Fall of Communist Utopia Essay Example
Fall of Communist Utopia Essay Example

Fall of Communist Utopia Essay Example

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  • Pages: 8 (1974 words)
  • Published: September 28, 2021
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Communism can be referred to as a utopian state of government in which the state has power and possess certain property, resources and production process. Specific property are not owned by the citizens’ of a country. The state can provide a form of equal resource and national production and distribution to the citizens in communisms. Communism in North Korea is evidenced through the class oppression. The political and social inequality existed in North Korea till the early 1990s. The state of Korea was the main allocator and distributor of the resources. The political and economic imperatives of the state justifies the inequalities. The communist was characterized by the struggle of the poor state of the class including their own environment. Kim was unable to control the citizens after the economy collapsed in the year 1990.

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Therefore, this paper is going to discuss the effects that accompanied the fall of communist utopia including the inequality in different groups of political, economic and sex in North Korea.

To start with, the book of Barbara Derick ‘’Nothing to envy Ordinary Lives in North Korea’’ in which he narrates a story of the country which was reclusive on the earth with total of six families in the city helps us to understand the propagandas behind the terming of North Korea as a communist utopia. The truth is that North Korea has never been a communist state in the history (Lankov 106). The main aim and objective of Kim’s rule during the difficult times of North Korea was to provide survival of the regime. His regime covered this idea by pretending to advocate for egalitarianism.
However, the economy of North Korea bega

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to stagnate in the year 1970 and in the early 1990s economy collapsed. This affected the ruling of Kim because the power to control the people reduced and his regime became much weaker. He had no resources which could help his regime to command the power and control over the people (Lankov 105). The collapse of the economy led to development of the disparity in the economy. During this period, discrimination on the lines of sex and background of politics reduced drastically in North Korea. The women were then given the rights that were equal to men compared to traditional times where the women were only required to give birth to children. After the 1990 economic collapse, the women were given the chance to participate in performing the labor work not just in the family but outside the family surrounding. The government was able to consider the education and employment of the women to be very important to the country unlike the regime of Kim. This was because of the shortage of labor after the economy collapsed (Lankov 100). During the Kim’s regime, there was inequality in sex as men provided the labor because Kim had the resources to command power. After the collapse, his power reduced and labor reduced too. This lead to collapse of inequality in sex.

In addition, the socialist economy in North Korea saw the ruling of Kim’s regime. Kim used the socialist economy to control the citizens of North Korea during his regime. The socialist distribution of food and resources system was a very crucial weapon and instrument that Kim took advantage of to practice his rule over the people and

continued the political instability in North Korea. A socialist economy is a production system in which the production of the goods and services are for direct use. These goods are solely owned and used by the state. The goods are produced to meet the needs of the citizens. With this system, Kim was able to control the democracy of people (Lankov 110). The argument which is based on assumption that the socialite economy system has no labor value. From this argument, it suggests that the exploitation classes did not exist in the socialist economy. This argument cannot be correct because with the socialite economic system, the regime of Kim was able to exploit the people by controlling them to offer the labor which was actually of value.
Besides the side effect created by Kim’s regime in using the socialist food distribution system to control the people, it was of some importance too to the citizens of North Korea. During Kim’s regime, the life of many North Korean citizens was not abundantly supported because the properties were solely owned by Kim regime. People did not have full access to the food supply. They were therefore controlled and used for labor provision for purposes of food. The system of socialite distribution however provided the citizens of North Korea with shelter and food. The inequality continued to exist in this system but was diminishing at a slow rate. The citizens were owners of the work and were able to get some food for their families (Lankov 100). The inequality that that existed was slowly eliminated. The inequality was based on the ownership of property which lead to conflict between

the ruling regime and the citizens. However, the reward and compensation method was determined by the ability and contribution of the citizens to the Kim’s regime (Lankov 2014).

Moreover, after the system of socialist distribution collapsed in 1990, the regime of North Korea did not have a choice but to allow the people to freely interact as the buyer and seller. The collapse of the system gave the way for the free market to provide the food to the citizens of North Korea. The production process of the food was no longer ion the hands of the state. The people had the power to freely buy and sell from the market.

