one-party system, one-party state

one-party system, one-party state

or

one-party rule

a political system and state in which a single POLITICAL PARTY rules and where opposition political parties are not permitted or are precluded from rule. As well as being a feature, until recently, of eastern European socialist and communist states and of other systems based on Marxism (see also VANGUARD PARTY), one-party systems have also been introduced by rulers in developing societies in which the existence of ethnic and tribal divisions (rather than modern class divisions) are claimed to provide an unsuitable basis for two-party or multi-party democracies (compare STABLE DEMOCRACY).

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000