Democratic Centralism in Revolutionary China: Tensions within a People’s Democratic Dictatorship

Democratic centralism was a revolutionary strategy to reorganize society in China after 1949; it was the key governing aspect of Mao Zedong’s “people’s democratic dictatorship.” This essay explores the tensions between democracy and centralization in the practice of democratic centralism in 1950s Shanghai. Youth and workers groups reports reveal a high degree of commitment to open debate, elections, self-organization, and new forms of leadership. Other priorities, however—a strong central state regime—would come to dominate and, after 1957, centralism and unity cancelled democracy.