bureaucratic centralism

The term is less a fixed constitutional principle than a critical political concept applied when the actual operation of the party and Soviet state privileges appointment, directives, and discipline from above over election, accountability to lower bodies, and open discussion. The Democratic Centralists, who emerged inside the Russian Communist Party in 1919, opposed what they called the bureaucratic authoritarianism and concentration of power in the upper organs, defending autonomy for local Soviets and party organisations, election of officials, and control from below. It is therefore not a synonym for democratic centralism, but a critical term for a condition in which formal unity and central directives are maintained through suppressing organised opposition and lower-level democracy.