| Part ofa series on | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Marxism | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Outline | ||||||||||||||||||||
Foundations | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Related topics
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Democratic centralism is aLeninist organisational principle of mostcommunist parties, in which decisions are made by a process of vigorous and opendebate amongstparty membership, and action is subsequently binding upon all members of the party.[1]
Democratic centralism has historically been associated with not only Marxist–Leninist but alsoTrotskyist parties, andMarxist-Leninist-Maoist ones[2][3] and has also occasionally been practised bysocial democratic anddemocratic socialist parties, such as South Africa'sAfrican National Congress.
Scholars dispute whether and to what extent democratic centralism was implemented in practice in places where they were nominally in force, such as theSoviet Union and thePeople's Republic of China, pointing to violent power struggles, backhanded political maneuvering, historical antagonisms and the politics of personal prestige.[4] Various socialist states have made democratic centralism the organisational principle of the state in their statutes, with the political power principle beingunitary power.
 | This sectionrelies excessively onreferences toprimary sources. Please improve this section by addingsecondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "Democratic centralism" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(March 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Democratic centralism is a form of organisation that party members are supposed to abide by, both after having seized the government, but also while trying to seize it. Most communist parties have a democratic centralist structure.
In party meetings, a motion (new policy or amendment, goal, plan or any other kind of political question) is moved (proposed). After a period of debate, a vote is taken. If one vote clearly wins (gaining a share of 60% or above among two options, for example) all party members are expected to follow that decision, and not continue debating it. The goal is to avoid decisions being undermined by participants whose views are in the minority. In the development ofsocialism in the Soviet Union and China, it was implemented in response to rapid political developments, which required faster mechanisms of decision-making.
Before an issue has been voted on and carried out, discussion and criticism is permitted in all forms. Once a resolution is being carried out, discussion and criticism which may disrupt unity in performing the action is forbidden, to ensure that the action is not derailed.[5] In several socialist states, related practices were also adopted to ensure freedom of discussion, such asMao's "Don't Blame the Speaker".[6]
Some Trotskyist and orthodox Marxist perspectives describe "deficient" forms of democratic centralism as "bureaucratic centralism," often those espoused by Marxist–Leninists. According to these Trotskyists, bureaucratic centralism de-prioritises democracy, and thus fails to serve the interests of the proletariat.
Vladimir Lenin's textWhat Is to Be Done? from 1902 is popularly seen as the founding text of democratic centralism. At this time, democratic centralism was generally viewed as a set of principles for the organizing of a revolutionary workers' party. However, Vladimir Lenin's model for such a party, which he repeatedly discussed as being "democratic centralist", was the still extant GermanSocial Democratic Party, inspired by remarks made by the social democratJean Baptista von Schweitzer. Lenin described democratic centralism as consisting of "freedom of discussion, unity of action".[1]
The interpretation of the principal of democratic centralism, in relation to who should be counted as a party member, served as one of the sources of the split between theBolsheviks and theMensheviks. The Mensheviks supported membership for people not involved in the party, a looserparty discipline within theRussian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903 as didLeon Trotsky, inOur Political Tasks,[7] although Trotsky later changed his views and joined ranks with the Bolsheviks in 1917.
The Sixth Party Congress of theRussian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) held atPetrograd between 26 July and 3 August 1917 defined democratic centralism as follows:
After the successful consolidation of power by theCommunist Party following theOctober Revolution and theRussian Civil War, the Bolshevik leadership, including Lenin, instituted aban on factions in the party as Resolution No. 12 of the10th Party Congress in 1921. It was passed in the morning session on 16 March 1921.[9] Trotskyists sometimes claim that this ban was intended to be temporary, but there is no language in the discussion at the 10th Party Congress suggesting such.[10]
TheGroup of Democratic Centralism was a group in the Soviet Communist Party which developed in the early 1920, which criticised the leadership of the Communist Party for excessive centralisation of political power in the party, removal of local party initiative, and rigid control from above within the industry, Party and local administration. They felt that the democratic element of democratic centralism had been weakened.
