Bloc party system
A bloc party system, also known as a satellite party system, is a governance structure in which a governmentally dominant political party is joined by a group of non-ruling auxiliary parties known as bloc parties, which often manifest themselves in the form of members of a ruling coalition. Often, a bloc party system partially manifests itself in the form of a one-party state, usually a communist state. Bloc party systems are distinguished from 'pure' one-party states in the fact that while there is only one sole legal and governing party in a pure one-party state, the ruling party in a bloc party system may be joined by other legal, but otherwise non-ruling political parties. Bloc party systems are most famous for being utilized in the political system of China as well as several eastern bloc countries.
Background
In the conceptions of communist states, the bloc party system traces its roots to the idea of the popular front, in which Marxist and other non-Marxist political parties and organizations would join in an umbrella organization, often as a reaction to fascism. Following the end of World War II, the Soviet Union employed the idea of people's democracy in the countries of the Eastern bloc they now dominated, permitting the establishment of a nominally multi-party system. Because communist states organize themselves around a dominant political party, often a vanguardist communist party, where political opposition is banned or controlled, bloc parties manifested themselves as mostly dependent puppet organizations, where policy was controlled by the vanguard party. In the present day, out of the 4 remaining Marxist-Leninist states in the world, only China utilizes a form of the bloc party system, which it refers to as new democracy and the people's democratic dictatorship. North Korea, which also historically was influenced by Marxism-Leninism, also organizes itself in the form of a bloc party system.
List of countries organized under a bloc party system
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