WHAT WERE THE CORE TENETS OF (KARL) MARXISM ( )? What are the supposed contradictions of capitalism?: What kind of world was Marx writing for? What is the law of capitalist accumulation (why do the bourgeoisie take surplus value from the proletariat) What is the law of increasing misery and alienation What is the superstructure & hegemony (false consciousness)? Why did Marx think revolution was inevitable?: Why did capitalism replace feudalism and to what effect? Concentration of capital kills off the petit bourgeoisie Worker (proletariat) alienation increases Overproduction leads to crisis and war What supposedly happens after the revolution? What’s really happened? Why would there have be a dictatorship of the proletariat? What was good communist (vs. socialist) life supposed to look like… no property and roughly equal outcomes end oppression (and restructure families In what sense did Western, social democratic capitalism ultimately incorporate Marx’s ideas more effectively than communism?

WAS MAJOR REVISIONS DID VI LENIN & MAO MAKE? Leninism: Why revolution in Russia? Why hadn’t revolution happened in W. Europe as predicted by Marx? Can imperialism explain the lack of global revolution by temporarily dealing with the capitalism? Why were the Bolsheviks needed as a vanguard party of the proletariat? What’s the appeal of democratic centralism as a way of decision-making Why did Lenin think that a command economy and the strong state would be needed at first. How did Joseph Stalin make them permanent?

WAS MAJOR REVISIONS DID VI LENIN & MAO MAKE? Maoism In what sense was it a response to Stalinism and Russia’s nomenclatura? Why did Mao think communism requires violence by peasant revolutionaries? Why did he think a society could function on a “moral economy” instead of a command economy? Why did he think guerilla warfare and perpetual mobilization must be permanent aspects of the communist society? How was Mao different than Stalin?