Collective leadership

Distribution of power within an organisational structure

In communist and socialist theory, collective leadership is a shared distribution of power within an organizational structure, sometimes publicly described or designed as primus inter pares (first among equals).

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### China

[edit]

See also: Generations of Chinese leadership

Collective leadership in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is generally considered to have begun with reformist Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s during the same time period as the Chinese economic reform, who tried to encourage the CCP Politburo Standing Committee to rule by consensus in order to prevent a resurgence of autocracy under Maoist rule. CCP general secretary Jiang Zemin formally established himself as the "first among equals". Some political analysts has alleged that this era of collective leadership has been said to end with Xi Jinping, following the abolition of term limits in 2018 under his tenure.[1]

Xi has taken deliberate steps to establish his personal dominance within the Chinese political system, effectively rising above his peers in the Politburo Standing Committee. He has done so by creating key bodies such as the National Security Commission, which holds sway over party, state, and military organizations.[citation needed] Furthermore, Xi heads the Small Leadership Group on Comprehensively Deepening Reform, a pivotal entity responsible for designing and executing various reform initiatives. His leadership of this group underscores his intention to personally oversee institutional reforms.[citation needed]

Xi has also made it clear that he will have the final say in economic and financial matters, foregoing the tradition of shared responsibility with the Premier. Consequently, Xi's purview now extends to encompass military affairs, security, foreign policy, economic reform, state-building, economic policymaking, and social governance.[2] This concentration of power has led to concerns that Xi's actions might be undermining essential party norms and pushing China toward a more personalistic dictatorship, a notion reinforced by the party machine and state media's vigorous promotion of his image and authority through various channels such as publishing his speeches and writings, public appearances, and the creation of cartoons portraying him as a strong leader.[3]

Currently, the central authority of the Chinese government and CCP is concentrated in the CCP Politburo Standing Committee, which is composed of seven members of the Communist Party and headed by the CCP general secretary.[4] Nevertheless, while the CCP de jure maintains collective leadership of government, the position of the CCP general secretary has palpably become more powerful under Xi's administration, with him being the most powerful paramount leader since Mao Zedong.[5]

### Vietnam

[edit]

See also: Four pillars (Vietnamese bureaucrats)

In the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) under the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), when the country was ruled by Lê Duẩn, collective leadership involved powers being distributed from the office of General Secretary of the Communist Party and shared with the Politburo Standing Committee while still retaining one ruler.[citation needed]

Today, there is not one paramount leader in Vietnam; power is shared between the General Secretary, President, the Prime Minister as well as the National Assembly Chairmain along with collegial bodies such as the Politburo, Secretariat and the Central Committee.[citation needed]

### Soviet Union

[edit]

Main article: Collective leadership in the Soviet Union

Collective leadership (Russian: коллективное руководство, kollektivnoye rukovodstvo) or Collectivity of leadership (Russian: коллективность руководства, kollektivnost rukovodstva), was considered an ideal form of governance in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) under the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Its main task was to distribute powers and functions among the Politburo, the Central Committee, and the Council of Ministers to hinder any attempts to create a one-man dominance over the Soviet political system by a Soviet leader, such as that seen under Joseph Stalin's rule. On the national level, the heart of the collective leadership was officially the Central Committee of the Communist Party, but in practice, was the Politburo. Collective leadership is characterized by limiting the powers of the General Secretary and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Premier) as related to other offices by enhancing the powers of collective bodies, such as the Politburo.[citation needed]

Vladimir Lenin was, according to Soviet literature, the perfect example of a leader ruling in favour of the collective. Stalin was also claimed to embody this style of ruling, with most major policy decisions involving lengthy discussion and debate in the Politburo and/or Central Committee; after his death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev accused Stalin of one-man dominance, leading to controversy surrounding the period of his rule. At the 20th Party Congress, Stalin's reign was criticized by Khrushchev as a "personality cult". As Stalin's successor, Khrushchev supported the ideal of collective leadership but increasingly ruled in an autocratic fashion, his anti-Stalin accusations followed by much the same behaviour which led to accusations of hypocrisy. In 1964, Khrushchev was ousted and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev as General Secretary and by Alexei Kosygin as Premier. Collective leadership was strengthened during the Brezhnev years and the later reigns of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko. Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms helped spawn factionalism within the Soviet leadership, and members of Gorbachev's faction openly disagreed with him on key issues. The factions usually disagreed on how little or how much reform was needed to rejuvenate the Soviet system.[citation needed]

## Other left-wing parties

[edit]

Aside from Communist states, left-wing to far-left green and socialist parties in liberal democracies often also practice collective leadership under socialist ideals, either through male and female co-leaders or through several co-spokespersons. For green parties, this practice is often justified by their movement's emphasis on consensus decision making and gender equality.

