Party Conference

political convention

 or party conference

In politics, a meeting of members of a political party at the local, state, or national level to select party leaders and candidates for office and to determine party policy. During presidential election years in the U.S., the main parties hold conventions that serve to showcase their presidential and vice presidential candidates and to boost the morale of party members for the campaigns that follow. Conventions were instituted in the U.S. in the 1830s to replace the often exclusive and secretive caucus system; it was hoped that the conventions' openness would make them less vulnerable to control by party bosses. Most candidates for political office at all levels in the U.S. are now nominated through primary elections, and the conventions merely ratify the candidates already selected by the voters. Political parties in other countries (e.g., Great Britain) often hold annual party conferences.

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Party Conference 

(1) An all-Union party body (ail-Russian until 1924) convoked as the need arises by the Central Committee of the CPSU to discuss pressing questions of party policy.

The procedure of holding an all-Union party conference is determined by the Central Committee of the CPSU (see Ustav KPSS, 1917, sec. 40). Seven all-Russian party conferences were held before the Great October Socialist Revolution; the Sixth (Prague) and the Seventh (April) Conferences can be equated with congresses in terms of the importance of the problems discussed and in terms of the representation and functions, such as discussion of Central Committee reports and election of central bodies. After the establishment of Soviet power, all-Union (all-Russian) party conferences were held until 1941, the last being the eighteenth conference of the ACP (Bolshevik). The convocation of all-Union (all-Russian) party conferences was provided for by the Rules of the party. From 1934 (the Seventeenth Congress of the ACP [B]) to 1939 (the Eighteenth Congress) and from 1952 (the Nineteenth Congress of the CPSU) to 1966 (the Twenty-third Congress) the party Rules had no provision for the convocation of all-Union party conferences.

(2) The highest body of an oblast, krai, okrug, city, or raion party organization. A party conference is called by the corresponding party committee once every two or three years. In okrugs, cities, and raions a general meeting of Communists may be held at the same time as a party conference. The party conference hears reports of the committee and the auditing commission; discusses at its own discretion other problems of party, economic, and cultural development; and elects its (oblast, krai, okrug, city, or raion) committee, the auditing commission, and the delegates to the higher conference or congress. The norms of representation at a party conference are determined by the party committee that convokes it. Extraordinary party conferences may be called upon the decision of the appropriate party committee or upon the request of one-third of all the members of the particular party organization. Between congresses of the Communist parties of the Union republics, the central committees of the Communist parties may call republic party conferences to discuss major questions of the activity of the party organizations. The procedure for holding republic party conferences is deter-mined by the central committees of the republic Communist parties (ibid., sees. 43, 44, 48).

G. V. ANTONOV