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Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist
Leninism

Leninism refers to various related Political science and economics theories elaborated by the Bolshevik Communism leader Vladimir Lenin. Leninism builds upon and elaborates the ideas of Marxism, and serves as a philosophical basis for the ideology of Soviet communism....
 political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party. The democratic aspect of this organizational method describes the freedom of members of the political party to discuss and debate matters of policy and direction, but once the decision of the party is made by majority vote, all members are expected to uphold that decision.






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Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist
Leninism

Leninism refers to various related Political science and economics theories elaborated by the Bolshevik Communism leader Vladimir Lenin. Leninism builds upon and elaborates the ideas of Marxism, and serves as a philosophical basis for the ideology of Soviet communism....
 political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party. The democratic aspect of this organizational method describes the freedom of members of the political party to discuss and debate matters of policy and direction, but once the decision of the party is made by majority vote, all members are expected to uphold that decision. This latter aspect represents the centralism. As Lenin described it, democratic centralism consisted of "freedom of discussion, unity of action."

Leninist organizations' constitutions have typically defined the following key principles of democratic centralism:
  1. Election of all party organs from bottom to top and systematic renewal of their composition, if needed.
  2. Responsibility of party structures to both lower and upper structures.
  3. Strict and conscious discipline in the party—the minority must obey the majority until such time as the policy is changed.
  4. Decisions of upper structures are mandatory for the lower structures.
  5. Cooperation of all party organs in a collective manner at all times, and correspondingly, personal responsibility of party members for the assignments given to them and for the assignments they themselves create.


The text What Is to Be Done?
What is to be Done?

What Is to Be Done? was a political pamphlet, written by Vladimir Lenin at the end of 1901 and early 1902. The title is inspired by the What Is to Be Done? of Nikolai Chernyshevsky with the same name....
 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 organising of a revolutionary workers' party. Lenin's model for such a party, which he repeatedly discussed as being "democratic centralist", was the German
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany is Germany's oldest political party. After World War II, under the leadership of Kurt Schumacher, the SPD reestablished itself as an ideological party, representing the interests of the working class and the trade unions....
.

The doctrine of democratic centralism served as one of the sources of the split between the Bolshevik
Bolshevik

Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxism Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP in 1903 and ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union....
s and the Menshevik
Menshevik

The Mensheviks were a faction of the Russian revolutionary movement that emerged in 1903 after a dispute between Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov, both members of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party....
s. The Mensheviks supported a looser party discipline
Party discipline

Party discipline is the ability of the parliamentary group of a political party to get its members to support the policies of the party leadership....
 within the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in 1903, as did Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronstein , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxism theorist. He was one of the leaders of the Russian October Revolution, second only to Lenin....
, in Our Political Tasks, although Trotsky joined ranks with the Bolsheviks in 1917.

Democratic centralism was also described in the 1977 Soviet Constitution
1977 Soviet Constitution

At the Seventh Session of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Ninth Convocation on October 7, 1977, the fourth and last Soviet Constitution, also known as the "Brezhnev Constitution", was unanimously adopted....
 as a principle for organizing the state: "The Soviet state is organised 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. Democratic centralism combines central leadership with local initiative and creative activity and with the responsibility of the each state body and official for the work entrusted to them."

After the successful consolidation of power by the Communist Party following the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917

The Russian Revolution is the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union....
 and the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Bolshevik party assumed power in Saint Petersburg....
, the Bolshevik leadership, including Lenin, instituted an ostensibly "temporary" ban on factions within the party in 1921. According to critics, this made the democratic procedures an empty formality and in reality, superiors prohibited criticisms and appointed those who nominally elected them to their positions and told them what decisions to make (see Nomenklatura
Nomenklatura

The nomenklatura were a small, elite subset of the general population in the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of those countries' activity: government, industry, agriculture, education, etc....
).

See also

  • 21 Conditions given in 1920 by the Third International to all socialist parties
  • Spontaneism, opposed to centralist hierarchy
  • Cabinet collective responsibility
    Cabinet collective responsibility

    Cabinet collective responsibility is constitutional convention in governments using the Westminster System that members of the Cabinet must publicly support all governmental decisions made in Cabinet, even if they do not privately agree with them....
    , a similar concept in parliamentary government
    Parliament

    A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom....


External links

  • MIM Notes 51, April 1991