InOn Party Unity, Lenin argued that democratic centralism prevents factionalism. He argued that factionalism leads to less friendly relations among members and that it can be exploited by enemies of the party. Lenin wrote of democratic centralism that it "implies universal and full freedom to criticise, so long as this does not disturb the unity of a definite action; it rules out all criticism which disrupts or makes difficult the unity of an action decided on by the Party."[11]
By theBrezhnev period, democratic centralism was described in the1977 Soviet Constitution as a principle for organizing the state: "The Soviet state is organized and functions on the principle of democratic centralism, namely the electiveness of all bodies of state authority from the lowest to the highest, their accountability to the people, and the obligation of lower bodies to observe the decisions of higher ones."
For much of the time betweenthe era ofJoseph Stalin and the 1980s, the principle of democratic centralism meant that theSupreme Soviet, while nominally vested with great lawmaking powers, did little more than approve decisions already made at the highest levels of the Communist Party. When the Supreme Soviet was not in session, thePresidium of the Supreme Soviet performed its ordinary functions. It also had the power to issue decrees in lieu of law. Nominally, if such decrees were not ratified at the Supreme Soviet's next session, they were considered revoked. However, ratification was usually a mere formality, and occasionally even this formality was not observed.[12] Thus, decisions made by the Party's top leadersde facto had the force of law.
The democratic centralist principle extended toelections in the Soviet Union. All socialist countries were—eitherde jure orde facto—one-party states. In most cases, the voters were presented with a single list of unopposed candidates, which usually won 90 percent or more of the vote.[13]
TheThird International, in contrast with theFirst and theSecond Internationals, held the Soviet Union in a central position and functioned as one big body instead of many independent communist parties in different countries.[14]
The Leninist practice of democratic centralism was introduced during theRepublic of China era to theKuomintang in 1923. It was allied with theChinese Communist Party during theWarlord Era and received support from the Soviet Union. The organizational structures of the Kuomintang would remain in place until thedemocratization on Taiwan in the 1990s and would serve as a structural basis of several Taiwanese political parties such as theDemocratic Progressive Party.[15][16][17]
Since 1945, theChinese Communist Party's constitution has defined the party's view of democratic centralism.[18]: 23 Democratic centralism is also stated in Article 3 of the currentconstitution of thePeople's Republic of China:
Article 3. The state organs of the People's Republic of China apply the principle of democratic centralism. The National People's Congress and the local people's congresses at different levels are instituted through democratic election. They are responsible to the people and subject to their supervision. All administrative, judicial, and procuratorial organs of the state are created by the people's congresses to which they are responsible and under whose supervision they operate. The division of functions and powers between the central and local state organs is guided by the principle of giving full play to the initiative and enthusiasm of the local authorities under the unified leadership of the central authorities.[19]
The 1981Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party since the Founding of the People's Republic of China notes the importance of democratic centralism, stating that "the minority is subordinate to the majority, the individual to the organization, the lower to the higher level and the entire membership to the Central Committee" and that "the style of work of a political party in power is a matter that determines its very existence."[20]: 86
TheCommunist Party of Vietnam is organized according to the Leninist principle of democratic centralism. According to the regulations of the Party, democratic centralism is performed following these rules:[21]
Article 5 of theConstitution of Laos maintains that the state and its organizations "function in accordance with the principle of democratic centralism".[22] TheLao People's Revolutionary Party's centralised and hierarchical organisational structure is based on Lenin's democratic centralism,[23][24] which entails that lower party organs obey the decisions of the higher ones, such as theLPRP Central Committee.[24] It also entails a ban on internal party factions.[24] In the end, every decision-making organ has to be guided by the principle ofcollective leadership, a process that emphasises collegial decision-making, in contrast to one-person dominance.[24] LPRP General SecretaryKaysone Phomvihane, in a speech to the5th National Congress in 1991, stated "that our Party's democracy is a centralised one. Therefore, we must strictly implement the principle according to which the minority must yield to the majority; the lower leading organisation execute the upper leading organisation's orders. The whole Party follows the Central Committee."[25]
.svg)
_cap_insignia.svg)
.png)
