one-party state

one-party state, a country where a single political party controls the government, either by law or in practice. Examples of one-party states include North Korea, China, Eritrea, and Cuba.

For much of the 20th century, many of the one-party states were communist-run, including the Soviet Union and its eastern European satellite countries. In communist countries, the party is the ideological engine; Marxist doctrine calls for the dictatorship of the proletariat to be in charge as society transitions from capitalism to pure socialism. So real power in communist societies rests with party leaders, typically the first secretary, rather than with the head of state. Ruling communist parties exert a stranglehold over their citizens through propaganda, censorship, reeducation camps, and other forms of indoctrination. Officials who do not follow the party line face expulsion from the party and worse. In the 1930s and through World War II (1939–45), there were also one-party states run by fascists, such as Nazi Germany, Italy, and Spain, although the party didn’t play the same dominant ideological role in those countries that the party does in communist-run countries.

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political party: Single-party systems

Since the end of World War II, one-party states have been found more often among less-developed countries. Sometimes rulers have rationalized their monopoly on political power as a means to unify the country and minimize ethnic divisions. These rulers have faced pressure to offer more political freedoms, but, even when they have staged elections, the ruling party has often maintained power. There have also been instances when opposing parties have had success in elections, only to be rebuffed by rulers who refuse to cede power.

A notable example of the latter circumstance took place in Zimbabwe, where Pres. Robert Mugabe (of the ZANU-PF party) led what was essentially a one-party state for many years, first serving as prime minister (1980–87) and then as president (1987–2017). In 2008 he faced Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the March presidential election. Tsvangirai received the most votes, but authorities claimed he did not win a majority of the vote and a runoff election was scheduled in June. In a rally held before the runoff, Mugabe telegraphed his views about giving up power when he declared, “Only God, who appointed me, will remove me, not the MDC, not the British. Only God will remove me!” The political climate was tense, and many of Tsvangirai’s supporters were harassed, violently attacked, or murdered. Citing the impossibility of the poll being free and fair, Tsvangirai withdrew from the runoff. This paved the way for Mugabe to win in an uncontested election and gain another term in office. He eventually included Tsvangirai in his government, as prime minister, per the terms of an internationally brokered power-sharing agreement. The arrangement was ended after Mugabe won another disputed election in 2013.

Critics have assailed one-party states for their poor human rights records as well as their sclerotic systems that hold back economic progress. In some cases, that criticism has come from former party insiders. For example, Cai Xia, who had been a professor of political theory in China at the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Beijing, the CCP’s top academy, wrote in a 2021 essay in The Economist:

The reality is that Chinese society is fragile because of the country’s one-party dictatorship, and adopting democratic practices would strengthen it.…In the long run, the one-party system, by not allowing alternative views to be expressed openly, will be a disaster for China’s development and human society.