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Does Communism Empower Evil?

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Was Communism Doomed?

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Abstract

Past communist governments are condemned by their evil record. The social psychological research into evil is reviewed, and this provides a rather good account of how so many people could carry out evil acts on behalf of communist governments. Explaining the evil behaviour of the rulers is more difficult, although strong ideological convictions and early experience in underground organisations can be pointed to. Communist governments often became gentler with time. The lack of independent sources of economic power in a communist economy might remove a restraint on evil behaviour, but it is doubtful whether this is decisive.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Rummel, Death by government; Rummel, Lethal politics; Rummel, Statistics of democide. For different views, see Courtois, The black book of communism.

  2. 2.

    Montefiore, Stalin, p. 5.

  3. 3.

    Baumeister, Evil, ch. 3.

  4. 4.

    Horowitz, Moriarty, p. 45.

  5. 5.

    Baumeister, Evil, p. 71.

  6. 6.

    Baumeister, Evil, p. 110, 119, 125–127.

  7. 7.

    Baumeister, Evil, chs. 4, 5, 6, and 7. The percentage estimates are on p. 231.

  8. 8.

    Asch (1956).

  9. 9.

    Sherif et al., Intergroup conflict and cooperation. The name “Robbers Cave” was the original name of the summer camp’s location and has nothing to do with the research.

  10. 10.

    Haney et al. (1973), Zimbardo (2004).

  11. 11.

    Milgram, Obedience to authority.

  12. 12.

    Wade and Tavris, Psychology, p. 67.

  13. 13.

    Milgram, Obedience to authority, pp. 5–6.

  14. 14.

    The first use of the term fundamental attribution error may be in Ross (1977). However, the phenomenon was described by Heider, Psychology of interpersonal relations.

  15. 15.

    Milgram, Obedience to authority.

  16. 16.

    Milgram, Obedience to authority, Appendix I.

  17. 17.

    For example, Cozby, Methods in behavioral research, ch. 3.

  18. 18.

    Martens et al. (2007, 2010).

  19. 19.

    Casola et al. (2009).

  20. 20.

    Browning, Ordinary men; Browning’s work is also known through its extensive citing in Goldhagen, Hitler’s willing executioners.

  21. 21.

    Browning, Ordinary men, ch. 5.

  22. 22.

    Browning, Ordinary men, p. 73.

  23. 23.

    Browning, Ordinary men, p. 170.

  24. 24.

    Zimbardo (2004), pp. 43–45.

  25. 25.

    Bruce, The firm.

  26. 26.

    Dikötter, Mao’s great famine.

  27. 27.

    Bruce, The firm, ch. 2.

  28. 28.

    Bruce, The firm, ch. 3.

  29. 29.

    Bruce, The firm, ch. 2.

  30. 30.

    For example, Atkinson, End of the Russian land commune, ch. 15; Volin, Century of Russian agriculture, ch. 10. The general statements about Stalin are based on Montefiore, Stalin, and to some extent Radzinsky, Stalin.

  31. 31.

    Fundamentals, ch. 14.

  32. 32.

    The quote is from the final paragraph of the Communist manifesto.

  33. 33.

    Dikötter, Mao’s great famine, p. 134.

  34. 34.

    Ibid., p. 13.

  35. 35.

    Brown, Rise and fall of communism, pp. 282–288.

  36. 36.

    Montefiore, Stalin.

  37. 37.

    De Grand, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, p. 35.

  38. 38.

    Brown, Rise and fall of communism, p. 266.

  39. 39.

    Brown, Gorbachev factor. Chernenko’s brief Secretaryship came between Andropov’s and Gorbachev’s. This seems to have occurred with Gorbachev’s consent, or at least without his opposition, and Chernenko’s de facto recognition that Gorbachev would follow him.

  40. 40.

    Bruce, The firm, p. 140.

  41. 41.

    Bruce, The firm, ch. 5.

  42. 42.

    Semukhina and Reynolds (2014).

  43. 43.

    Estimate of 2015 Gaming tax take cut to MOP 84 bln. ( (2015). BMW’s relations with China dealers strained. (2014).

  44. 44.

    Lopez et al. (2014), Tay et al. (2014), Villoria et al. (2013).

  45. 45.

    Themudo (2014).

  46. 46.

    Torfason et al. (2013).

  47. 47.

    Campbell and Göritz (2014).

  48. 48.

    Langsted (2012).

  49. 49.

    Mao et al. (2013).

  50. 50.

    Kornai, Socialist system, p. 572.

  51. 51.

    Turner, Between debt and the devil, pp. 163–168.

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  1. Dept of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Simon Kemp

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Kemp, S. (2016). Does Communism Empower Evil?. In: Was Communism Doomed?. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32780-8_10

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