DEFINITION: Capitalism provides a direct reward for accomplishment to those who do the work.
(However, sometimes the reward goes to those who own the work and not those who do the work, as in the case of monopolies).

DEFINITION: Communism distributes the reward for accomplishment, ideally equally, amongst those who did the work and those who did little or nothing.
Was Jesus Christ the greatest communist to have ever lived?

Is Socialism perhaps only a fancy word for Communism?:
Socialism: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his deeds”.
Communism: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”
Perhaps the definition of Socialism verses Communism simply changes the term or leeway for distribution of other people’s work from ‘need’ to ‘deed’ i.e. meaningless since ‘deed’ can be as vague or more vague as ‘need’.

We could then determine how Communistic a country is based on the proportion of tax or labor a citizen must contribute to the State. i.e. The U.S.A. where the average citizen pays around 50+% of their income to 33,000+ taxation bodies, could now fit the definition of a Communistic or Socialist country U.S.S.A. (Most people forget to add ALL the taxes they pay - telephone, real-estate, gas, tire etc.).

1776 - U.S.A. United States of America

1930 - U.S.S.A? United Soviet States of America?

Could the country who invested the most to fight Communism now be Communistic?  If the average U.S. citizen pays more than 50% of their income in one form or another to the State, is the U.S. Socialist?  The Boston Tea Party was a revolution over a 2% to a 5% tax.

A key issue society commonly struggles with, is the taking care of the needy.  The question must be asked when the responsibility of caring for the needy moves from that of the families responsibility to that of the State?  Common services are also a problem in that it is sometimes difficult to get people to pay their fair share.  For example a shared rural road.

Democracy

Communism and Capitalism need not be related to a democratically elected government. However, democracy is the Communism of citizens’ decisions.  I.e. making the action of a government reflect that of the common vote.

Democracy, perhaps, defines mediocrity since one takes the median of the votes and makes this the decision. I.e. decisions are based on the median intelligence / discernment.

The U.S.A. is not a Democracy, it is a Republic.  Officials are elected from regions to represent and vote for those in their region.

Perhaps the problems we are experiencing with representation in the U.S. is due to the size of representatives regions?  I.e. one can never really know the individual you are electing because the representative populous is too large.  Does the Swiss Canton provide a better model, did the Greeks have it right?  Clearly the structure of governments live and die like the rest of us.