Editing Dominant-party system (section)

{{Short description|Continuous dominance of a single political party in elections}}
{{distinguish|One-party state}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{multiple issues|{{update|date=January 2015|inaccurate=yes}}
{{original research|date=January 2021}}
{{cleanup rewrite|date=February 2021}}}}
{{party politics}}
A '''dominant-party system''', or '''one-party dominant system''', is a political occurrence in which a single political party continuously dominates election results over running opposition groups or parties.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ostroverkhov|first=A. A.|date=2017|title=In Searching for Theory of One-Party Dominance: World Experience of Studying Dominant-Party Systems (II)|journal=Politeia|volume=87|issue=4|pages=133–149 (p. 136)|doi=10.30570/2078-5089-2017-87-4-133-149|doi-access=free}}</ref> Any ruling party staying in power for more than one consecutive term may be considered a ''dominant party'' (also referred to as a ''predominant'' or ''hegemonic'' party).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ostroverkhov|first=A. A.|date=2017|title=In Searching for Theory of One-Party Dominance: World Experience of Studying Dominant-Party Systems (I)|journal=Politeia|volume=86|issue=3|pages=136–153 (p. 148)|doi=10.30570/2078-5089-2017-86-3-136-153|doi-access=free}}</ref> Some dominant parties were called the ''natural governing party'', given their length of time in power.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://parli.ca/natural-governing-party/|work=The Dictionary of Canadian Politics|publisher=Campbell Strategies|title=Natural Governing Party|year=2022|access-date=5 December 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|isbn=9780307743879|year=2017|page=338|publisher=Knopf Doubleday|title=Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times|quote=The Republicans had come to see themselves as the natural governing party of the United States. Leaving aside the Cleveland and Wilson accidents, they had been in power since Grant's day. If Republican delegates declared an uncharismatic Hoover worthy of the presidency, voters were unlikely to argue. |chapter=The Wonder Boy}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/UMNO-intends-to-return-as-Malaysia-s-natural-governing-party|title=UMNO intends to return as Malaysia's natural governing party|website=Nikkei|access-date=5 December 2022|date=15 November 2022|last=Chin|first=James}}</ref>

''Dominant'' parties, and their domination of a state, develop out of one-sided electoral and party constellations within a multi-party system (particularly under presidential systems of governance), and as such differ from states under a [[one-party system|''one''-party system]], which are intricately organized around a specific party.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}} Sometimes the term "''de facto'' one-party state" is used to describe dominant-party systems which, unlike a one-party system, allows (at least nominally) democratic multiparty elections, but the existing practices or balance of political power effectively prevent the opposition from winning power, thus resembling a one-party state.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}} Dominant-party systems differ from the political dynamics of other dominant multi-party constellations such as [[consociationalism]], [[grand coalition]]s and [[two-party system]]s, which are characterized and sustained by narrow or balanced [[electoral competition|competition]] and cooperation.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

In political literature, more than 130 dominant party systems between 1950 and 2017 were included in a list by A. A. Ostroverkhov.<ref name="Ostroverkhov">{{cite journal |url=http://politeia.ru/files/articles/rus/Politeia-2017-4(87)-133-149.pdf |last=Ostroverkhov |first=A. A. |title=В поисках теории однопартийного господства: мировой опыт изучения систем с доминантной партией (II) |trans-title=In search of a theory of one-party domination: world experience in studying systems with a dominant party (II) |date=2017 |language=ru |journal=Politeia |volume=4 |issue=87 |archivedate=2020-02-08 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200208002311/http://politeia.ru/files/articles/rus/Politeia-2017-4(87)-133-149.pdf}}</ref> For example, in the post-Soviet states, researchers classify parties such as United Russia and [[Amanat (political party)|Amanat]] ([[Kazakhstan]]) as dominant parties on the basis that these parties have long held the majority of seats in parliament (although they do not directly form the government or appoint officials to government positions).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Isaacs |first1=R. |last2=Whitmore |first2=S. |title=The Limited Agency and Life-Cycles of Personalized Dominant Parties in Post-Soviet Space: The Case of United Russia and Nur Otan |date=2013 |journal=Democratization |volume=4 |issue=21}}</ref> In Russian political science literature, such associations are often called "parties of power".{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

It is believed that a system with a dominant party can be either authoritarian or democratic. However, since there is no consensus in the global political science community on a set of mandatory features of democracy (for example, there is a point of view according to which the absence of alternation of power is, in principle, incompatible with democratic norms),<ref>{{cite book |last=Przeworski |first=A. |title=Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-Being in the World, 1950–1990 |date=2000 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=16}}</ref> it is difficult to separate the two types of one-party dominance.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://politeia.ru/files/articles/rus/Politeia-2017-4(87)-133-149.pdf |last=Ostroverkhov |first=A. A. |title=В поисках теории однопартийного господства: мировой опыт изучения систем с доминантной партией (II) |trans-title=In search of a theory of one-party domination: world experience in studying systems with a dominant party (II)| date=2017 |journal=Politeia |volume=4 |issue=87 |page=134 |archivedate=2020-02-08 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200208002311/http://politeia.ru/files/articles/rus/Politeia-2017-4(87)-133-149.pdf}}</ref>