Early Cold War and Civil Rights Movement Practice Test

Communism is an economic ideology in which the means of production—factories, land, and resources—are owned by the community or the state rather than individuals. Private property in productive assets is eliminated, and wealth is distributed to minimize or eliminate class differences, with the goal of providing equal access to goods and services for all.

This combination—state ownership of production, no private property in productive assets, and an emphasis on equal distribution of wealth—captures the defining idea of communism. Capitalism centers on private ownership and market competition, not shared ownership and planned distribution. Democracy is a political system that can exist under different economic arrangements, and monarchy refers to a form of rule, not an economic model.