* Alliance 90/The Greens: the Federal Executive is divided between two co-equal spokespersons, a political director, treasurer, and two vice-chairs.
* Québec solidaire divides its leadership among its president, secretary-general, and male and female spokespersons
* Green Party of England and Wales: from 1990 to 1991, the GPE&W practiced co-leadership among six spokespersons, and from 1991 to 2008, the GPEW practiced it through a male and female spokesperson. After Caroline Lucas was elected the party's first sole leader and deputy leader in 2008, collective leadership was in hiatus until 2016, when the party leadership was once again divided between male and female co-leaders under a job-share agreement while retaining a deputy leader.
* Green Party of Canada: adopted a co-leadership model for its party leaders in 2025.[6][7][8]
* Left Bloc (Portugal): formally, it has always had a collective leadership as provided for in its by-laws and no one-person office has ever been recognised. However, in practice, there has always been a single prominent figure (coordinator, 1999-2012 and 2016-; spokesperson, 2014–2016), except for between 2012 and 2014, when it had a de facto co-leadership between a male and a female apart from the legal structures. From 2014 to 2016, there was an informal collective and gender-balanced leadership of six people on top of the existing bodies, with a member serving as the party's spokesperson.
* Scottish Green Party: began to practice collective leadership in 2004 with the election of a male and a female co-convenor.
* New Popular Front: A broad left-wing electoral alliance of political parties in France.
* Green Party of the United States: the Green National Committee's steering committee is a collective leadership of seven co-chairs, as well as a secretary and a treasurer.
* The Left (Germany): the party executive consists of an elected 44-member committee, headed by a 12-member executive board comprising two party chairpeople, four deputy chairs, a national secretary, treasurer, and four other members.
* International Socialist Alternative: The leading body of the ISA is the World Congress, which elects an International Committee (IC) to govern between congresses. The IC then appoints an International Executive (IE) body which is responsible for the day-to-day work of the International.
* Several Irish left-wing parties have collective leadership:
* People Before Profit–Solidarity[9][10]
* Solidarity
* People Before Profit
* Socialist Party[11]
* Independents 4 Change[12]

## Directorial government

[edit]

Main article: Directorial system

The Directorial system is a system of government in which executive power is held by a group of people who operate under a system of collegiality.[13] While there may be a nominal leader, the post is considered to be ceremonial or a first among equals and it typically rotates among its members.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Holtz, Michael (28 February 2018). "Xi for life? China turns its back on collective leadership". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
2. ^ Wang, Zeng, Zhengxu, Jinghan (April 28, 2016). "Xi Jinping: the game changer of Chinese elite politics?". Contemporary Politics. 22 (4): 469. doi:10.1080/13569775.2016.1175098.`{{cite journal}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
3. ^ Osnos, Evan (30 March 2015). "Born Red". Profiles. The New York Times.
4. ^ "New Politburo Standing Committee decided: Mingjing News" Archived 2013-01-15 at the Wayback Machine. Want China Times. 18 October 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
5. ^ Economy, Elizabeth C. (2018-04-04). The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-086608-2. OCLC 1048621221.
6. ^ The Canadian Press (January 27, 2025). "Pedneault plans return as Green Party co-leader after 6-month pause". CBC News. Retrieved February 14, 2025.
7. ^ Lachance Nové, Fabrice (2025-02-04). "Historic Vote: Greens Choose Co-Leadership". Green Party of Canada. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
8. ^ Benson, Stuart (February 11, 2025). "Greens can tap into global network as Canada finds itself with few friends amid U.S. threats, say co-leaders". The Hill Times. Retrieved February 14, 2025.
9. ^ "Party Profiles: People Before Profit/Solidarity". Ireland Elects. Archived from the original on 2022-11-27. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
10. ^ Ireland Mineral, Mining Sector Investment and Business Guide Volume 1 Strategic Information and Regulations. Lulu.com. February 7, 2007. ISBN 9781433025129 - via Google Books.
11. ^ Agency, Central Intelligence (May 8, 2018). The CIA World Factbook 2018-2019. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781510740280 - via Google Books.
12. ^ "Ireland".
13. ^ Popović, Dragoljub (2019-08-30). Directorial government. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78990-075-0.

