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A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. [1] All other parties are either outlawed or only enjoy limited and controlled participation in elections. Sometimes the term "de facto one-party state" is used to describe a dominant-party system that, unlike the one-party state, allows (at least nominally) democratic multiparty elections, but the existing practices or balance of political power effectively prevent the opposition from winning power.
Although it is predated by the 1714 to 1783 "age of the Whig oligarchy" in Great Britain, [2] the rule of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) over the Ottoman Empire following the 1913 coup d'état is often considered the first one-party state. [3]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(February 2023) |
One-party states justify themselves through various methods. Most often, proponents of a one-party state argue that the existence of separate parties runs counter to national unity. Others argue that the one party is the vanguard of the people, being its most politically aware members, and therefore the party's right to rule cannot be legitimately questioned. The Soviet government argued that the existence of multiple political parties would perpetuate class struggle, so only a single party could lead a classless proletariat; it therefore made the Communist Party of the Soviet Union the only authorised political party.
Conversely, Russian historian Vadim Rogovin attributed the establishment of the one-party system to the conditions which were "imposed on Bolshevism by hostile political forces". Rogovin highlighted the fact that the Bolsheviks made strenuous efforts to preserve the Soviet parties such as the Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, and other left parties within the bounds of Soviet legality and their participation in the Soviets on the condition of abandoning armed struggle against the Bolsheviks. [4]
Some one-party states only outlaw opposition parties, while allowing allied parties to exist as part of a permanent coalition (such as a popular front). However, these allied parties are largely or completely subservient to the ruling party and must accept the ruling party's monopoly of power as a condition of their existence. Examples of this are the National Front in former East Germany and the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea in North Korea. Other states outlaw all other parties yet allow non-party members to run for legislative seats as independents, as was the case with Taiwan's Tangwai movement in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the elections in the former Soviet Union. Still others have only a single legal party, membership of which is a prerequisite for holding public office, such as in Turkmenistan under the rule of Saparmurat Niyazov or Zaire under Mobutu Sese Seko.
Within their own countries, dominant parties ruling over one-party states are often referred to simply as the Party. For example, in reference to the Soviet Union, the Party meant the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; in reference to the pre-1991 Republic of Zambia, it referred to the United National Independence Party.
Most one-party states have been ruled by one of the following:
With such a small winning coalition, leaders in one-party states usually lack the incentive to care about the well-being of citizens. [5] Rather, they give out private goods to fellow elites to ensure continued support. One-party, compared to dominant-party dictatorships, structure themselves unlike democracies. They also turn into democracies at a lower rate than dominant-party dictatorships. [6] While one-party states prohibit opposition parties, some allow for elections at the smallest local level. One-party states lack any legitimate competition. Therefore, they place elites and sympathetic candidates in key administrative races. [7] For example, the Chinese Communist Party exercises political control by infiltrating village administrations. [8] They view these positions as crucial for gathering information on the population and maintaining a presence in the far reaches of their borders. [9] One-party states recognize the trade-off between election victory and gathering valuable data. [10] To account for this, the regimes have been observed placing local nobility in easy-to-win races. [11] One-party states have also been observed using elections to ensure that only the most popular elites get chosen to office. [12] They also gather data from elections to indicate if a local official is performing poorly in the eyes of the residents. [12] This gives locals the opportunity to monitor local officials and communicate satisfaction with the local government. [12] Throughout the country, members of the one party hold key political positions. [6] In doing so, the party avoids committing outright fraud and rather sustains their power at the local level with strategic appointment of elites. [9] It is also worth noting that it is difficult to gather clear data on these regimes, given their private nature. [7]
One-party states are usually considered to be authoritarian, [13] to the extent that they are occasionally totalitarian. On the other hand, not all authoritarian or totalitarian states operate upon one-party rule. Some, especially amongst absolute monarchies and military dictatorships, have no need for a ruling party, and therefore make all political parties illegal.
As of 2024 the following countries are legally constituted as one-party states:
A de facto one-party system is one that, while not officially linking a single political party to governmental power, utilizes some means of political manipulation to ensure only one party stays in power. [20] Many different countries have been claimed to be de facto one-party states, with differing levels of agreement between scholars, although most agree that the African continent is marked by this political system. [21] [22] Below are just a few examples of governments that have been claimed to have single party rule due to political manipulation.
