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Revision as of 20:40, 24 April 2003 by Daniel C. Boyer (talk | contribs) (changing wording; "in lieu of" not right)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)A Communist state is a term used by many political scientists to describe a system of government in which a state operates under a one party system (where the one party is the Communist Party), as a result of which the institutions of the state and of the party become intimately entwined.
Whereas in multi-party liberal democracies, the system of government (executive, legislative and judicial) operates independently of any political party, with each party in such states competing for a right to control the system of government for a specific term of government or term of office, in a communist state, state institutions and party institutions are dependent on each other to function effectively. In the Soviet Union for example, the General Secretary of the Communist Party did not necessarily hold a state office like president or prime minister to effectively control the system of government. Instead party members answerable to or controlled by the party held these posts, often as honorific posts as a reward for their long years of service to the party. On other occasions, having governed as General Secretary, the party leader might assume a state office in addition. For example, Mikhail Gorbachev initially did not hold the presidency of the Soviet Union, that office being given as an honour to a former Soviet Foreign Minister. However ultimately Gorbachev chose to assume the presidency, running the party and the official state institutions simultaneously.
The degree of this party-state relationship fluctuates both within a state and between different communist systems. In modern China, for example, a degree of separation has developed between state and party, while a number of very small rival parties have appeared on the fringe. Nevertheless the degree of communist party control over state institutions, and the ability of party figures outside state offices to influence the functioning of the state, is far more extensive than exists in any multi-party democracy, hence the use of the term Communist state to describe such a system of government.