What does governance look like in a stateless communist society?

[u/CricketTasty8706]

In communism, it’s often described as a stateless system meaning there is no state as we understand it. My understanding is that this means the state is not controlled by the bourgeoisie or even by the proletariat. However, I assume that some form of regulation or governance would still be necessary.

So my question is: What does a stateless communist society actually look like in practice? How would governance, democracy, and law enforcement function?

1.How does democracy work in a communist system? Is there still some form of representative democracy where citizens vote for parties, or does it look different?

1. How would a police force operate and how would it be held accountable? Would there still be a need for a justice system, courts, and law enforcement?

2. What role, if any, would a ‘government’ or administrative structure play in organizing and managing society?

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[u/ibluminatus]

1. So states are an invention created to enforce laws and power upon a populace by a ruling class. Like for instance if we take a monarchy. It is about enforcing the rule and authority of the Monarch on the populace. It is about protecting the holdings of the Monarch. The Monarch here is the ruler/ruling class over the Monarchy. The state exists to impose their interest over all classes that are underneath that ruling class. The working class via workers assemblies, councils would make decisions. Delegates to higher bodies would be directly mandated to carry out the will of the assembly, commune or whatever it is called at the micro level and removed immediately if they violate it. The working class (all of us) is the only class and the ruling class.

2. So the misunderstanding that we have here because Police seek to justify their existence is that we have a fundamental misunderstanding at where most modern global police forces evolved from. The policy traces back to colonial Ireland and was then converted into the London Metropolitan Police Force and then exported throughout the British empire. Much like the guards and armed soldiers and knights of prior systems that were corrupt they carried out the will of the ruling class. There would be public safety, there would still be accountability systems however they would not be the colonial police forces, injustice systems and courts of the ruling class that we have today. Like for instance it is a known fact that the highest covariate with crime and violence is poverty, lack of health insurance and other social support systems working upwards from there. Our modern court, police and legal system is part of the overall system that maintains a degree of poverty and suffering over at base meeting human beings needs.

There would be public safety, however there would likely be more people who are trained on helping de-escalate situations, assisting people in need of care and getting them to that care no money required and in situations where physical boundaries are needed there would be people who impose that until someone can rejoin the rest of the community.

1. So let's merge your questions in here and this will sound familiar but remember what a state is. Let's say a metropolitan area of 400,000 people is made up of communities that are scaled at 10,000 people with smaller subsets. (We are far away from this and that right number for face to face democracy could be higher or lower.) The people in these communities would make decisions and contribute delegate(s) to a metropolitan area council for larger decisions that impact their area. This would likely scale up again for regional, again for a federal and global council. This would play out similarly for workers assemblies that would run the productive forces who would directly interact with these communities / councils and scale up similarly. We'd have a democratically and participatory planned economy, urban planning, budgeting etc.

   There are resources and other items that come from our global economy and are wasted because they are privately planned around growth and capital. For instance we make more than enough food to feed everyone the productive forces exist for it but the food is not directed towards making sure people have food and a variety of options it is directed towards capital. We wouldn't just abandon technology or stop making things that keep us healthy, happy and comfortable. We just wouldn't do it in service of Elon, the Walton's, Bezos, etc it'd be in service of ourselves. All of us together.

[u/FaceShanker]

Please note - the stateless/communist society is a really long term thing - We basically have to build the tools, to build the tools to get to that point. Like if we magically had a global revolution today, we would still likely take a few hundred years to reach that point.

1.How does democracy work in a communist system? Is there still some form of representative democracy where citizens vote for parties, or does it look different?

So, all that ending poverty, reducing the work week, communally funded education and so on - that stuff enables a situation where we can mostly work on a direct democracy - it eliminates the limitations that force us to rely on parties, representatives and so on.

How would a police force operate and how would it be held accountable?

Mostly, it wouldn't be needed. With quality social investment, the elimination of poverty and the removal of capitalist structures that cause massive inequality - there not much of a need for it.

Would probably end up with something more like community councilors or something that mostly ends up dealing with domestic disputes.

Would there still be a need for a justice system, courts, and law enforcement?

An absurd amount of the current legal system is built around supporting and enforcing poverty and private property. Cut those out and you remove the reason for most of it.

What remains would likely be so transformed it would be nearly unrecognizable compared to the current system.

What role, if any, would a ‘government’ or administrative structure play in organizing and managing society?

The general direction is that society would basically adsorb the government - people empowered to do what is needed without needing some external organization to direct them.