This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement.

For
information on Communist organizations, see Communist party. For information on
states ruled by Communist parties, see Communist state.

Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social

organization based on common ownership of the means of production. It is usually
considered a branch of the broader socialist movement that draws on the various political
and intellectual movements that trace their origins back to the work of Karl Marx.
However, communism had a rich history of theory and practice for hundreds of years
before Marx's attempt to think communism in the context of industrialization.
Communism as a political goal is generally a conjectured form of future social
organization, although Marxists have described early forms of human social organization
as "primitive communism". Self-identified communists hold a variety of views, including
Marxism Leninism, Trotskyism, council communism, Luxemburgism, anarchist
communism, Christian communism, and various currents of left communism, which are
generally the more widespread varieties. However, various offshoots of the Soviet (what
critics call the "Stalinist", and supporters call Marxist-Leninist) and Maoist
interpretations of Marxism comprise a particular branch of communism that has the
distinction of having been the primary driving force for communism in world politics
during most of the 20th century. The competing branch of Trotskyism has not had such a
distinction.

Karl Marx held that society could not be transformed from the capitalist mode of
production to the advanced communist mode of production all at once, but required a
transitional period which Marx described as the revolutionary dictatorship of the
proletariat, the first stage of communism. The communist society Marx envisioned
emerging from capitalism has never been implemented, and it remains theoretical; Marx,
in fact, commented very little on what communist society would actually look like.
However, the term "Communism", especially when it is capitalized, is often used to refer
to the political and economic regimes under communist parties that claimed to embody
the dictatorship of the proletariat.

In the late 19th century, Marxist theories motivated socialist parties across Europe,
although their policies later developed along the lines of "reforming" capitalism, rather
than overthrowing it. One exception was the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party.
One branch of this party, commonly known as the Bolsheviks and headed by Vladimir
Lenin, succeeded in taking control of the country after the toppling of the Provisional
Government in the Russian Revolution of 1917. In 1918, this party changed its name to
the Communist Party, thus establishing the contemporary distinction between
communism and other trends of socialism.

After the success of the October Revolution in Russia, many socialist parties in other
countries became communist parties, signaling varying degrees of allegiance to the new
Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After World War II, communists consolidated
power in Eastern Europe, and in 1949, the Communist Party of China (CPC) led by Mao
Zedong established the People's Republic of China, which would later follow its own
ideological path of communist development. Among the other countries in the Third
World that adopted a pro-communist government at some point were Cuba, North Korea,
North Vietnam, Laos, Angola, and Mozambique. By the early 1980s almost one-third of
the world's population lived in Communist states.

Since the early 1970s, the term Eurocommunism was used to refer to the policies of
reformist communist parties in western Europe, break with the tradition of uncritical and
unconditional support of the Soviet Union. Such parties were politically active and
electorally significant in Italy (PCI), France (PCF), and Spain (PCE).

There is a history of anti-communism in the United States, which manifested itself in the
Sedition Act of 1918, the subsequent Palmer Raids, and the later period of McCarthyism.

With the decline of the communist governments in Eastern Europe from the late 1980s
and the breakup of the Soviet Union on December 9, 1991, communism's influence has
decreased dramatically in Europe. However, around a quarter of the world's population
still lives in communist states, mostly in the People's Republic of China. There are also
communist movements in Latin America and South Asia that have significant popular
support.

Early communism
Main article: History of communism

Karl Marx saw primitive communism as the original, hunter-gatherer state of humankind
from which it arose. For Marx, only after humanity was capable of producing surplus, did
private property develop.

In the history of Western thought, certain elements of the idea of a society based on
common ownership of property can be traced back to ancient times .[1] Examples include
the Spartacus slave revolt in Rome.[2]

At one time or another, various small communist communities existed, generally under
the inspiration of Scripture.[3] In the medieval Christian church, for example, some
monastic communities and religious orders shared their land and other property. (See
religious communism and Christian communism) These groups often believed that
concern with private property was a distraction from religious service to God and
neighbor. (Encarta)

Communist thought has also been traced back to the work of 16th century English writer
Thomas More. In his treatise Utopia (1516), More portrayed a society based on common
ownership of property, whose rulers administered it through the application of reason.
(Encarta) In the 17th century, communist thought arguably surfaced again in England. In
17th century England, the Diggers, a Puritan religious group known as advocated the
abolition of private ownership of land. (Encarta) Eduard Bernstein, in his 1895 Cromwell
and Communism [4] argued that several groupings in the English Civil War, especially
the Diggers espoused clear communistic, agrarian ideals, and that Oliver Cromwell's
attitude to these groups was at best ambivalent and often hostile.[4]

Criticism of the idea of private property continued into the Enlightenment of the 18th
century, through such thinkers as Jean Jacques Rousseau in France. (Encarta) Later,
following the upheaval of the French Revolution, communism emerged as a political
doctrine.[5] François Noël Babeuf, in particular, espoused the goals of common ownership
of land and total economic and political equality among citizens. (Encarta)

Various social reformers in the early 19th century founded communities based on
common ownership. But unlike many previous communist communities, they replaced
the religious emphasis with a rational and philanthropic basis. (EB) Notable among them
were Robert Owen, who founded New Harmony in Indiana (1825), and Charles Fourier,
whose followers organized other settlements in the United States such as Brook Farm
(1841–47). (EB) Later in the 19th century, Karl Marx described these social reformers as
"utopian socialists" to contrast them with his program of "scientific socialism" (a term
coined by Friedrich Engels). Other writers described by Marx as "utopian socialists"
included Charles Fourier and Saint-Simon.

