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	Democratic Centralism
		At a unity conference held in 1906, the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks voted for a resolution that stated: "All party organizations are built on the principles of democratic centralism".
		For example, Luxemburg writes, "Lenin’s thesis is that the party Central Committee should have the privilege of naming all the local committees of the party." Whatever else might say about this, it is not what we think of ordinarily when we hear the term democratic centralism.
		Instead it is mainly an opportunity for the secondary leadership of the party to salute the central leadership for the brilliance of the line resolutions presented to the convention.
	www.columbia.edu /~lnp3/mydocs/organization/DemocraticCentralism.htm (631 words)

	Glossary of Terms: De
		Lenin elaborated the principles of Democratic Centralism in relation to a working class Political Party operating under conditions of illegality, and consequently insisted on a very clear criterion of membership – agreement with the Party’s program and the obligation to work under the direction of one of its organisations.
		Once “democratic centralism” had been transformed into an official doctrine, not only in the Soviet Union and the Comintern, but also in the Fourth International, its meaning became associated with the organisational methods of on the one hand, Stalinism, and on the other hand, Trotskyism.
		Within the Trotskyist movement, “democratic centralism” came to be associated in particular with the obligation upon members of a party to present only the party line outside the ranks of the party.
	www.marxists.org /glossary/terms/d/e.htm (4414 words)

	Democratic Centralism
		Democratic centralism is one of the most abused and misunderstood terms in the Marxist vocabulary.
		Again Lenin’s position is widely divergent from the position of those advocates of "democratic centralism" today who argue that it means that the national leadership must appoint local organisers and that the national leadership has the right to dismiss elected members of local branch committees.
		Central to this is a publication (or publications) which both propagates the group’s positions and encourages debate and discussion of political and theoretical questions.
	www.whatnextjournal.co.uk /Pages/Back/Wnext16/Demcent.html (3241 words)

	Democratic centralism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party.
		The democratic aspect of this organizational method describes the freedom of members of the political party to discuss and debate matters of policy and direction, but once the decision of the party is made by majority vote, all members are expected to uphold that decision.
		The doctrine of democratic centralism served as one of the sources of the split between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Democratic_centralism (493 words)

	Soviet Union (former) Democratic Centralism - Flags, Maps, Economy, History, Climate, Natural Resources, Current ...
		Democratic centralism holds that lower party bodies elect higher party bodies and that the latter are accountable to the former.
		Devoid of democratic content, the political and organizational logic of democratic centralism contributed to the emergence of dictatorship in the Soviet Union.
		Democratic centralism provided a necessary condition for the leader's claim to infallibility because it prevented ordinary party members from criticizing the policies of the party elite.
	www.photius.com /countries/soviet_union_former/government/soviet_union_former_government_democratic_centralis~11171.html (657 words)

	[No title]
		Democratic centralism is the organizational principle of any genuinely revolutionary and communist organization and the form of democracy which corresponds to the present needs, not only of the working class, but of the entire society.
		Democratic centralism begins with the principle that the masses of people are supreme; they are the final decision-makers and they have the right to conscience.
		To do so would be to reduce democratic centralism to the level of bourgeois democracy, to the level of a fraud and to reduce a communist party to the level of a bourgeois party.
	www.modern-communism.ca /PR07.htm (2999 words)

	Nhan Dan --- Life
		Democratic centralism is a complete form with two sides: democracy and centralisation having a dialectical and combined link with each other.
		Democratic implementation in the Party will be an example of democratic implementation in whole of society, opening up the way for building a democratic society, and giving a driving force to development.
		Centralism can’t stand alone since all the decision to be carried out democratically prior to the formation of centralism, are based on the fullest exercise of the rights and responsibility of each Party member.
	www.nhandan.com.vn /english/life/030205/centralism.htm (1077 words)

	Democratic Centralism
		The difference between groups that don't follow democratic centralist principles and a party is that the party has the structure and therefore the potential to enact policies that keep individuals or groups from usurping power, allowing true democratic participation from all members.
		Democratic centralism protects the party from being discredited by individual cadres following their spontaneous whims - which cannot help but be influenced by bourgeois forces and ideology.
		Recognizing individualism as a danger, centralism mandates that political lines and the practice that they dictate be discussed and voted on by the membership before the party authorizes an action or statement in its name.
	www.etext.org /Politics/MIM/wim/democent.html (1284 words)

	The SWP vs. Lenin BUREAUCRATIC CENTRALISM OR DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISM?
		Centralism for Lenin is far from being the opposite of developing the initiative and independence of party members; it is the precondition of this.
		Democratic centralism is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for the revolutionary party to lead a revolution.
		The indispensable conditions for the realisation of social democratic centralism are: (1) The existence of a large contingent of workers educated in the political struggle.
	www.angelfire.com /journal/iso/swp.html (4940 words)

