p ... In communist society, where the interests of individuals do not conflict, but are identical, competition vanishes. There will be no longer any question, of course, of the ruin of individual classes, or of classes in general such as the rich and the poor’ at the present time. In the production and distribution of benefits essential to life, private appropriation, the striving of each individual to enrich himself at his own risk, will disappear....

... To protect itself from crime, from acts of open violence, society needs an extensive, complex organism of administrative and juridical institutions requiring an infinite 22 expenditure of human forces. In communist society this will also be infinitely simplified, and for the precise reason -strange though it may sound-that in this society the administration will have to deal with not only individual aspects of social life, but with the whole life of society in all its manifestations and all its aspects. We destroy the antagonism between the individual and all the rest, we counter social war by social peace, we hack away the very roots of crime and thereby render superfluous a large, by far the largest, part of the present-day activities of the administrative and juridical institutions. Already now, crimes of passion are increasingly giving way to crimes committed by calculation, in pursuance of some interest; crimes against the person are decreasing, but crimes against property are increasing... . Crimes against property will disappear of themselves where each receives all that is needed to satisfy his physical and spiritual requirements, where social barriers and differences are removed. The criminal court will disappear of itself, the civil court which deals almost exclusively with property relations or, at any rate, relations which have for their premise the state of social war, will also disappear; the law suits which today are the natural result of universal enmity will then become rare exceptions easily settled by arbitration. The administrative organs today also have the constant state of war as the source of their activity-the police and the whole administration are only concerned that the war should remain concealed, indirect, that it should not degenerate into open violence, crime. But if it is far easier to maintain peace than to keep war within certain limits, it is also infinitely easier to administer communist society than a society in which competition holds sway. And if civilisation has already taught people to see that their interests lie in maintaining public order. 23 ensuring public security and the interests of society, and thus make the police, the administration and justice as far as possible superfluous, how much more will this take place in a society where community of interests is made a basic principle, where public interests no longer differ from the interests of each individual! What is now taking place J27 spite oi public institutions will be far more widespread when public institutions no longer hamper but, on the contrary, promote this! . . .