In its modern form, communism grew out of the socialist movement of 19th century
Europe. (Encarta) As the Industrial Revolution advanced, socialist critics blamed
capitalism for the misery of the proletariat—a new class of poor, urban factory workers
who labored under often-hazardous conditions. (EB) Foremost among these critics were
the German philosopher Karl Marx and his associate Friedrich Engels. (EB) In 1848
Marx and Engels offered a new definition of communism and popularized the term in
their famous pamphlet The Communist Manifesto. (EB) Engels, who lived in Manchester,
observed the organization of the Chartist movement (see History of British socialism),
while Marx departed from his university comrades to meet the proletariat in France and
Germany.

The emergence of modern communism

Karl Marx
Main article: Marxism

Marxism

Like other socialists, Marx and Engels sought an end to capitalism and the systems which
they perceived to be responsible for the exploitation of workers. But whereas earlier
socialists often favored longer-term social reform, Marx and Engels believed that popular
revolution was all but inevitable, and the only path to socialism.

According to the Marxist argument for communism, the main characteristic of human life
in class society is alienation; and communism is desirable because it entails the full
realization of human freedom.[6] Marx here follows Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in
conceiving freedom not merely as an absence of restraints but as action with content.
(McLean and McMillan, 2003) They believed that communism allowed people to do
what they want, but also put humans in such conditions and such relations with one
another that they would not wish to exploit, or have any need to. Whereas for Hegel the
unfolding of this ethical life in history is mainly driven by the realm of ideas, for Marx,
communism emerged from material forces, particularly the development of the means of
production. (McLean and McMillan, 2003)

Marxism holds that a process of class conflict and revolutionary struggle will result in
victory for the proletariat and the establishment of a communist society in which private
ownership is abolished over time and the means of production and subsistence belong to
the community. Marx himself wrote little about life under communism, giving only the
most general indication as to what constituted a communist society. It is clear that it
entails abundance in which there is little limit to the projects that humans may undertake.
In the popular slogan that was adopted by the communist movement, communism was a
world in which each gave according to their abilities, and received according to their
needs.' The German Ideology (1845) was one of Marx's few writings to elaborate on the
communist future:

"In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can
become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production
 and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in
the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I
have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic."[7]

Marx's lasting vision was to add this vision to a positive scientific theory of how society
was moving in a law-governed way toward communism, and, with some tension, a
political theory that explained why revolutionary activity was required to bring it about.
(McLean and McMillan, 2003)

In the late 19th century the terms "socialism" and "communism" were often used
interchangeably. (Encarta) However, Marx and Engels argued that communism would not
emerge from capitalism in a fully developed state, but would pass through a "first phase"
in which most productive property was owned in common, but with some class
differences remaining. The "first phase" would eventually give way to a "higher phase" in
which class differences were eliminated, and a state was no longer needed. Lenin
frequently used the term "socialism" to refer to Marx and Engels' supposed "first phase"
of communism and used the term "communism" interchangeably with Marx and Engels'
"higher phase" of communism.

These later aspects, particularly as developed by Lenin, provided the underpinning for the
mobilizing features of 20th century Communist parties. Later writers such as Louis
Althusser and Nicos Poulantzas modified Marx's vision by allotting a central place to the
state in the development of such societies, by arguing for a prolonged transition period of
socialism prior to the attainment of full communism.

Other currents

Some of Marx's contemporaries espoused similar ideas, but differed in their views of how
to reach to a classless society. Following the split between those associated with Marx
and Mikhail Bakunin at the First International, the anarchists formed the International
Workers Association.[8] Anarchists argued that capitalism and the state were inseparable
and that one could not be abolished without the other. Anarchist-communists such as
Peter Kropotkin theorized an immediate transition to one society with no classes.
Anarcho-syndicalism became one of the dominant forms of anarchist organization,
arguing that labor unions, as opposed to Communist parties, are the organizations that can
change society. Consequently, many anarchists have been in opposition to Marxist
communism to this day.

