One-party state

Not to be confused with Dominant-party system.
This article is about one-party political states. For telephone call recording laws and notification and requirements, see Telephone call recording laws § One-party consent states. For the album, see One Party State (album). For other uses, see One party (disambiguation).

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A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system.[1] In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or enjoy limited and controlled participation in elections. The term "de facto one-party state" is sometimes used to describe a dominant-party system that, unlike a one-party state, allows (at least nominally) multiparty elections, but the existing practices or balance of political power effectively prevent the opposition from winning power.[2]

Membership in the ruling party tends to be relatively small compared to the population.[3] With such a small winning coalition, leaders in one-party states usually lack the incentive to care about the well-being of citizens.[4] Rather, they give out private goods to fellow elites to ensure continued support. One-party, compared to dominant-party dictatorships, structure themselves unlike democracies. They also turn into democracies at a lower rate than dominant-party dictatorships.[5] While one-party states prohibit opposition parties, some allow for elections at the smallest local level. One-party states lack any legitimate competition. Therefore, they place elites and sympathetic candidates in key administrative races.[6] For example, the Chinese Communist Party exercises political control by infiltrating village administrations.[7] They view these positions as crucial for gathering information on the population and maintaining a presence in the far reaches of their borders.[8]

One-party states recognize the trade-off between election victory and gathering valuable data.[9] To account for this, the regimes have been observed placing local nobility in easy-to-win races.[10] One-party states have also been observed using elections to ensure that only the most popular elites get chosen to office.[11] They also gather data from elections to indicate if a local official is performing poorly in the eyes of the residents.[11] This gives locals the opportunity to monitor local officials and communicate satisfaction with the local government.[11] Throughout the country, members of the one party hold key political positions.[5] In doing so, the party avoids committing outright fraud and rather sustains their power at the local level with strategic appointment of elites.[8] Data on one-party regimes can be difficult to gather given their lack of transparency.[6]

  1. ^ Clark, William Roberts; Golder, Matt; Golder, Sona Nadenichek (23 March 2012). Principles of Comparative Politics. SAGE. p. 611. ISBN 9781608716791.
  2. ^ "One-Party States | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  3. ^ Angiolillo, Fabio (27 April 2023). "Introducing the One-Party Membership Dataset: A dataset on party membership in autocracies". Journal of Peace Research: 002234332311552. doi:10.1177/00223433231155278. ISSN 0022-3433.
  4. ^ Hanson, Stephen E. (2009), "The Contribution of Area Studies", The SAGE Handbook of Comparative Politics, 1 Oliver's Yard, 55 City Road, London EC1Y 1SP United Kingdom: SAGE Publications Ltd, pp. 159–174, doi:10.4135/9780857021083.n10, ISBN 9781412919760, S2CID 184118662, retrieved 4 March 2023{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  5. ^ a b Magaloni, Beatriz; Kricheli, Ruth (1 May 2010). "Political Order and One-Party Rule". Annual Review of Political Science. 13 (1): 123–143. doi:10.1146/annurev.polisci.031908.220529. ISSN 1094-2939.
  6. ^ a b Creak, Simon; Barney, Keith (10 August 2018). "Conceptualising Party-State Governance and Rule in Laos". Journal of Contemporary Asia. 48 (5): 693–716. doi:10.1080/00472336.2018.1494849. ISSN 0047-2336. S2CID 158403649.
  7. ^ Hassan, Mai; Mattingly, Daniel; Nugent, Elizabeth R. (12 May 2022). "Political Control". Annual Review of Political Science. 25 (1): 155–174. doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-051120-013321. ISSN 1094-2939. S2CID 241393914.
  8. ^ a b MALESKY, EDMUND; SCHULER, PAUL (26 October 2011). "The Single-Party Dictator's Dilemma: Information in Elections without Opposition". Legislative Studies Quarterly. 36 (4): 491–530. doi:10.1111/j.1939-9162.2011.00025.x. ISSN 0362-9805.
  9. ^ Frantz, Erica. Authoritarianism : what everyone needs to know. ISBN 978-0-19-756964-1. OCLC 1202872902.
  10. ^ Frantz, Erica. Authoritarianism : what everyone needs to know. ISBN 978-0-19-756964-1. OCLC 1202872902.
  11. ^ a b c Gandhi, Jennifer; Lust-Okar, Ellen (1 June 2009). "Elections Under Authoritarianism". Annual Review of Political Science. 12 (1): 403–422. doi:10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.060106.095434. ISSN 1094-2939.