List of current communist states

A map showing the current Communist-labelled states.

A Communist state is a term that generally refers to a state whose official ideology is communism. Communism as a movement varies widely in belief and interpretation of the essentials of communist ideology as it descends from Karl Marx, and many in today's various communist movements either disavow or widely criticize the regimes officially referred to in media and general discourse as "communist states", claiming either that they have nothing to do with 'real' communism or that the ideology of such states has reached a point of irrevocable corruption.

Alternative names that states adhering to an officially "communist" ideology may assign themselves is socialist state, socialist republic or of some type of socialism. This is because in the history of the nations there has never been a real communism as Marxism intended to.

Self-described as communist

The following countries are de facto one-party states whose ruling party currently declares official allegiances to communism, even though its principles are not followed. Note that all of the listed countries except for Cuba have implemented economic reforms which are moving the countries closer to a free market.

• Cuba (Cuban Revolution in 1959, socialist state declared in 1961); Communist Party of Cuba
• Vietnam (since 1976); Communist Party of Vietnam
• People's Republic of China (since 1949); Communist Party of China

States with communist governments

There are multi-party states that currently have communist parties in government. Such states are not considered to be communist states because the communist articles of the party are not embedded within the constitution of the state itself.

• Cyprus (since February 2008); Progressive Party of Working People
• Nepal (since April 2008); Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)

Formerly the government of Moldova was led by the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova from 1998 to 2009. It is never considered a communist state since the post-Soviet era because the communist articles of the party are not embedded within the constitution of the state itself.

Communist parties as part of other ruling coalition

In Cyprus, the ruling Communist party didn't come to power by formenting a successful revolution, but rather by being elected to power and thus operate according to the norms of a multi-party system. In Nepal, the ruling Communist parties participate in a multi-party coalition government, an alliance of 22 parties that holds 350 seats in the 601-member constituent assembly. There are also some parties that participate as junior partners in ruling coalitions, as listed below.

• Belarus– Communist Party of Belarus– participates in the ruling coalition
• Bolivia– Communist Party of Bolivia– participates in the ruling coalition
• Brazil– Communist Party of Brazil– participates in the ruling coalition
• South Africa– South African Communist Party– participates in the ruling coalition
• Sri Lanka– Communist Party of Sri Lanka– participates in the ruling coalition
• Syria– Syrian Communist Party (Bakdash), Syrian Communist Party (Faisal)– participates in the ruling coalition
• Uruguay– Communist Party of Uruguay– participates in the ruling coalition
• Ukraine– Communist Party of Ukraine participates in ruling coalition

See also

• List of socialist countries
• Socialist state
• Marxism
• Communism