In the late 19th century Russian Marxism developed a distinct character. The first major
figure of Russian Marxism was Georgi Plekhanov. Underlying the work of Plekhanov
was the assumption that Russia, less urbanized and industrialized than Western Europe,
had many years to go before society would be ready for proletarian revolution could
occur, and a transitional period of a bourgeois democratic regime would be required to
replace Tsarism with a socialist and later communist society. (EB)

The growth of modern communism

 Main article: Leninism

Vladimir Lenin following his return to Petrograd

In Russia, the 1917 October Revolution was the first time any party with an avowedly
Marxist orientation, in this case the Bolshevik Party, seized state power. The assumption
of state power by the Bolsheviks generated a great deal of practical and theoretical debate
within the Marxist movement. Marx predicted that socialism and communism would be
built upon foundations laid by the most advanced capitalist development. Russia,
however, was one of the poorest countries in Europe with an enormous, largely illiterate
peasantry and a minority of industrial workers. It should be noted, however, that Marx
had explicitly stated that Russia might be able to skip the stage of bourgeois capitalism. [9]
Other socialists also believed that a Russian revolution could be the precursor of workers'
revolutions in the West.

The moderate socialist Mensheviks opposed Lenin's communist Bolsheviks' plan for
socialist revolution before capitalism was more fully developed. The Bolsheviks
successful rise to power was based upon the slogans "peace, bread, and land" and "All
power to the Soviets," slogans which tapped the massive public desire for an end to
Russian involvement in the First World War, the peasants' demand for land reform, and
popular support for the Soviets.

The usage of the terms "communism" and "socialism" shifted after 1917, when the
Bolsheviks changed their name to the Communist Party and installed a single-party
regime devoted to the implementation of socialist policies under Leninism. The Second
International had dissolved in 1916 over national divisions, as the separate national
parties that composed it did not maintain a unified front against the war, instead generally
supporting their respective nation's role. Lenin thus created the Third International
(Comintern) in 1919 and sent the Twenty-one Conditions, which included democratic
centralism, to all European socialist parties willing to adhere. In France, for example, the
majority of the SFIO socialist party split in 1921 to form the SFIC (French Section of the
Communist International). Henceforth, the term "Communism" was applied to the
objective of the parties founded under the umbrella of the Comintern. Their program
called for the uniting of workers of the world for revolution, which would be followed by
the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat as well as the development of a
socialist economy. Ultimately, if their program held, there would develop a harmonious
classless society, with the withering away of the state.

During the Russian Civil War (1918-1922), the Bolsheviks nationalized all productive
property and imposed a policy of "war communism," which put factories and railroads
under strict government control, collected and rationed food, and introduced some
bourgeois management of industry. After three years of war and the 1921 Kronstadt
rebellion, Lenin declared the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921, which was to give a
"limited place for a limited time to capitalism." The NEP lasted until 1928, when Joseph
Stalin achieved party leadership, and the introduction of the first Five Year Plan spelled
the end of it. Following the Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks formed in 1922 the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), or Soviet Union, from the former Russian Empire.

Following Lenin's democratic centralism, the Communist parties were organized on a

hierarchical basis, with active cells of members as the broad base; they were made up
only of elite cadres approved by higher members of the party as being reliable and
completely subject to party discipline.[10]

The Soviet Union and other countries ruled by Communist Parties are often described as
'Communist states' with 'state socialist' economic bases. (Scott and Marshall, 2005) This
usage indicates that they proclaim that they have realized part of the socialist program by
abolishing the private control of the means of production and establishing state control
over the economy; however, they do not declare themselves truly communist, as they
have not established communal ownership of property.

Marxism-Leninism

Main article: Marxism-Leninism

Marxist-Leninism is a version of socialism, with some important modifications, adopted

by the Soviet Union under Stalin. It shaped the Soviet Union and influenced Communist
Parties worldwide. It was heralded as a possibility of building communism via a massive
program of industrialization and collectivization. The rapid development of industry, and
above all the victory of the Soviet Union in the Second World War, maintained that vision
throughout the world, even around a decade following Stalin's death, when the party
adopted a program in which it promised the establishment of communism within thirty
years.

However, under Stalin's leadership, some claimed that evidence emerged that dented faith
in the possibility of achieving communism within the framework of the Soviet model.
Later, growth declined, and rent-seeking and corruption by state officials increased,
which showed true to Marxism, that contradictions exist everywhere.

Despite the activity of the Comintern, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union adopted
the Marxist-Leninist theory of "socialism in one country" and claimed that, due to the
"aggravation of class struggle under socialism," it was possible, even necessary, to build
socialism alone in one country, the USSR. This line was challenged by Leon Trotsky,
whose theory of "permanent revolution" stressed the necessity of world revolution.

Trotskyism

Main article: Trotskyism

Trotsky reading The Militant.

Trotsky and his supporters organized into the "Left Opposition," and their platform
became known as Trotskyism. Stalin eventually succeeded in gaining control of the
Soviet regime, and their attempts to remove Stalin from power resulted in Trotsky's exile
from the Soviet Union in 1929. During Trotsky's exile, world communism fractured into
two distinct branches: Marxism-Leninism and Trotskyism. Trotsky later founded the
Fourth International, a Trotskyist rival to the Comintern, in 1938.

Trotskyist ideas have continually found a modest echo among political movements in
Latin America and Asia, especially in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Sri Lanka, and The
Philippines. Many Trotskyist organizations are also active in more stable, developed
countries in North America and Western Europe.

