[From Latin communis: shared by all.]
(politics) The political theory that an individual's actions should benefit the community or the state rather than the individual. It is the most radical kind of political collectivism, and depends on an equally radical altruism in ethics. In practice, communism has always been a form of totalitarianism. When referring to actual political systems, communism is sometimes called Marxism-Leninism because of communism's link with the revolutionary doctrines of Marxism and with countries inspired by the example of Lenin's revolution in Russia (and Mao's revolution in China). Communism is sometimes also called international socialism in contrast to the national socialism of fascism.