Editing Political party (section)

===One-party systems===
{{Main|One-party state}}
In a [[one-party state|one-party system]], power is held entirely by one political party. When only one political party exists, it may be the result of a ban on the formation of any competing political parties, which is a common feature in authoritarian states. For example, the [[Communist Party of Cuba]] is the only permitted political party in [[Cuba]], and is the only party that can hold seats in the legislature.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://freedomhouse.org/country/cuba/freedom-world/2020 |title=Freedom in the World 2020: Cuba |publisher=[[Freedom House]] |year=2020 |access-date=20 January 2021 |archive-date=29 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129013609/https://freedomhouse.org/country/cuba/freedom-world/2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> When only one powerful party is legally permitted to exist, its membership can grow to contain a very large portion of society and it can play substantial roles in [[civil society]] that are not necessarily directly related to political governance; one example of this is the [[Chinese Communist Party]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Staff writer |author-link=Staff writer |date=30 June 2015 |title=China's Communist Party membership tops entire population of Germany |url=http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1829407/chinas-communist-party-enlists-million-new-members |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703004249/http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1829407/chinas-communist-party-enlists-million-new-members |archive-date=3 July 2015 |access-date=30 June 2015 |website=[[South China Morning Post]] |publisher=[[SCMP Group]]}}</ref> Bans on competing parties can also ensure that only one party can ever realistically hold power, even without completely outlawing all other political parties. For example, in [[North Korea]], more than one party is officially permitted to exist and even to seat members in the legislature,<ref>{{cite book |author1=[[Victor Cha|Cha, Victor]] |author2=Hwang, Balbina |editor=Worden, Robert |ref=CITEREFChaHwang2009 |title=North Korea: a Country Study |publisher=[[Federal Research Division]]. [[Library of Congress]] |year=2009 |chapter=Government and Politics |isbn=978-1598044683 |edition=5th |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/northkoreacountr0000unse |page=214}}</ref> but laws ensure that the [[Workers' Party of Korea]] retains control.<ref>{{cite book |first=Walter C. Jr. |last=Clemens |year=2016 |title=North Korea and the World |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |page=5 |isbn=978-0813167466}}</ref>

It is also possible for countries with free elections to have only one party that holds power. These cases are sometimes called [[dominant-party system]]s or [[Particracy|particracies]]. Scholars have debated whether or not a country that has never experienced a transfer of power from one party to another can nevertheless be considered a democracy.<ref name=Przeworski00/>{{rp|23}} There have been periods of government exclusively or entirely by one party in some countries that are often considered to have been democratic, and which had no official legal barriers to the inclusion of other parties in the government; this includes recent periods in [[Botswana]], [[Japan]], [[Mexico]], [[Senegal]], and [[South Africa]].<ref name=Przeworski00/>{{rp|24–27}} It can also occur that one political party dominates a sub-national region of a democratic country that has a competitive national party system; one example is the southern United States during much of the 19th and 20th centuries, where the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] had almost complete control, with the Southern states being functionally one-party regimes, though opposition parties were never prohibited.<ref>{{cite book |first=Robert |last=Mickey |year=2015 |title=Paths Out of Dixie: The Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944–1972 |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=18 |isbn=978-0691149639}}</ref>