However, as a whole, Trotsky's theories and attitudes were never re accepted in

worldwide mainstream Communist circles after Trotsky's expulsion, either within or
outside of the Soviet bloc. This remained the case even after the Secret Speech and
subsequent events critics claim exposed the fallibility of Stalin. Today there are areas of
the world where Trotskyist movements are rather large. However, Trotskyist movements
have never coalesced in a mass movement that has seized state power.

Criticism from fellow communists, most notably Maoists and Marxist-Leninists, make
claims that Trotskyism is dogmatic, as they claim it does not accept the contradictions
that exist in real life and demanding that Ideals be met.[11]

Maoism

Main article: Maoism

Maoism is the Marxist Leninist trend associated with Mao Zedong. After the death of
Stalin in 1953, the Soviet Union's new leader, Nikita Khrushchev, denounced Stalin's
crimes and his cult of personality. He called for a return to the principles of Lenin, thus
presaging some change in Communist methods. However, Khrushchev's reforms
heightened ideological differences between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet
Union, which became increasingly apparent in the 1960s. As the Sino-Soviet Split in the
international Communist movement turned toward open hostility, China portrayed itself
as a leader of the underdeveloped world against the two superpowers, the United States
and the Soviet Union.
Parties and groups that supported the Communist Party of China (CPC) in their criticism
against the new Soviet leadership proclaimed themselves as 'anti-revisionist' and
denounced the CPSU and the parties aligned with it as revisionist "capitalist-roaders."
The Sino-Soviet Split resulted in divisions amongst communist parties around the world.
Notably, the Party of Labour of Albania sided with the People's Republic of China.
Effectively, the CPC under Mao's leadership became the rallying forces of a parallel
international Communist tendency. The ideology of CPC, Mao Zedong Thought
(generally referred to as 'Maoism'), was adopted by many of these groups.

After the death of Mao and the takeover of Deng Xiaoping, the international Maoist
movement diverged. One sector accepted the new leadership in China, a second
renounced the new leadership and reaffirmed their commitment to Mao's legacy, and a
third renounced Maoism altogether and aligned with the Albanian Party of Labour.

Pro-Albaninan Marxism Leninism

Another variant of Marxism Leninism appeared after the ideological row between the
Communist Party of China and the Party of Labour of Albania in 1978. The Albanians
rallied a new separate international tendency. This tendency would demarcate itself by a
strict defense of the legacy of Joseph Stalin and fierce criticism of virtually all other
Communist groupings. The Albanians were able to win over a large share of the Maoists
in Latin America, most notably the Communist Party of Brazil. This tendency has
occasionally been labeled as 'Hoxhaism' after the Albanian Communist leader Enver
Hoxha.

After the fall of the Communist government in Albania, the pro-Albanian parties are
grouped around an international conference and the publication 'Unity and Struggle'.
Another important institution for them is the biannual International Anti-Imperialist and
Anti-Fascist Youth Camp, which was initiated in 1970s.

Under the leadership of Hardial Bains, general secretary of the Communist Party of
Canada (Marxist-Leninist) a small current emerged in the 1970s of Marxist-Leninist
groups in several countries. This tendency aligned with Albania politically, but remained
somewhat separate from the main pro-Albanian camp.

Cold War years

By virtue of the Soviet Union's victory in the Second World War in 1945, the Soviet
Army had occupied nations in both Eastern Europe and East Asia; as a result,
communism as a movement spread to many new countries. This expansion of
communism both in Europe and Asia gave rise to a few different branches of its own,
such as Maoism.

Communism had been vastly strengthened by the winning of many new nations into the
sphere of Soviet influence and strength in Eastern Europe. Governments modeled on
Soviet Communism took power with Soviet assistance in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East
Germany, Poland, Hungary and Romania. A Communist government was also created
under Marshal Tito in Yugoslavia, but Tito's independent policies led to the expulsion of
Yugoslavia from the Cominform, which had replaced the Comintern. Titoism, a new
branch in the world communist movement, was labeled "deviationist." Albania also
became an independent Communist nation after World War II.

By 1950 the Chinese Communists held all of Mainland China, thus controlling the most
populous nation in the world. Other areas where rising Communist strength provoked
dissension and in some cases led to actual fighting include the Korean Peninsula, Laos,
many nations of the Middle East and Africa, and, especially, Vietnam (see Vietnam War).
With varying degrees of success, Communists attempted to unite with nationalist and
socialist forces against what they saw as Western imperialism in these poor countries.

Communism after the collapse of the Soviet Union

Communists marching in France on May 1, 2007

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union and relaxed central
control, in accordance with reform policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika
(restructuring). The Soviet Union did not intervene as Poland, East Germany,
Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary all abandoned Communist rule by
1990. In 1991, the Soviet Union itself dissolved.

By the beginning of the 21st century, states controlled by Communist parties under a
single-party system include the People's Republic of China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea,
and Vietnam. President Vladimir Voronin of Moldova is a member of the Party of
Communists of the Republic of Moldova, but the country is not run under single-party
rule. Communist parties, or their descendant parties, remain politically important in many
European and Asian countries.

