Communist Rule in a Post-Communist World: Ideological Rigidity and Flexibility

Only a handful of officially communist states remain in the world today, all of which are ruled by communist parties in which there is no electoral competition. Thus while the modal form of authoritarianism in the post-Cold War world may indeed be some version of competitive authoritarianism, the cases of China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba stand as important exceptions to this broader trend. For a variety of reasons, not least of which is that China is a global power, it is thus important to understand the legitimation processes that have helped these states weather the collapse of befriended communist regimes in the 1980s and 1990s. This paper examines two cases of reformed communist regimes (China and Vietnam) with two cases of relatively unreformed communist regimes (North Korea and Cuba) to understand different legitimation strategies that helped facilitate communist survival in a post-communist world. Theoretically the paper compares two ideal type approaches to ideology. The first approach emphasizes the consistency and coherence of ideology over time. Ideological concepts are recognized as such to the extent that they act as “freeze frames” and fix the meaning of key political ideas for citizens and political elites. The second approach emphasizes that the success of an ideology lies in its ability to be a dynamic, adaptive force that can react with changing circumstances. Ideological concepts are therefore strategic devices for the legitimation of a given political order. Relying on qualitative within and cross-case analysis, this paper compares these contending conceptions of ideology with each other in the four case studies to gain leverage on the legitimation of communism in an ostensibly post-communist world and the legitimation processes of authoritarian regimes more generally.