Politburo

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The Soviet Politburo passes a resolution to execute 346 "enemies of the CPSU and the Soviet Government" who led "counter-revolutionary, pro-Trotskyist, plotting and spying activities", signed by secretary Stalin, 17 January 1940.

A politburo (Template:IPAc-en) or political bureau is the highest political organ of the central committee in communist parties.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the Political Bureau of Hamas.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Politburos are part of the governing structure in most former and existing communist states.

Names

The term politburo in English comes from the Russian politbyuro (Template:Lang), itself an abbreviation of politicheskoye byuro (Template:Lang 'political bureau'). The Spanish term Politburó is directly loaned from Russian, as is the German Politbüro. Chinese uses a calque (Template:Zh), from which the Vietnamese (Template:Lang Template:Lang), and Korean (Template:Lang Jeongchiguk) terms derive.

History

Template:Expand section The first politburo was created in Russia by the Bolshevik Party in 1917 during the Russian Revolution that occurred during that year.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> The first Politburo had seven members: Vladimir Lenin, Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, Grigori Sokolnikov, and Andrei Bubnov.<ref>Dmitri Volkogonov, Lenin. A New Biography, translated and edited by Harold Shukman (New York: The Free Press, 1994), p. 185.</ref>

During the 20th century, politburos were established in most Communist states. They included the politburos of the USSR, East Germany, Afghanistan, and Czechoslovakia. Today, there are five countries that have a politburo system: China, North Korea, Laos, Vietnam, and Cuba.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Marxist–Leninist states

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In Marxist–Leninist states, the communist party claims to be the vanguard of the people, therefore the legitimate body to lead the state. The party selects officials to serve in its politburo, which decides party policy. As a one-party state, party policy invariably becomes national policy.

Each Party Congress elects a Central Committee which, in turn, elects the members of the politburo, secretariat, and a general secretary. This process is termed democratic centralism. In theory, the politburo is answerable to the Central Committee, however in practice all the authority lies with the politburo.

Trotskyist parties

In Trotskyist parties, the Politburo is a bureau of the Central Committee tasked with making day-to-day political decisions, which must later be ratified by the Central Committee. Its members are chosen by the Central Committee, who appoints it. The post of General Secretary carries far less weight in this model. See, for example, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party.

References

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External links

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