The People's Republic of China has reassessed many aspects of the Maoist legacy; and
the People's Republic of China, Laos, Vietnam, and, to a far lesser degree, Cuba have
reduced state control of the economy in order to stimulate growth. The People's Republic
of China runs Special Economic Zones dedicated to market-oriented enterprise, free from
central government control. Several other communist states have also attempted to
implement market-based reforms, including Vietnam. Officially, the leadership of the
People's Republic of China refers to its policies as "Socialism with Chinese
characteristics."

Theories within Marxism as to why communism in Eastern Europe was not achieved
after socialist revolutions pointed to such elements as the pressure of external capitalist
states, the relative backwardness of the societies in which the revolutions occurred, and
the emergence of a bureaucratic stratum or class that arrested or diverted the transition
press in its own interests. (Scott and Marshall, 2005) Marxist critics of the Soviet Union,
most notably Trotsky, referred to the Soviet system, along with other Communist states,
as "degenerated" or "deformed workers' states," arguing that the Soviet system fell far
short of Marx's communist ideal and he claimed working class was politically
dispossessed. The ruling stratum of the Soviet Union was held to be a bureaucratic caste,
but not a new ruling class, despite their political control. They called for a political
revolution in the USSR and defended the country against capitalist restoration. Others,
like Tony Cliff, advocated the theory of state capitalism, which asserts that the
bureaucratic elite acted as a surrogate capitalist class in the heavily centralized and
repressive political apparatus.

Non-Marxists, in contrast, have often applied the term to any society ruled by a
Communist Party and to any party aspiring to create a society similar to such existing
nation-states. In the social sciences, societies ruled by Communist Parties are distinct for
their single party control and their socialist economic bases. While anticommunists
applied the concept of "totalitarianism" to these societies, many social scientists
identified possibilities for independent political activity within them, and stressed their
continued evolution up to the point of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its allies in
Eastern Europe during the late 1980s and early 1990s.[12][13]

Today, Marxist revolutionaries are conducting armed insurgencies in India, Philippines,

Iran, Turkey, and Colombia.

Criticism of communism
Main article: Criticisms of communism

A diverse array of writers and political activists have published criticism of communism,
such as:

• Soviet bloc dissidents Lech Wałęsa, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Václav Havel;
• social theorists Hannah Arendt, Raymond Aron, Ralf Dahrendorf, Seymour
Martin Lipset, and Karl Wittfogel;
• economists Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Milton Friedman;
• historians and social scientists Robert Conquest, Stéphane Courtois, Richard
Pipes, and R. J. Rummel;
• anti-Stalinisti left wingers Ignazio Silone, George Orwell, Saul Alinsky, Richard
Wright, Arthur Koestler, and Bernard-Henri Levy;
• novelist Ayn Rand; and
• philosophers Leszek Kołakowski and Karl Popper.

Most of this criticism is focused on the policies adopted by one-party states ruled by
Communist parties (known as "Communist states"). Some writers, such as Courtois,
argue that the actions of Communist states were the inevitable (though sometimes
unintentional) result of Marxist principles;[14] thus, these authors present the events
occurring in those countries, particularly under Stalin and Mao, as an argument against
Marxism itself. Some critics were former Marxists, such as Wittfogel, who applied
Marx's concept of "Oriental despotism" to Communist states such as the Soviet Union,
and Silone, Wright, Koestler (among other writers) who contributed essays to the book
The God that Failed (the title refers not to the Christian God but to Marxism).

There have also been more direct criticisms of Marxism, such as criticisms of the labor
theory of value or Marx's predictions. Nevertheless, Communist parties outside of the
Warsaw Pact, such as the Communist parties in Western Europe, Asia, Latin America,
and Africa, differed greatly. Thus a criticism that is applicable to one such party is not
necessarily applicable to another.

Comparing "Communism" to "communism"

According to the 1996 third edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage, communism and
derived words are written with the lower case c except when they refer to a political party
of that name, a member of that party, or a government led by such a party, in which case
the word is written "Communist" (with an upper case C). Thus, one may be a communist
(an advocate of communism) without being a Communist (a member of a Communist
Party or another similar organization).

Other sources[attribution needed] do not back up this claim in the change of the English language
as few follow this rule in academic or scholary sources.[vague]
This article is about secularism. For secularity, see secularity (disambiguation).

George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906), British writer who coined the term "secularism."

Secularism is generally the assertion or belief that certain practices or institutions should
exist separately from religion or religious belief. Alternatively, it is a principle of
promoting secular ideas or values in either public or private settings. It may also be a
synonym for "secularist movement".

In one sense, secularism may assert the freedom of religion, and freedom from the
government imposition of religion upon the people, within a state that is neutral on
matters of belief, and gives no state privileges or subsidies to religions. (See also
Separation of church and state and Laïcité.) In another sense, it refers to a belief that
human activities and decisions, especially political ones, should be based on evidence and
fact rather than religious influence.[1] (See also public reason.)

