Concept
Democratic centralism
Overview
Democratic centralism is a Leninist principle adopted by communist states and their ruling communist parties. It has also been adopted as the organizational principle of non-ruling communist parties, "transmission belt" organizations, and other units operating within communist state systems, as well as by some non-communist organizations. Democratic centralism combines structured participation and consultation within a unified system of organs, so that decisions, once debated and adopted, are then meant to be implemented uniformly throughout the organization.
As a system, democratic centralism is associated with a unified, pyramid-like structure of organs, with a supreme organ at the apex and lower-level organs beneath it. Democratic centralism practices both vertical and horizontal accountability, and calls this dual subordination. Vertically, organs are accountable to their electors and are expected to report to and be supervised by higher-level organs. Decisions adopted at higher levels are binding on subordinate organs and members. Horizontal accountability entails that organs are accountable to the leading organ at their corresponding level. Democratic centralist systems typically rely on collective leadership, institutionalized cadre systems, and regulated consultation to formulate policy, while regulatory enforcement mechanisms, such as party-control organs, are tasked with safeguarding rules, party discipline, organizational unity, compliance with adopted decisions, and combatting corruption.
Democratic centralism is applied across multiple domains of governance, including party organization, state administration, mass organizations, and economic management. In communist states, the enactment of the leading role of the party principle confers on the communist party leadership in coordinating the unified state apparatus through cadre appointments, political guidance, and discipline, while formally locating unified state power in the system of state organs of power headed by the supreme state organ of power. It is also employed in economic planning, where central decisions, such as five-year plans and priority objectives, are formulated by higher organs and implemented downward through administrative and enterprise hierarchies, with lower levels contributing information and proposals within controlled channels. The balance between participation and command, democracy and centralism, has varied across parties, states, and historical periods, and has been a persistent subject of both official interpretation and scholarly critique.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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In what is termed politics, democratic social organization makes provision for this direct participation in control: in the economic region, control remains external and autocratic. Hence the split between inner mental action and outer physical action of which the traditional distinction between the liberal and the utilitarian is the reflex. An education which should unify the disposition of the members of society…
John Dewey, Democracy and Education
States what Democratic centralism is.
It is not for nothing that the word "democracy" has a double meaning in the political vocabulary. On the one hand, it means a state system founded on universal suffrage and the other attributes of formal "popular government." On the other hand, by the word "democracy" is understood the mass of the people itself, in so far as it leads a political existence. In the second sense, as in the first, the meaning of…
Leon Trotsky, Dictatorship vs. Democracy
States what Democratic centralism is.
A body politic of this kind is called a Democracy, which may be defined as a society which wields all its power as a whole. The sovereign power is not restrained by any laws, but every one is bound to obey it in all things; such is the state of things implied when men either tacitly or expressly handed over to it all their power of self-defense, or in other words, all their right. For if they had wished to retain…
Benedictus de Spinoza, The Philosophy of Spinoza
States what Democratic centralism is.
Philosophers who discussed Democratic centralism
Related ideas
- Manchester University Press
- Vladimir Lenin
- East Germany
- Individualism
- Joseph Stalin
- McFarland & Company
- Bolshevism
- Rosa Luxemburg
- Springer Publishing
- Middle Ages
- Mao Zedong
- Xi Jinping
- Vietnam
- St. Martin's Press
- October Revolution
- Patriarchy
- Separation of powers
- Brill Publishers
- Cornell University Press
- National People's Congress
- Vanguardism
- Progress Publishers
- Communist Party USA
- Oxford University Press
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Communism.