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
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
controls the ruling system. In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or enjoy limited and
controlled participation in
election
An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...
s. The term "''de facto'' one-party state" is sometimes used to describe a
dominant-party system
A dominant-party system, or one-party dominant system, is a political occurrence in which a single political party continuously dominates election results over running opposition groups or parties. Any ruling party staying in power for more tha ...
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.
Membership in the ruling party tends to be relatively small compared to the population. 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 multi-party democracies at a lower rate than dominant-party dictatorships.
While one-party states prohibit opposition parties, some allow for independent candidates to stand for election in competition with party candidates. Therefore, they place elites and sympathetic candidates in key administrative races.
For example, the Chinese Communist Party exercises political control by infiltrating village administrations. They view these positions as crucial for gathering information on the population and maintaining a presence in the far reaches of their borders.
One-party states recognize the trade-off between election victory and gathering valuable data. To account for this, the regimes have been observed placing local nobility in easy-to-win races. One-party states have also been observed using elections to ensure that only the most popular elites get chosen to office.
They also gather data from elections to indicate if a local official is performing poorly in the eyes of the residents.
This gives locals the opportunity to monitor local officials and communicate satisfaction with the local government.
Throughout the country, members of the one party hold key political positions.
In doing so, the party avoids committing outright fraud and rather sustains their power at the local level with strategic appointment of elites.
Data on one-party regimes can be difficult to gather given their lack of transparency.
Current one-party states
As of , the following countries are legally constituted as one-party states:
''De facto'' one-party states
A ''de facto'' one-party system is one that, while not officially linking a single political party to governmental power, utilizes some means of political manipulation to ensure only one party stays in power. Many different countries have been claimed to be ''de facto'' one-party states, with differing levels of agreement between scholars, although most agree that the African continent is marked by this political system.
Below are just a few examples of governments that have been claimed to have single party rule due to political manipulation.
Former one-party states
See also
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Dominant-party system
A dominant-party system, or one-party dominant system, is a political occurrence in which a single political party continuously dominates election results over running opposition groups or parties. Any ruling party staying in power for more tha ...
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Ban on factions in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
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Multi-party system
In political science, a multi-party system is a political system where more than two meaningfully-distinct political parties regularly run for office and win elections. Multi-party systems tend to be more common in countries using proportional ...
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Outline of democracy
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Political faction
A political faction is a group of people with a common political purpose, especially a subgroup of a political party that has interests or opinions different from the rest of the political party. Intragroup conflict between factions can lead to ...
alism
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Political organisation
A political organization is any organization that involves itself in the political process, including political parties, non-governmental organizations, and special interest advocacy groups. Political organizations are those engaged in politic ...
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Two-party system
A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referr ...
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Uniparty
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Unitary parliamentary republic
A unitary parliamentary republic is a type of unitary state with a republican form of government in which political authority is entrusted to the parliament by multiple constituencies throughout a country. In this system, voters elect members ...
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Landslide victory
A landslide victory is an election result in which the winning Candidate#Candidates in elections, candidate or political party, party achieves a decisive victory by an overwhelming margin, securing a very large majority of votes or seats far beyo ...
Notes
References
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Authoritarianism
Totalitarianism
Political systems
Political party systems
Unitary state