The purposes and arguments in support of secularism vary widely. In European laicism, it
has been argued that secularism is a movement toward modernization, and away from
traditional religious values. This type of secularism, on a social or philosophical level,
has often occurred while maintaining an official state church or other state support of
religion. In the United States, some argue that state secularism has served to a greater
extent to protect religion from governmental interference, while secularism on a social
level is less prevalent.[2][3] Within countries as well, however, differing political
movements support secularism for equally varying reasons.[4]

Look up secularism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Contents
[hide]
 • 1 Overview
• 2 State secularism
• 3 Secular society
• 4 Secularist ethics
• 5 Arguments for and against secularism
• 6 Secularist organizations
• 7 See also
• 8 References
• 9 Bibliography
o 9.1 The secular ethic
o 9.2 The secular society
o 9.3 The secular state

• 10 External links

[edit] Overview
The term "secularism" was first used by the British writer George Holyoake in 1846.[5]
Although the term was new, the general notions of freethought on which it was based had
existed throughout history. In particular, early secular ideas involving the separation of
philosophy and religion can be traced back to Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and the Averroism
school of philosophy.[6][7] Holyoake invented the term "secularism" to describe his views
of promoting a social order separate from religion, without actively dismissing or
criticizing religious belief. An agnostic himself, Holyoake argued that "Secularism is not
an argument against Christianity, it is one independent of it. It does not question the
pretensions of Christianity; it advances others. Secularism does not say there is no light
or guidance elsewhere, but maintains that there is light and guidance in secular truth,
whose conditions and sanctions exist independently, and act forever. Secular knowledge
is manifestly that kind of knowledge which is founded in this life, which relates to the
conduct of this life, conduces to the welfare of this life, and is capable of being tested by
the experience of this life."[8]

Barry Kosmin of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture breaks
modern secularism into two types: hard and soft secularism. According to Kosmin, "the
hard secularist considers religious propositions to be epistemologically illegitimate,
warranted by neither religion nor experience." However, in the view of soft secularism,
"the attainment of absolute truth was impossible and therefore skepticism and tolerance
should be the principle and overriding values in the discussion of science and religion."[9]

[edit] State secularism

See also: Secular state
In political terms, secularism is a movement towards the separation of religion and
government (often termed the separation of church and state). This can refer to reducing
ties between a government and a state religion, replacing laws based on scripture (such as
the Ten Commandments and Sharia law) with civil laws, and eliminating discrimination
on the basis of religion. This is said to add to democracy by protecting the rights of
religious minorities.[10]

Secularism is often associated with the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, and plays a
major role in Western society. The principles, but not necessarily practices, of Separation
of church and state in the United States and Laïcité in France draw heavily on secularism.
As in the West, the idea of separation of religion and government has also existed in India
since ancient times. An attempt was made (at least on paper and laws) to build the
modern Indian society on these values and to a certain extent, this attempt has been
successful as well. Secular states also existed in the Islamic world during the later Middle
Ages.[11]

Motto of the French republic on the tympanum of a church.

Due in part to the belief in the separation of church and state, secularists tend to prefer
that politicians make decisions for secular rather than religious reasons.[12] In this respect,
policy decisions pertaining to topics like abortion, embryonic stem cell research, same-
sex marriage, and sex education are prominently focused upon by American secularist
organizations like, the Center for Inquiry.[13][14]

Most major religions accept the primacy of the rules of secular, democratic society but
may still seek to influence political decisions or achieve specific privileges or influence
through church-state agreements such as a concordat. Many Christians support a secular
state, and may acknowledge that the idea has support in biblical teachings, particularly
Jesus' statement, "Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."[15]
(See article). However, fundamentalism opposes secularism. The most significant forces
of religious fundamentalism in the contemporary world are fundamentalist Christians and
fundamentalist Islam. At the same time, one significant stream of secularism has come
from religious minorities who see governmental and political secularism as integral to
preserving equal rights.[16]

Some of the well-known constitutionally secular states are Canada, India, France, the
United States, Turkey and South Korea, although none of these nations have identical
forms of governance.

[edit] Secular society

In studies of religion, modern Western societies are generally recognized as secular. This
is due to the near-complete freedom of religion (one may believe in one religion, many
religions or none at all, with little legal or social sanction), as well as the general belief
that religion does not ultimately dictate political decisions. Nevertheless, the moral views
originating in religious traditions remain politically important in many of these countries,
such as Canada, France, Turkey, United States and others (see Laïcité). In some, religious
references are considered out-of-place in mainstream politics.

Modern sociology, born of a crisis of legitimation resulting from challenges to traditional

Western religious authority, has since Durkheim often been preoccupied with the problem
of authority in secularized societies and with secularization as a sociological or historical
process. Twentieth-century scholars whose work has contributed to the understanding of
these matters include Max Weber, Carl L. Becker, Karl Löwith, Hans Blumenberg, M.H.
Abrams, Peter L. Berger, and Paul Bénichou, among others.

Secularism can also be the social ideology in which religion and supernatural beliefs are
not seen as the key to understanding the world and are instead segregated from matters of
governance and reasoning. In this sense, secularism can be involved in the promotion of
science, reason, and naturalistic thinking.

