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Just some facts as I see them:
Totalitarianism does not mean communism. Some of the worst states in our history have embraced capitalist ideals (Nazi Germany, Pinochet’s Chile and Saddam’s Iraq). In practical terms the best definition to communism would be a 1 party system of government with very strong ties to state ownership and socialistic ideals.
To my knowledge we have never seen a modern state that was free and democratic that worked on Marxist principals. There were a few examples that were headed in that direction until coups supported by foreign governments eliminated them. There are successful communities that operate on those principal though.
I seriously doubt we will ever see a pure socialist democracy in our lifetimes, the same could be said for a pure libertarian government, but that doesn’t mean that trends and ideas from each ideology cant be valuable or useful.
Traditionally totalitarianism governments have been horrible to their people. Yet we in the west do not have unrestricted free speech or freedoms either. I have friends that lived the majority of their lives in non-democracies (Arab nations) and they say that as long as the government is not bad, the majority of the people really don’t care who is running the country.
The USSR ultimately failed because it used a command economy that had massive corruption, not because they were a bunch of inbred hillbillies that couldn’t add 2+2 together.
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