Country | Party | Date of establishment | Information |
---|---|---|---|
Angola | People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola | 11 November 1975 | The MPLA has ruled Angola since its declaration of independence from Portugal, starting as a de jure one-party state, then initiating a multiparty system in 1991. |
Cambodia | Cambodian People's Party | 7 January 1979 | The CPP has ruled since victory in Cambodian–Vietnamese War |
Republic of the Congo | Congolese Party of Labour | 31 December 1968 | The People's Republic of the Congo was a one-party state, until the establishment of a multiparty system in 1990 and the subsequent loss of the PCT, leading to a civil war in 1997, from which point the PCT has been the sole ruling party since. |
Equatorial Guinea | Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea | 11 October 1987 | Despite not having any constitutional relation between the government and the PDGE, there is a link between the 1982 constitution and Theodoro Obiang, leader of the PDGE, leading Equatorial Guinea since 1979, and having won every election by at least 92% approval, with all "opposition" parties adamantly supporting Obiang, and never holding more than 32% of seats in any house. |
Singapore | People's Action Party | 30 May 1959 While it does not have much electoral controversy, the PAP is essentially linked to governance in Singapore. | |
Japan | Liberal Democratic Party | 15 November 1955 | After the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco, the estranged right wing parties began gaining power, and with incentives from the CIA, [23] they formed the LDP, counteracting the formation of the JSP, establishing the 1955 System (also known as the One and a Half Party System), in which the LDP has ruled in all but 4 years. |
Mozambique | Liberation Front of Mozambique | 25 June 1975 | The FRELIMO has ruled Mozambique since its declaration of independence from Portugal, starting as a de jure one-party state, then initiating a multiparty system in 1994. |
Paraguay | Colorado Party (Paraguay) | 11 September 1887 | Since 1947, the Colorado party has been dominant in Paraguayan politics, ruling as the only legal party between 1947 and 1962, and has controlled the presidency since 1948 notwithstanding a brief interruption between 2008 and 2013. With almost 2 million members, it is the largest political party in the country. Despite the party's grip on power, the government still sustains the defining characteristics of a procedural democracy [24] |
Rwanda | Rwandan Patriotic Front | In power since 1994 | Although Rwanda is nominally democratic, elections are manipulated in various ways, which include banning opposition parties, arresting or assassinating critics, and electoral fraud. [25] [26] |
A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no limitations. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, and they are facilitated through an inner circle of elites that includes advisers, generals, and other high-ranking officials. The dictator maintains control by influencing and appeasing the inner circle and repressing any opposition, which may include rival political parties, armed resistance, or disloyal members of the dictator's inner circle. Dictatorships can be formed by a military coup that overthrows the previous government through force or they can be formed by a self-coup in which elected leaders make their rule permanent. Dictatorships are authoritarian or totalitarian, and they can be classified as military dictatorships, one-party dictatorships, personalist dictatorships, or absolute monarchies.
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishment of communism. Lenin's ideological contributions to the Marxist ideology relate to his theories on the party, imperialism, the state, and revolution. The function of the Leninist vanguard party is to provide the working classes with the political consciousness and revolutionary leadership necessary to depose capitalism.
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or policy goals.
Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition political parties, disregards and outlaws the legitimate political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and so controls the public sphere and the private sphere of society. In the field of political science, totalitarianism is the extreme form of authoritarianism, wherein all socio-political power is held by the dictator, who also controls the national politics and the peoples of the nation with continual propaganda campaigns that are broadcast by state-controlled and by friendly private mass communications media.
Autocracy is a system of government in which absolute power is held by the ruler, known as an autocrat. It includes most forms of monarchy and dictatorship, while it is contrasted with democracy and feudalism. Various definitions of autocracy exist. They may restrict autocracy to a single individual, or they may also apply autocracy to a group of rulers who wield absolute power. The autocrat has total control over the exercise of civil liberties within the autocracy, choosing under what circumstances they may be exercised, if at all. Governments may also blend elements of autocracy and democracy, forming an anocracy. The concept of autocracy has been recognized in political philosophy since ancient times.
The politics of Belarus takes place in a framework of a presidential republic with a bicameral parliament. The President of Belarus is the head of state. Executive power is nominally exercised by the government, at its top sits a ceremonial prime minister, appointed directly by the President. Legislative power is de jure vested in the bicameral parliament, the National Assembly, however the president may enact decrees that are executed the same way as laws, for undisputed time.
In political science, a political system means the type of political organization that can be recognized, observed or otherwise declared by a state.
Democratization, or democratisation, is the structural government transition from an authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction.
