American Progressives Building One-Party State

The principle of “democratic centralism” was articulated by Vladimir Lenin soon after the Russian Revolution, as a way to reconcile the Communist Party’s aspirations to both deliberation and total control. Centralization of power quickly won out, making a dystopian farce of democratic procedures.

That system has survived in China to the present day. As the website of the Chinese mission to the United Nations in Geneva proclaims, “democratic centralism is the fundamental principle of organization and leadership of state power in China.” In practice, that means that the Chinese Communist Party controls everything, even in the modern era of mass media and frenetic economic activity. As a Congressional Research Service report explains, “the media, big business, research institutes, university academics, associations, and grassroots non-governmental organizations” all contribute to political discourse but always in support of the political monopoly of the Communist Party.

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Mario Loyola

Mario Loyola is a professor of environment at Florida International University and a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

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The principle of “democratic centralism” was articulated by Vladimir Lenin soon after the Russian Revolution, as a way to reconcile the Communist Party’s aspirations to both deliberation and total control. Centralization of power quickly won out, making a dystopian farce of democratic procedures.

That system has survived in China to the present day. As the website of the Chinese mission to the United Nations in Geneva proclaims, “democratic centralism is the fundamental principle of organization and leadership of state power in China.” In practice, that means that the Chinese Communist Party controls everything, even in the modern era of mass media and frenetic economic activity. As a Congressional Research Service report explains, “the media, big business, research institutes, university academics, associations, and grassroots non-governmental organizations” all contribute to political discourse but always in support of the political monopoly of the Communist Party.