As the president of the United States, Barack Obama, prepares to embark on a historic visit to Cuba, the future of the communist-ruled island is the subject of widespread speculation. Some observers are hoping that the ongoing shift toward capitalism, which has been occurring very gradually for five years under the direction of Raul Castro, will naturally lead Cuba toward democracy.
The dominance of the Chinese Communist Party – which currently boasts 88 million members, more than Germany's total population – is no longer rooted in ideology.
A 2013 party circular known as "Document No. 9" listed seven threats to the Chinese Communist Party's leadership that President Xi Jinping intends to eliminate.
In short, communism is now focused less on what it is – that is, its ideology – and more on what it is not.
Democracy and communism are, it seems, mutually exclusive. But capitalism and communism clearly are not – and that could be very dangerous.
In fact, the marriage of capitalism and communism, spearheaded by China, has spawned a new political model that represents the first direct challenge to liberal democracy since Fascism, namely authoritarian capitalism.
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