One-party state

A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. In the one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or have limited and controlled participation in elections. The expression "de facto one-party" is sometimes used to describe a dominant-party system that, unlike a one-party state, allows (at least nominally) multiparty elections, but the existing practices or balance of political power effectively prevent the opposition from winning power. Membership in the ruling party tends to be relatively small compared to the population; however, this is not a universal rule, as some one-party states, such as Zaire under Mobutu, made the entire citizenry members of the party. Rather, they give out private goods to fellow elites to ensure continued support. One-party, compared to dominant-party dictatorships, structure themselves unlike democracies. They also turn into multi-party democracies at a lower rate than dominant-party dictatorships. While one-party states prohibit opposition parties, some allow for independent candidates to stand for election in competition with party candidates. Therefore, they place elites and sympathetic candidates in key administrative races. For example, the Chinese Communist Party exercises political control by infiltrating village administrations. They view these positions as crucial for gathering information on the population and maintaining a presence in the far reaches of their borders. One-party states recognize the trade-off between election victory and gathering valuable data. To account for this, the governments have been observed placing local nobility in easy-to-win races. One-party states have also been observed using elections to ensure that only the most popular elites get chosen to office. They also gather data from elections to indicate if a local official is performing poorly in the eyes of the residents. This gives locals the opportunity to monitor local officials...