	The Militant - 1/13/97 -- Why Do Communists Use Democratic Centralism?
		Defined in a broad generalization, democratic centralism constitutes an interrelated process of democracy in deciding party policy, and centralized action in carrying it out.
		Centralism is based on the democratic principle of majority rule.
		Under democratic centralist procedures, after a decision has been made in a dispute, those in the minority are bound by the party decision reached by majority vote.
	www.themilitant.com /1997/612/612_23.html (1256 words)

	The Scottish debate: On Democratic Centralism
		Democratic centralism is vital for a serious Marxist force ensuring a powerful anchor that can act as a counter to these very real dangers".
		The principle of "Bolshevik organisation, 'democratic centralism', is assured by complete freedom of criticism and of groupings, together with steel discipline in action...", wrote Trotsky in 1935 ("The Crisis of the French Section".
		Democratic centralism is a method that allows the party to function on a democratic basis, giving the members the right to hold the leadership to account and subject to recall.
	www.marxist.net /scotland/aug2000/CWI/2.htm (1765 words)

	ISML ISSUE 5
		Centralism is a political and organisational practice involving the voluntary subordination of the party membership to a party centre that is composed of a self-appointed leadership which formulates the party programme and leads the party into action.
		Democratic centralism is a political and organisational principle in which the party centre is the congress of delegates which formulates the party programme by majority decisions and elects a central leadership to lead the party into action.
		Whereas the practice of centralism is necessary for communist parties operating under oppressive regimes and in emergency situations, the principle of democratic centralism is essential for communist parties operating in conditions of relative stability and legality.
	website.lineone.net /~partisan_britain/ISML/isml05/isml0504.html (9033 words)

	DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISM AND THE PARTY OF A NEW TYPE
		Democratic centralism is the organisational principle of the party of a new type.
		Democratic centralism reflects the proletarian character of the party of the working class, the class most consistently championing democracy and capable of organising action on any scale.
		Democratic centralism is the form which offers the best prospects for a united revolutionary organisation both internationally and in this country, at a time when much of the communist movement has been liquidated organisationally, and what remains is so divided that it is rendered useless as a representative of the revolutionary class.
	website.lineone.net /~partisan_britain/html/democent.html (1936 words)

	Why we need Democratic Centralism
		But these two opposite poles - democracy and centralism - cannot be mechanically combined, but are in fact in a continual "struggle", the "balance" between democracy and centralism tipping to one side or the other, depending on conditions democracy the means of building centralism; centralism the means of achieving democracy.
		There are very many misconceptions about the meaning of "democratic centralism", mainly as a result of the bad name given to the theory by misuse of the term by Stalinist parties and Trotskyist sects.
		Another misconception is that "democratic centralism" refers to a specific set of rules which may or not be applicable in a specific situation, usually not.
	home.pacific.net.au /~sp/magazine/dec96/demcen.htm (1391 words)

	Bolshevism, Fraudulent Practice Of Democratic Centralism
		Among the leaders in exile, democratic discussion was axiomatic, but in the Bolshevik faction, once the leaders had decided, the rest (back in Russia) had to carry out the decisions.
		In all this confusion the system of democratic centralism remained and the leaders of the Party who had taken control of an enormously strengthened organization could now enjoy their undisputed victorious way.
		In 1902 "democratic" centralism had been advocated because of Czarist terror; in 1917 it was advocated because of the needs of the civil war.
	www.weisbord.org /Fraudulent.htm (2171 words)

	Democracy from Above and Below
		Democratic centralism has to be applied throughout the party structure in order for it to remain as a political and organisational principal in which the party centre, its congress takes the decisions that are binding upon all its members and that, of course, must includes its leaders.
		This is why it is so supremely important to regard democratic centralism, not as a mere organisational form, but as a political and organisational principle.
		Such attitudes, in fact, reflect the tradition of regarding the leadership of the party, not simply as the agent of the party centre, its congress, but as the centre itself, responsible for the development of the party programme to which the party congress is then 'expected' to adhere.
	www.redaction.org /open/democracy.html (793 words)

	open polemic abandons leninist democratic centralism (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		The "multanimous", democratic centralist party is a term that seeks to revise the already fully explicit leninist concept of democratic centralism.
		Those "defenders" of democratic centralism who find cause to amend the concept of democratic centralism along opportunist lines, would allow the least steadfast elements among their followers, as members of a communist party, the opportunity to give merely verbal acceptance of any decisions which needed to be made by the leadership after election!
		This formal democracy, however, is a negation of democratic centralism as an organisational principle.
	www.geocities.com /athens/pantheon/5666/polemic.html (1516 words)

