moneyless society, but its application as Marxism–Leninism began later in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam are the only communist states that exists in the 21st century. With the exception of North Korea, these states have gradually moved away from collectivism in the economic sphere in favor of various forms of market economy, but retain an authoritarian or totalitarian single-party system generating a mandatory state ideology, under names specific to each.