Secularism can also mean the practice of working to promote any of those three forms of
secularism. As such, an advocate of secularism in one sense may not be a secularist in
any other sense. Secularism does not necessarily equate to atheism; many secularists are
religious, while atheists often accept the influence of religion on government or society.
Secularism is an essential component of a secular humanist social and political ideology.

Some societies become increasingly secular as the result of social processes, rather than
through the actions of a dedicated secular movement; this process is known as
secularization.

[edit] Secularist ethics

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Main article: Secular ethics

George Holyoake's 1896 publication English Secularism defines secularism as follows:

Secularism is a code of duty pertaining to this life, founded on considerations

purely human, and intended mainly for those who find theology indefinite or
inadequate, unreliable or unbelievable. Its essential principles are three: (1) The
improvement of this life by material means. (2) That science is the available
Providence of man. (3) That it is good to do good. Whether there be other good or
not, the good of the present life is good, and it is good to seek that good.[17]

Holyoake held that secularism and secular ethics should take no interest at all in religious
questions (as they were irrelevant), and was thus to be distinguished from strong
freethought and atheism. In this he disagreed with Charles Bradlaugh, and the
disagreement split the secularist movement between those who argued that anti-religious
movements and activism was not necessary or desirable and those who argued that it was.

[edit] Arguments for and against secularism

Proponents of secularism have long argued that the general rise of secularism in all the
senses enumerated above, and corresponding general decline of religion in what are
deemed 'secularized' countries, is the inevitable result of the Enlightenment, as people
turn towards science and rationalism and away from religion and superstition.

Opponents argue that secular government creates more problems than it solves, and that a
government with a religious (or at least not a secular) ethos is better. Some Christian
opponents contend that a Christian state can give more freedom of religion than a secular
one. For evidence, they cite Norway, Iceland, Finland and Denmark, all with
constitutional links between church and state and yet also recognized as more progressive
and liberal than some countries without such a link. For example, Iceland was among the
first countries to legalise abortion, and the Finnish government provides funding for the
construction of Mosques. Some cite the counterexample of the Netherlands and, more
recently, Sweden, it being both a secular state and socio-politically progressive although
having disestablished its state church in 2000.

Proponents of secularism also note that the Scandinavian countries are socially among the
most secular in the world, with particularly low percentages of individuals who hold
religious beliefs.[18] Recently this argument has been debated publicly in Norway where
movements sought to disestablish the state's Lutheran church.[19]

Some modern commentators have criticized secularism by conflating it with anti-

religious, atheistic, or even satanic belief systems. The word secularism itself is
commonly used as a pejorative by religious conservatives in the United States. The Pope
has declared ongoing secularization to be a fundamental problem of modern society, and
has made it the goal of his papacy to counteract secularism and moral relativism. Though
the goal of a secularist state is to be religiously neutral, some argue that it is repressive of
some aspects of religion. Ostensibly, it is equally repressive toward all religions in order
to equally protect all from interference by others.

Some political philosophies, such as Marxism, generally hold that any religious influence
in a state or society is negative. In nations that have officially embraced such beliefs, such
as the former Eastern European Communist Bloc countries, the religious institution was
made subject to the secular state, in the public interest. Freedom to worship was subject
to licensure and other restrictions, and the doctrine of the church was monitored to assure
conformity to secular law, or even the official public philosophy. In the Western
democracies, it is generally agreed that these policies contravened full freedom of
religion.

Some secularists believe that the state should be kept entirely separate from religion, and
that religious institutions should be entirely free from governmental interference.
Churches that exercise their authority completely apart from government endorsement,
whose foundations are not in the state, are conventionally called "Free" churches.

Some secularists would allow the state to encourage religion (such as by providing
exemptions from taxation, or providing funds for education and charities, including those
that are "faith based"), but insist the state should not establish one religion as the state
religion, require religious observance, or legislate dogma. Classical liberals would assert
that the state cannot rightfully 'exempt' a religious organization from taxation since it has
no authority to tax or regulate it in the first place. This reflects the view that temporal
authority and spiritual authority operate in complimentary spheres and where they
overlap such as in moral values or property rights, neither should take authority over the
other but should offer a framework in which society can work these issues out without
subjugating a religion to the state or vice versa.

[edit] Secularist organizations

Groups such as the National Secular Society (United Kingdom) and Americans United
campaign for secularism and are often supported by those who practice secular
humanism. However, there is also support from non-humanists. In 2005, the National
Secular Society held the inaugural "Secularist of the Year" awards ceremony. Its first
winner was Maryam Namazie, of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran.

Another secularist organization is the Secular Coalition for America. While it is linked to
many secular humanistic organizations and many secular humanists support it, as with the
Secular Society, some non-humanists support it.

Local organizations such as Freethought Association of West Michigan work to raise the
profile of secularism in their communities and tend to include secularists, freethinkers,
atheists, agnostics, and humanists under their organizational umbrella. Student
Organizations, such as the Toronto Secular Alliance, try to popularize nontheism and
secularism on campus.

