User:Sean A James/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Communist state

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
This page came up in my search for "C-Class" articles on China

Evaluate the article
The lead section describes the article's topic, but does not describe the article's sections. It is rather amateurish rather than formal or academic in tone.

The article is long and I don't have time to read it now. Its contents seem thorough, but lacks a history section. Surprisingly, it omits North Korea despite acknowledging that its regime considers itself communist. The criteria used is clearly confused, with many non-communist states mixed with communist states in the "Previous communist states" list. Distinctions need to be made between Soviet client states and states whose economies were collectivized. Non-academic and ideologically-charged terms like "totalitarianism," "authoritarianism," etc. are used to describe these states, reflecting a bias against them and in favour of "free market" and self-proclaimed "democratic" states. On the other hand, some favourable descriptions of these states are provided, partly redressing the imbalance. It could be strengthened by introducing the concept of "degenerated" and "deformed" workers' states developed by Trotsky and other anti-Stalinist Marxists.

The article is short on images. Images demonstrating ideological expressions of states could be added.

The article seems to be well-sourced.

The talk page reveals the confusion regarding North Korea, likely deriving from the chasm between its ideology and the concepts of Marx and Lenin. This needs to be fixed for the article to have any legitimacy.

Overall, the article could use a brief theoretical and historical section. This can be linked to other pages, but the criteria for defining a "communist state," which as the talk page notes, is theoretically an oxymoron, needs to be better defined.

Sean A James (talk) 08:18, 26 January 2023 (UTC)