Democratic centralism

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As Democratic centralism is organizational and management principles referred to that of Lenin for the Communist Parties was developed and thus the basis of the regimes of real socialism has been States. The main point of democratic centralism is the hierarchical-centralistic structure of state and party.

Due to the strong discipline of subordinate bodies, which were strictly bound to decisions by higher authorities, democratic centralism developed into an autocratic system.

Democratic centralism with Lenin

The principle of “democratic centralism” was developed by Lenin in his book “ What to do? “(1901/1902) in which he oriented himself towards the SPD in Germany . Lenin called in this book

  1. On the one hand, a centralization of the party apparatus, i.e. every lower instance of the party should be subordinate to the higher (the higher instance is authorized to give instructions to the lower),
  2. On the other hand, the accountability of all lines to their voters and the deductibility of lines by their voters,
  3. strict party discipline, i.e. subordination of the minority to the majority at all levels.

The Leninist party structure was further specified in the publication “ One Step Forward, Two Steps Back ” (1904). In it Lenin writes that the building of the party is in a certain way bureaucratic, since it is in fact built from top to bottom.

This type of centralism is called democratic because the higher bodies of a party are elected by lower bodies and are accountable to them and thus represent a broad decision of the entire party membership, while lower bodies only represent a part of the members. The ability to vote and unselect at any time is intended to prevent abuse of power.

This control was, however, affected by other principles: Although Lenin admitted the individual the freedom, criticism to practice, but were factions banned from 1921, which the ruling party leadership in discussions gave an advantage over any opposition and finally to select the candidates to be elected by led the party leadership.

The idea of ​​democratic centralism contributed significantly to the division into Bolsheviks (German: majority) , the advocates, and Mensheviks (German: minority) , the opponents of the Second Congress of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Russia (RSDLP) on July 30, 1903 in London lenin doctrine , at. Over time, this doctrine of uncompromising and radicalism gained enormous popularity among the Bolsheviks. Rosa Luxemburg in particular, and later also Leon Trotsky, criticized the abuse of the concept of democratic centralism.

In Germany in 1919, among other things, the discussion about democratic centralism led to the split in the KPD and the founding of the KAPD, as well as to the development of council communism .

With Lenin's participation, at the second congress of the Communist International in 1920, democratic centralism was adopted as an organizational principle and thus binding for all communist parties .

Democratic centralism under Stalin

Under Joseph Stalin there was a considerable tightening of Lenin's conceptions, both politically and practically. He changed democratic centralism by reformulating "six characteristics of the party" that had been at the center of communism's political doctrine for over three decades. According to this new teaching, the party is:

  1. the vanguard of the working class
  2. organized working class troop
  3. highest form of class organization of the proletariat
  4. Instrument of the dictatorship of the proletariat
  5. a unit of will incompatible with the existence of factions

and finally, as a 6th point, the fight against opportunism through timely "party purges" is determined.

Furthermore, the party members had to bend to the decisions of the governing bodies without contradiction and also implement them. Any deviation from these general lines of the party was declared a state crime and heavily condemned. This new concept was then declared to be binding for all other communist parties.

Democratic centralism in the GDR

In the GDR , democratic centralism was also understood to mean the form of organization of mass organizations and the state in deliberate agitational contrast to the Führer principle and bourgeois democracy . The following points were described as principles:

  • Lines can be selected from bottom to top
  • Selection of the eligible candidates by the management
  • Accountability and deductibility of all governing bodies
  • constant control of these governing bodies by the voters
  • Authority of superordinate to subordinate bodies
  • Participation of everyone in solving all basic tasks ( collective management )

In practice, the authority of the respective higher authority was the decisive element. The top-down decisions about content and people were binding. The eligibility of the lines was only on paper. The candidates given above were “elected” in open voting. The democratic, only the centralistic element was realized.

The basic organization (lowest level either companies, schools or demarcated territories), district , district and headquarters were understood as levels . Selected lines were supplemented by full-time employees such as instructors. Together with the cadre work , through which people were specifically launched for management, the democratic forms were eroded to the point of insignificance. However, these forms were not abandoned until the peaceful revolution .

For the SED, the principle of democratic centralism was regulated in the party statute:

“The party's organizational structure is based on the principle of democratic centralism. This principle states: a) that all party organs from bottom to top are democratically elected ... c) that all decisions of the higher party organs are binding for the subordinate organs, strict party discipline is to be exercised and the minority as well as the individual subordinates themselves to the decisions of the majority in a disciplined manner . "

- Paragraph 23 of the Statute of the SED 1976

Accordingly, a violation of the requirements presented above was a reason for party order proceedings .

"Anyone who violates the unity and purity of the party, does not comply with its resolutions, has violated party and state discipline ... to be held accountable."

- Item 8 of the Statute of the SED

In the GDR as in the other socialist states, enforcing party discipline through the principle of democratic centralism was a constitutive element of the party dictatorship .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Wolfgang Leonhard: The three division of Marxism. Origin and Development of Soviet Marxism, Maoism & Reform Communism. Düsseldorf / Vienna 1979, pp. 147/148
  2. ↑ Klaus Marxen , Gerhard Werle, Toralf Rummler, Petra Schäfter: Strafjustiz und DDR-Unrecht, 2002, ISBN 3-89949-007-X , page 655
  3. ↑ Item 23 of the statute of the SED, quoted from Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle, Toralf Rummler, Petra Schäfter: Strafjustiz und DDR-Unrecht, 2002, ISBN 3-89949-007-X , page 655
  4. ↑ Item 23 of the Statute of the SED 1976, quoted from Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle, Toralf Rummler, Petra Schäfter: Strafjustiz und DDR-Unrecht, 2002, ISBN 3-89949-007-X , page 656

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