Incommunist and socialist theory, collective leadership is a shared distribution of power within an organizational structure.
Collective leadership in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is generally considered to have begun with reformist Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s during the same time period as the Chinese economic reform, who tried to encourage the CCP Politburo Standing Committee to rule by consensus in order to prevent a resurgence of autocracy under Maoist rule. CCP general secretary Jiang Zemin formally established himself as the "first among equals". Some political analysts has alleged that this era of collective leadership has been said to end with Xi Jinping, following the abolition of term limits in 2018 under his tenure.[1]
Xi has taken deliberate steps to establish his personal dominance within the Chinese political system, effectively rising above his peers in the Politburo Standing Committee. He has done so by creating key bodies such as the National Security Commission, which holds sway over party, state, and military organizations.[citation needed] Furthermore, Xi heads the Small Leadership Group on Comprehensively Deepening Reform, a pivotal entity responsible for designing and executing various reform initiatives. His leadership of this group underscores his intention to personally oversee institutional reforms.[citation needed]
Xi has also made it clear that he will have the final say in economic and financial matters, foregoing the tradition of shared responsibility with the Premier. Consequently, Xi's purview now extends to encompass military affairs, security, foreign policy, economic reform, state-building, economic policymaking, and social governance.[2] This concentration of power has led to concerns that Xi's actions might be undermining essential party norms and pushing China toward a more personalistic dictatorship, a notion reinforced by the party machine and state media's vigorous promotion of his image and authority through various channels such as publishing his speeches and writings, public appearances, and the creation of cartoons portraying him as a strong leader.[3]
Currently, the central authority of the Chinese government and CCP is concentrated in the CCP Politburo Standing Committee, which is composed of seven members of the Communist Party and headed by the CCP general secretary.[4] Nevertheless, while the CCP de jure maintains collective leadership of government, the position of the CCP general secretary has palpably become more powerful under Xi's administration, with him being the most powerful paramount leader since Mao Zedong.[5]
In the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) under the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), when the country was ruled by Lê Duẩn, collective leadership involved powers being distributed from the office of General Secretary of the Communist Party and shared with the Politburo Standing Committee while still retaining one ruler.[citation needed]
Today, there is not one paramount leader in Vietnam; power is shared between the General Secretary, President and the Prime Minister along with collegial bodies such as the Politburo, Secretariat and the Central Committee.[citation needed]
Collective leadership (Russian: коллективное руководство, kollektivnoye rukovodstvo) or Collectivity of leadership (Russian: коллективность руководства, kollektivnost rukovodstva), was considered an ideal form of governance in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) under the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Its main task was to distribute powers and functions among the Politburo, the Central Committee, and the Council of Ministers to hinder any attempts to create a one-man dominance over the Soviet political system by a Soviet leader, such as that seen under Joseph Stalin's rule. On the national level, the heart of the collective leadership was officially the Central Committee of the Communist Party, but in practice, was the Politburo. Collective leadership is characterized by limiting the powers of the General Secretary and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Premier) as related to other offices by enhancing the powers of collective bodies, such as the Politburo.[citation needed]
Vladimir Lenin was, according to Soviet literature[broken anchor], the perfect example of a leader ruling in favour of the collective. Stalin was also claimed to embody this style of ruling, with most major policy decisions involving lengthy discussion and debate in the politburo and/or central committee; after his death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev accused Stalinofone-man dominance, leading to controversy surrounding the period of his rule. At the 20th Party Congress, Stalin's reign was criticized by Khrushchev as a "personality cult". As Stalin's successor, Khrushchev supported the ideal of collective leadership but increasingly ruled in an autocratic fashion, his anti-Stalin accusations followed by much the same behaviour which led to accusations of hypocrisy. In 1964, Khrushchev was ousted and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev as General Secretary and by Alexei Kosygin as Premier. Collective leadership was strengthened during the Brezhnev years and the later reignsofYuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko. Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms helped spawn factionalism within the Soviet leadership, and members of Gorbachev's faction openly disagreed with him on key issues. The factions usually disagreed on how little or how much reform was needed to rejuvenate the Soviet system.[citation needed]
Aside from Marxist–Leninist states, left-wingtofar-left green and socialist parties in liberal democracies often also practice collective leadership under socialist ideals, either through male and female co-leaders or through several co-spokespersons. For green parties, this practice is often justified by their movement's emphasis on consensus decision making and gender equality.
The Directorial system is a system of government in which executive power is held by a group of people who operate under a system of collegiality.[10] While there may be a nominal leader, the post is considered to be ceremonial or a first among equals and it typically rotates among its members.
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