Communism is better than Democracy

Burden of proofMy opponent sets up democracy is opposition to a Communist "one party" system. Communism is an economic, not a political system, so my opponent's resolution is incoherent unless we assume he is arguing for the dictatorial brand of Communism that we have historically seen. My opponent even affirms this when he says that he is arguing for a Communism under which "there has usually been a one party system." Therefore, my opponent must defend the instances of Communism that have occurred in the real world.== My case ==C1: Communism inherently leads to dictatorshipCommunism could never work if it entailed democratic voting. Murray Rothbard explains, "Communism holds that every man should have the right to own his equal quotal share of everyone else. If there are two billion people in the world, then everyone has the right to own one two-billionth of every other person . . . [W]e can picture the viability of such a world: a world in which no man is free to take any action whatever without prior approval . . . by everyone else in society. It should be clear that in that sort of ‘communist' world, no one would be able to do anything, and the human race would quickly perish." [1] Thus, a non-despotic Communism could not function because it requires a massive consensus for every tiny decision. Communism therefore inherently leads to despotism. Rothbard continues, "The participatory communist world cannot be put into practice. For it is physically impossible for everyone to keep continual tabs on everyone else, and thereby to exercise his equal quotal share of partial ownership over every other man. In practice, then, the concept of universal and equal other-ownership is utopian and impossible, and supervision and therefore control and ownership of others necessarily devolves upon a specialized group of people, who thereby become a ruling class. Hence, in practice, any attempt at communist rule will automatically become class rule." [1]Of the five countries that are classified as Communist today [Cuba, China, Laos, Vietnam, North Korea], all rank among the lowest on the Freedom House index of political freedom and civil liberties. [7]C2: Communism empirically failsCommunism fails because people are not willing to work if they are not paid. A person has no incentive to work if he is going to get the same resources no matter what ("to each according to his need"). Grigory Yavlinsky, a Soviet economist, observed that "[t]he Soviet system is not working because the workers . . . had no incentives to work." [2] Nearly the entire Soviet economic was sustianed by the military industrial complex. Military production accounted for 70% of the USSR's GDP. [2] In addition, central planning does a horrible job of allocating resources. Government bureaucrats simply “guess” how much of a given product people might want in a command economy. The USSR was notorious for never having enough toothpaste in stock because of the failure of government planning. Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek described this problem as the “economic calculation problem” – that supply and demand do a good job of funneling resources to where they are wanted and needed, but central planning does not. As Tibor R. Machan has explained, "Without a market in which allocations can be made in obedience to the law of supply and demand, it is difficult or impossible to funnel resources with respect to actual human preferences and goals." [3] For example, during Gorbachev’s reign, he decided that factories should start producing more expensive goods. [4] Gorbachev’s centrally planned decision forced factories to move away from producing everyday consumer goods. [4] Supply for everyday goods - like toothpaste, bread, and shoes – suddenly went way down. [4] As a result, the prices of these everyday commodities skyrocketed. [4] People were understandably upset. [4] Central planning is a horrible system. Supply and demand do a much better job of allocating resources where they are needed.The Soviet economy failed, causing the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989.C3: Communism leads to genocide and deathCommunist regimes have willfully murdered approximately 260 million of their citizens over the course of human history. [8] Most of these murders were carried out to silence political dissidents. Communist regimes have sacrificed countless others for the greater good. Stalinist Russia sacrificed 7 million lives to starvation due to farm collectivization. Mao Zedong forced his people to make steel in their backyards instead of farming, leading to the deaths of 45 million people in 4 years. [5]C4: One party rule leads to corruption and nepotismIn China, "everyone is guilty of corruption." [6] Bribes are necessary to get a business project approved or to get your relative admitted to a hospital. [6] Wealthy business must develop patronage relationships with party officials so they can get anything done. [6] Advancement within the Party is dependent entirely on nepotism, i.e. it is a dynastic succession system. North Korea has the same political structure. In contrast, democracy is more of a meritocracy-based system. The best and most honest politicians are more likely to rise to the top. Politicians that are completely corrupt will be filtered out by media investigation and public opinion. In democracy, politicians are at least somewhat accountable to the governed. In despotic rule, the single party can do whatever it likes because it cannot get voted out of office.== Rebuttal ==R1: My opponent argues that in a two party system, minority parties do not get their wayMost democracies protect minority groups from the tyranny of the majority by providing them certain fundamental rights (such as in the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution). These rights can only be removed by a Constitutional amendment requiring a supermajority. Democracies also typically have a system of checks and balances so that one actor cannot accumulate too much power. For example, in the US, the President is the Commander in Chief of the military, but only Congress has the power to declare war. By dividing the power between different branches, a democratic government prevents tyranny and despotism. Communism, in contrast, starts with a dictatorship by one party.Democracy is not perfect, but it's the best system we have available. As Winston Churchill once said, "Democracy is the worst system of government - except for every other system tried in human history." Because democracy is preferable to the alternative, I urge a Con vote in this debate.[1] http://mises.org...;[2] http://www.sjsu.edu...;[3] http://media.hoover.org...[4] http://library.thinkquest.org... [5] http://www.independent.co.uk...;[6] http://www.cnn.com...;[7] http://en.wikipedia.org...;