Therefore, the collapse of the system lead to decrease in economic inequality. The existence of the socialism during the Kim’s regime hindered the growth of the economy because there was no competition. The people who ran the market were appointed on political lines thus political inequality which was eliminated after the collapse of the system. The collapse of the system enabled the market to rejuvenate and grow rapidly which provided the food to the citizens of North Korea (Lankov 100). The market forces determined the demand and supply of the resources thus people were able to get what they needed easily without being discriminated like before. During the socialism system, the leaders were very ignorant of the demands of the citizens. They cared less whether the people bought the products of not. It was only after the collapse of the distribution system that the free market emerged. The responsibility of feeding the people was therefore left to the market to provide.
The regime of Kim was very

powerful before the economy collapsed. The North Korean regime had the monopoly of then resources, properties and the processes of production. The socialism system of distribution ensured that the regime had the power to supply the food to the citizens. Therefore, before the economy collapsed, the North Korean regime accumulated much resources. The possession of the production resources meant that all the powers of production were in the hand of the leaders. With the monopoly of the resources, the regime was able to stem out any form of the resistance that would arise from the citizens of North Korea. The regime was associated with inequality in politics, economy and sex. The inequality in economy was a result of low class people living poor lifestyle and in extreme poverty. Such people became more subject to the regime because they could not fight unless they are denied the food in case of any resistance (Lankov 108). The low class citizens were put in one category with low status. Their children never had the access to education like the children of the high class. The denial of knowledge by the regime to the citizens was one of the means of suppressing their resistance if any. Therefore, the inequality in politics and economy during the regime gave the regime the power to prevent any resistance from the people who could challenge the ruling party. This ensured continued suppression of the citizens in North Korea (Lankov 107).

However, the collapse of the system of the economy of North Korea was a big blow to the state. All the power that the state had over the resources and production processes diminished very

easily. The inequality in politics and economy was eliminated. The market regulated the flow and distribution of the resources. The citizens were therefore able to get food from the free market. They were never required to be controlled by the state and regime of Kim (Lankov 104). The collapse of the system weakened the regime of Kim. This meant that the regime had no vast resources like before thus it could not be able to control the people. The regime was so weak during this period to manage and control the population of North Korea.

Another argument is on the gender inequality before the collapse of the system of the economy in the year 1990. The traditions that existed in North Korea undermined the status and the roles of women in the society. The women were only required to give birth to children, mostly the males children were valued than the female children (Lankov 109). The confusion in North Korea’s traditions denied the women formal education. The traditions also undermined the women in that they had limited opportunities to take part in the political, economic and social activities and life of the society. However, some women were assigned with the roles such as curing the illness by casting out the evil spirits. Some were called upon to pray during the dry seasons for the rain. This sex inequality continued during the regime of Kim because of the traditions that were put in place by the North Korean state. The labor was mostly provided by the men and they were bread winners in the families (Lankov 100).

Moreover, things changed after the system of socialist economy collapsed in

the 1990s. The collapse of the economic system lead to reduced inequality in sex. The role of the women and status changed and the traditions that were against them were eliminated. The collapse of the system was an opportunity to open North Korea to the external world in 1990s. The missionaries started the schools for the young females so that they could receive formal education (Lankov 101). The roles and status of the women changed abruptly and the constitution granted them equal rights to those of men. The women were given the chance to take part in the provision of the labor to the country just like the men. Besides the government ideology and commitment on provision of equal education to women, it also considered women as potential employees to provide the labor. This is because after the collapse of the economic system, the labor reduced. The women therefore became the ones to earn a living for the family members. Thus, socialism system contributed to the sex inequality but after its collapse, the sex inequality reduced (Lankov 110).

Therefore, it is of the rationale to conclude that the story in book nothing to envy ordinary lives in North Korea enables us to understand that North Korea was not a communist country but it was a socialist country. This is because the regime of Kim owns the production process and property in North Korea. The system of socialist food distribution was an instrument that was used by the regime of Kim to control the people. The system led to inequality in politics, economy and sex in North Korea. This regime controlled people through resource ownership and any

resistance was suppressed. The collapse of the system weakened the regime and was not able to hold the resistance like before. The inequality in politics and economy also declined.

Work cited

  • Lankov, Andrei. The real North Korea: life and politics in the failed Stalinist utopia. Oxford University Press, 2014.( 100-111)
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