It should be noted that there has never been a complete communist regime. I will assume the topic is about the type of socialism that identified with the concept of communism

Hi, the reason why communism didn’t work is a very complicated issue and has been debated quite thoroughly. In a lot of these debates, it is often mentioned that Marxism (the main idea and theory behind communism) is theoretically perfect, but never works in practice.

If we take Marxist-Leninism or Marxist-Stalinism (the communism that the Soviet Union adhered to), we can see many problems in the way it run. These regimes were inherently authoritarian, and spent a large amount of resources maintaining their regimes. Many of these regimes were often elitist, and needed propaganda and personality cults to keep popularity. This began to crack as information spread from democracies, leading to revolution, as people wish to govern themselves.

I think, the inherent reason why communism doesn’t work, is how these states constantly have either rampant corruption, or authoritarianism. This can be particularly evident in the North Korean regime, where the elite get a comfortable life, and those outside live in poverty.

In short, there will be either one or multiple people willing to take away the idea of equality for everyone, for their personal gain.