Democracy - a political system where the voters vote at regular intervals, for example, every four years, for their leaders based on the concept of one man one vote and the economic system is largely based on private ownership. 

Socialism - an economic system where a significant part of the resources are owned by the state, instead of private ownership. The political system is largely democratic. 

Communism - a system where the political power is held by the communist party and the resources are owned to a large extent by the state. 

Between socialism and free market, I prefer socialism. It does not mean that the state has to own all of the resources. But it is better for the state to won a large part of the resources, for example, the resources used to provide public services such as health, education, security, communication, transport and others. The state can provide these services more economically using economy of scale, or through some subsidy.

The private sector can provide some of the services, such as private health care and education, to cater for the people who can pay the market price. 

Between democracy and communism, I favor communism. Within the communist party, there is democratic election of the leaders, and is carried out by the party cadres. The cadres are more capable of electing into capable people into leadership, compared to voting by the general population (who are likely to be not well informed and swayed by falsehood). 

There are risks of the communist system, such as corruption of power, but this risk is also present under the democratic system. 

The socialist and communist systems have failed in the past. However, the democratic and free market systems are failing now, as evidenced by the polarization of the society and the wide disparity of income and wealth.

Each system has its strengths and weaknesses. We should not be blind to the actual performance of the respective systems at the current time. 

Tan Kin Lian