Democratic centralism

It is mainly associated with Leninism, wherein the party's political vanguard of revolutionaries practice democratic centralism to select leaders and officers, determine policy, and execute it.

In party meetings, a motion (new policy or amendment, goal, plan or any other kind of political question) is moved (proposed).

If one vote clearly wins (gaining a share of 60% or above among two options, for example) all party members are expected to follow that decision, and not continue debating it.

[5] In several socialist states, related practices were also adopted to ensure freedom of discussion, such as Mao's "Don't Blame the Speaker".

According to these views, bureaucratic centralism de-prioritises democracy, and thus fails to serve the interests of the proletariat.

At this time, democratic centralism was generally viewed as a set of principles for the organizing of a revolutionary workers' party.

For much of the time between the era of Joseph Stalin and the 1980s, the principle of democratic centralism meant that the Supreme Soviet, while nominally vested with great lawmaking powers, did little more than approve decisions already made at the highest levels of the Communist Party.

In most cases, the voters were presented with a single list of unopposed candidates, which usually won 90 percent or more of the vote.

It was allied with the Chinese Communist Party during the Warlord Era and received support from the Soviet Union.

All administrative, judicial, and procuratorial organs of the state are created by the people's congresses to which they are responsible and under whose supervision they operate.

The party's centralised and hierarchical organisational structure is based on democratic centralism, which was conceived by Vladimir Lenin.

[21][22] This structure entails that lower party organs obey the decisions of the higher ones, such as the LPRP Central Committee.

[22] LPRP General Secretary Kaysone Phomvihane, in a speech to the 5th National Congress in 1991, stated "that our Party's democracy is a centralised one.