	On Democratic Centralism
		Democratic centralism forces people to evaluate themselves honestly and to listen to the evaluation of others (praise as well as criticism).
		Besides drawing on the strength of the collective, democratic centralism also forces us to act in a collective manner--to do what is best for the group.
		Democratic centralism is communist democracy; it is what we want to replace bourgeois democracy with.
	www.plp.org /pl_magazine/democent.html (2089 words)

	Tony Cliff: Democratic centralism (1968)
		Or again the historical statements of the First International on the Paris Commune were written by Marx and agreed by a handful of people who turned up to the meetings of the General Council – without reference to the national sections of the International, not to speak of their mass rank and file.
		In practice because of the size and uneven nature of IS, we have to have a transitory structure: from federalism to democratic centralism.
		In arguing against Democratic Centralism anarchists and Social Democrats say: “But see, the Bolshevik Party with such a structure led to Stalinism.”; It was the lack of Bolshevism in Germany and elsewhere that led to the isolation of the Russian revolution and hence to the rise of Stalinism.
	www.marxists.org /archive/cliff/works/1968/06/democent.htm (976 words)

	Fragments of talk on organisation (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		The theory of democratic centralism is relativly simple although volumes have been written on it.
		The use of Democratic centralism tends towards producing a leadership cleaque where the same people are effectivly permanently in the leadership even if they are supposed to be re-elected every couple of years.
		Under Democratic Centralism the leadership normally has the power to expel members and to set the conference agenda.
	struggle.ws /talks/organisation.html (779 words)

	Workers Power Global \| Revolutionary History
		Even when the democratic centralism of the Bolsheviks is not dishonestly conflated with Stalinist bureaucratic centralism, it is often seen as playing some sort of contributory role—lacking the checks and balances, the federal and decentralising elements which could prevent bureaucratisation.
		Their unity is that they both believe there is a fixed formula for democratic centralism which fits equally the small propaganda group fighting for its ideas in a situation of profound ideological confusion and a mass party attempting to lead the workers’ organisations in a revolutionary situation.
		For Lenin democratic centralism, during this period and in these conditions, included the right to publish differences in party publications, the right of a minority to issue their own publications, the right to speak against the party in public meetings.
	www.fifthinternational.org /LFIfiles/demcent.html (9913 words)

	Mongolia - The Political Process
		The democratic feature of this Leninist principle prescribes that members of party organizations at all levels are elected by conferences of delegates and are accountable to their respective electorates.
		In 1989, in the latest mirroring of Soviet politics, observers concluded that the democratic aspects of democratic centralism were beginning to play an enhanced role in Mongolian politics.
		Accordingly, democratic reform was to be carried out at all levels--in central and local government bodies, as well as in party, state, and mass organizations.
	countrystudies.us /mongolia/62.htm (2875 words)

	Marcel Liebman on Lenin and democracy
		Democratic centralism, in Lenin’s view, also implied “universal and full freedom to criticise, so long as this does not disturb the unity of a definite action; it rules out all critcism which disrupts or makes difficult the unity of an action decided on by the Party”.
		To be sure, this broad and “liberal” definition of democratic centralism and minority rights – broader and more liberal than in many parties that profess to be democratic – was advanced at a period when the Mensheviks constituted a majority.
		Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution, in which he subjected the attitude of the Russian bourgeoisie to very severe criticism, judging it both incapable of leading a revolution and hostile to its victory, he thought that the bourgeoisie’s revolutionary function would have to be assumed by the working class.
	members.optushome.com.au /spainter/Liebman.html (5450 words)

	Freedom Road Socialist Organization - The Crisis within the Left: Theory, Program, Organization
		Democratic centralism has become the bogeyman for many on the Left.
		Democratic centralism is not simply leading bodies of an organization giving "marching orders." We promote democratic centralism because we are not simply "affinity groups" or a "consciousness-raising society." We must be able to act in unity.
		For this reason, I believe that more education and discussion around democratic centralism and its implementation by organizations that have attempted to practice it would be useful for the revolutionary movement at large.
	freedomroad.org /content/view/334/50/lang,en (3295 words)

	AllRefer.com - Mongolia - Democratic Centralism \| Mongolian Information Resource
		In 1989, in the latest mirroring of Soviet politics, observers concluded that the democratic aspects of democratic centralism were beginning to play an enhanced role in Mongolian politics.
		Accordingly, democratic reform was to be carried out at all levels--in central and local government bodies, as well as in party, state, and mass organizations.
		Over the long term, the permanence of these "democratic" policies was likely to be related closely to the success or the failure of the ongoing economic programs.
	reference.allrefer.com /country-guide-study/mongolia/mongolia138.html (1401 words)

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