A dominant-party system, or one-party dominant system, is a political occurrence in which a single political party continuously dominates election results over running opposition groups or parties. Any ruling party staying in power for more than one consecutive term may be considered a dominant party. Some dominant parties were called the natural governing party, given their length of time in power.
The term "illiberal democracy" describes a governing system that hides its "nondemocratic practices behind formally democratic institutions and procedures". There is a lack of consensus among experts about the exact definition of illiberal democracy or whether it even exists.
Elections in Cuba are held at municipal, provincial, and national levels. Cuba is a one-party state, with the Communist Party of Cuba being described as the "superior driving force of the society and the state" in the Constitution of Cuba, and the communist party is the only official political party. Elections in Cuba are not considered democratic because the government does not allow free and fair voting.
In Marxist theory, a new democratic society will arise through the organised actions of an international working class, enfranchising the entire population and freeing up humans to act without being bound by the labour market. There would be little, if any, need for a state, the goal of which was to enforce the alienation of labor. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels stated in The Communist Manifesto and later works that "the first step in the revolution by the working class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to win the battle for democracy" and universal suffrage, being "one of the first and most important tasks of the militant proletariat". As Marx wrote in his Critique of the Gotha Program, "between capitalist and communist society there lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat". He allowed for the possibility of peaceful transition in some countries with strong democratic institutional structures, but suggested that in other countries in which workers can not "attain their goal by peaceful means" the "lever of our revolution must be force", stating that the working people had the right to revolt if they were denied political expression. In response to the question "What will be the course of this revolution?" in Principles of Communism, Friedrich Engels wrote:
Above all, it will establish a democratic constitution, and through this, the direct or indirect dominance of the proletariat.
Socialist democracy is a political system that aligns with principles of both socialism and democracy. It includes ideologies such as council communism, democratic socialism, social democracy, and soviet democracy, as well as Marxist democracy like the dictatorship of the proletariat. It was embodied in the Soviet system (1922–1991). It can also denote a system of political party organization like democratic centralism, or a form of democracy espoused by Marxist–Leninist political parties or groups that support one-party states. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945–1992) styled itself a socialist democracy, as did the People's Republic of Bulgaria (1946–1990) and the Socialist Republic of Romania (1947–1989).
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of democracy and political plurality. It involves the use of strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voting. Political scientists have created many typologies describing variations of authoritarian forms of government. Authoritarian regimes may be either autocratic or oligarchic and may be based upon the rule of a party or the military. States that have a blurred boundary between democracy and authoritarianism have some times been characterized as "hybrid democracies", "hybrid regimes" or "competitive authoritarian" states.
A hybrid regime is a type of political system often created as a result of an incomplete democratic transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one. Hybrid regimes are categorized as having a combination of autocratic features with democratic ones and can simultaneously hold political repressions and regular elections. Hybrid regimes are commonly found in developing countries with abundant natural resources such as petro-states. Although these regimes experience civil unrest, they may be relatively stable and tenacious for decades at a time. There has been a rise in hybrid regimes since the end of the Cold War.
In Marxist philosophy, the dictatorship of the proletariat is a condition in which the proletariat holds state power. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the intermediate stage between a capitalist economy and a communist economy, whereby the post-revolutionary state seizes the means of production, compels the implementation of direct elections on behalf of and within the confines of the ruling proletarian state party, and institutes elected delegates into representative workers' councils that nationalise ownership of the means of production from private to collective ownership. During this phase, the administrative organizational structure of the party is to be largely determined by the need for it to govern firmly and wield state power to prevent counterrevolution and to facilitate the transition to a lasting communist society.
Soviet democracy, or council democracy, is a type of democracy in Marxism, in which the rule of the population is exercised by directly elected soviets, or workers' councils. The councils are directly responsible to their electors and bound by their instructions using a delegate model of representation. Such an imperative mandate is in contrast to a trustee model, in which the elected delegates are only responsible to their conscience. Delegates may accordingly be dismissed from their post at any time or be voted out (recall).
Democratic backsliding is a process of regime change towards autocracy that makes the exercise of political power by the public more arbitrary and repressive. This process typically restricts the space for public contestation and political participation in the process of government selection. Democratic decline involves the weakening of democratic institutions, such as the peaceful transition of power or free and fair elections, or the violation of individual rights that underpin democracies, especially freedom of expression. Democratic backsliding is the opposite of democratization.
Conservatism in Russia is a broad system of political beliefs in Russia that is characterized by support for Orthodox values, Russian imperialism, statism, economic interventionism, advocacy for the historical Russian sphere of influence, and a rejection of late modernist era Western culture.
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