In Turkey, most prominent and active secularist organization is Atatürk's Thought

Association (ADD), which is credited for organizing demonstrations in four largest cities
in Turkey in 2007, where over 2 million people, mostly women, defended their concern
in and support of secularist principles introduced by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

[edit] See also

• Agnosticism
• Anticlericalism
• Atheism
• Concordat
• Freethought
• Ignosticism
• Laïcité
• Naturalism
• Nontheism
• Pseudo-secularism
• Rationalism
• Secular humanism
• Secularism in Iran
 • Secularism in Turkey
• Separation of church and state
• Secularism (South Asia)
• Secularity
• Organizations that advocate secularism include
o Americans United for Separation of Church and State
o Brights movement
o Fellowship of Reason
o Freedom From Religion Foundation
o Internet Infidels
o Leicester Secular Society
o National Secular Society
o The Freethinker (journal)
• Other related topics include:
o civil religion
o secular state
o secularization
o Six Arrows of Kemal Atatürk

[edit] References
1. ^ Kosmin, Barry A. "Hard and soft secularists and hard and soft secularism: An
intellectual and research challenge."
2. ^ Yavuz, Hakan M. and John L. Esposio (2003) ‘’Turkish Islam and the Secular State:
The Gulen Movement’’. Syracuse University, pg. xv-xvii. ISBN 0815630409
3. ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 147 ("But with
the Second World War just ahead, secularism fo the antireligious type was soon to
disappear from mainstream American society, to be replaced by a new complex of ideas
that focused on secularizing the state, not on secularizing society.")
4. ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 25 ("Together,
early protosecularists (Jefferson and Madison) and proto-evangelicals (Backus, Leland,
and others) made common cause in the fight for nonestablishment [of religion] -- but for
starkly different reasons.")
5. ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 113
6. ^ Abdel Wahab El Messeri. Episode 21: Ibn Rushd, Everything you wanted to know
about Islam but was afraid to Ask, Philosophia Islamica.
7. ^ Fauzi M. Najjar (Spring, 1996). The debate on Islam and secularism in Egypt, Arab
Studies Quarterly (ASQ).
8. ^ Secularism, Catholic Encyclopedia. Newadvent.org
9. ^ Kosmin, Barry A. "Hard and soft secularists and hard and soft secularism: An
intellectual and research challenge."
10. ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 14 ("[Legal
secularists] claim that separating religion from the public, governmental sphere is
necessary to ensure full inclusion of all citizens.")
11. ^ Ira M. Lapidus (October 1975). "The Separation of State and Religion in the
Development of Early Islamic Society", International Journal of Middle East Studies 6
(4), p. 363-385.
 12. ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 6-8
13. ^ Washington Post, November 15, 2006 "Think Tank Will Promote Thinking"
14. ^ "Declaration in Defense of Science and Secularism"
15. ^ book of Luke, chapter 20, verse 25.
16. ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 13
17. ^ Holyoake, George J. (1896). English Secularism. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing
Company.
18. ^ Paul, Gregory S. (2005). "Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health
with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies, A First Look".
Journal of Religion and Society 4
19. ^ The Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oslo; Norway Daily No. 238/02; 16 December
2002.

[edit] Bibliography
[edit] The secular ethic

• Jacoby, Susan (2004). Freethinkers: a history of American secularism. New York:

Metropolitan Books. ISBN 0-8050-7442-2
• Boyer, Pascal (2002). "Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious
Thought" ISBN 0-465-00696-5
• Nash, David (1992). Secularism, Art and Freedom. London: Continuum
International. ISBN 0-7185-1417-3 (paperback published by Continuum, 1994:
ISBN 0-7185-2084-X)
• Royle, Edward (1974). Victorian Infidels: the origins of the British Secularist
Movement, 1791-1866. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-
0557-4 Online version
• Royle, Edward (1980). Radicals, Secularists and Republicans: popular
freethought in Britain, 1866-1915. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
ISBN 0-7190-0783-6

[edit] The secular society

See also the references list in the article on secularization

• Berger, Peter L. (1967) The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of

Religion. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
• Chadwick, Owen (1975). The Secularization of the European mind in the
nineteenth century. Cambridge University Press.
• Cox, Harvey (1996). The Secular City: Secularization and Urbanization in
Theological Perspective. NY: Macmillan.
• Martin, David (1978). A General Theory of Secularization. Oxford: Blackwell.
ISBN 0-631-18960-2
• Martin, David (2005). On Secularization: Towards a Revised General Theory.
Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-5322-6
 • McLeod, Hugh (2000). Secularisation in Western Europe, 1848-1914.
Basingstoke: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-59748-6
• Wilson, Bryan (1969). Religion in Secular Society. London: Penguin.

[edit] The secular state

• Adıvar, Halide Edip (1928). "The Turkish Ordeal". The Century Club. ISBN 0-
830-50057-X

• Cinar, Alev (2006). "Modernity, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey: Bodies, Places,
and Time". University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-816-64411-X

• Juergensmeyer, Mark (1994). The New cold war?: religious nationalism confronts
the secular state. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-08651-1

[edit] External links

• Secularism 101: Religion, Society, and Politics
• SecularSites
• Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture

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