## Further reading

[edit]

Library resources about
Collective leadership

* * *

* Resources in your library
* Resources in other libraries

* Baylis, Thomas A. (1989). Governing by Committee: Collegial Leadership in Advanced Societies. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-88706-944-4.
* Cocks, Paul; Daniels, Robert Vincent; Whittier Heer, Nancy (1976). The Dynamics of Soviet Politics. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-21881-9.
* Christian, David (1997). Imperial and Soviet Russia: Power, Privilege, and the Challenge of Modernity. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-17352-4.
* Taras, Roy (1989). Leadership Change in Communist States. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-04-445277-5.
* Law, David A. (1975). Russian Civilization. Ardent Media. ISBN 978-0-8422-0529-0.

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| 16th c.|

* Tommaso Campanella
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|

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* Charles Fourier
* Emma Goldman
* William Batchelder Greene
* Charles Hall
* Alexander Herzen
* Thomas Hodgskin
* Jean Jaurès
* Mother Jones
* Karl Kautsky
* Peter Kropotkin
* Paul Lafargue
* Ferdinand Lassalle
* Pyotr Lavrov
* Alexandre Ledru-Rollin
* Pierre Leroux
* Helen Macfarlane
* Errico Malatesta
* Karl Marx
* Louise Michel
* Nikolay Mikhaylovsky
* William Morris
* Robert Owen
* Antonie Pannekoek
* Giovanni Pascoli
* Constantin Pecqueur
* Georgi Plekhanov
* Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
* Luis Emilio Recabarren
* Henri de Saint-Simon
* Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
* George Sand
* Friedrich Wilhelm Schulz
* Eugène Sue
* Lysander Spooner
* Fred M. Taylor
* William Thompson
* Pyotr Tkachev
* Benjamin Tucker
* Suzanne Voilquin
* Alfred Russel Wallace
* Josiah Warren
* Wilhelm Weitling
* Oscar Wilde

20th c.|

* Tariq Ali
* Salvador Allende
* Inejirō Asanuma
* Hafez al-Assad
* Clement Attlee
* Aung San
* Deng Xiaoping
* Jiang Zemin
* Henri Barbusse
* Jyoti Basu
* Simone de Beauvoir
* Walter Benjamin
* Tony Benn
* Léon Blum
* Grace Lee Boggs
* Murray Bookchin
* Bertolt Brecht
* Aristide Briand
* Nikolai Bukharin
* Cornelius Castoriadis
* Noam Chomsky
* M. N. Roy
* G. D. H. Cole
* Jeremy Corbyn
* Marcel Déat
* Guy Debord
* Eugene V. Debs
* John Dewey
* Alexander Dubček
* Albert Einstein
* Faiz Ahmad Faiz
* Muammar Gaddafi
* Einar Gerhardsen
* Mikhail Gorbachev
* Maxim Gorky
* Antonio Gramsci
* Safdar Hashmi
* Eric Hobsbawm
* Saddam Hussein
* Dolores Ibárruri
* Pablo Iglesias Posse
* Jayaprakash Narayan
* Russell Jacoby
* Kim Jong-il
* Kim Il Sung
* Martin Luther King Jr.
* Alexandra Kollontai
* James Larkin
* E. M. S. Namboodiripad
* Jack Layton
* Henri Lefebvre
* Claude Lefort
* Vladimir Lenin
* György Lukács
* Rosa Luxemburg
* Lu Xun
* Alasdair MacIntyre
* Nestor Makhno
* Nelson Mandela
* José Carlos Mariátegui
* Adrien Marquet
* Mao Dun
* Salama Moussa
* François Mitterrand
* Imre Nagy
* Gamal Abdel Nasser
* Jawaharlal Nehru
* Ernst Niekisch
* Ne Win
* George Orwell
* Sylvia Pankhurst
* Fred Paterson
* Karl Polanyi
* Pierre Renaudel
* B. T. Ranadive
* Bertrand Russell
* Gaetano Salvemini
* Bernie Sanders
* Jean-Paul Sartre
* Arthur Scargill
* Léopold Sédar Senghor
* George Bernard Shaw
* Sukarno
* Sun Yat-sen
* R. H. Tawney
* E. P. Thompson
* Ernst Toller
* Leon Trotsky
* Ram Manohar Lohia
* H. G. Wells
* Cornel West
* Clara Zetkin
* Howard Zinn
* J. Posadas

21st c.|

* Pedro Castillo
* Hugo Chávez
* Bob Crow
* Hu Jintao
* Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu
* Kim Jong Un
* Hasan Piker
* Lula da Silva
* Evo Morales
* Yanis Varoufakis
* Xi Jinping
* Vaush

Organizations|

* International socialist organizations
* Socialist parties

See also|

* Economic calculation problem
* Marxist philosophy
* New Left
* Old Left
* Socialism by country
* Socialist calculation debate

* Categories
* Socialism WikiProject
* Socialism portal
* Communism portal
* Organized Labour portal

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