Bloc party (politics)

As block parties political parties are referred to that exist in states adjacent to the ruling party and are affiliated with this in a block party. These parties were represented in parliaments and governments, without being able to exercise real power. They do not stand in election competition to the ruling party.

Block parties are used to give the appearance of a multi-party system and the government policy virtually bring the governed.

The block parties in the Soviet zone of occupation and later in the GDR belonged to the " anti- Fascist democratic block". This was founded on July 14, 1945 he was later converted to the " democratic bloc of parties and mass organizations ", which was part of the National Front. Aspirations of some block parties, especially during the time of the Soviet occupation zone to operate a separate policy were suppressed. At least since the 1950s represented the block parties the same policy objectives as the SED and completed their policy.

Such block systems, there have been in other countries, not only to "socialist" indicative.

• 2.1 Bulgaria
• 2.2 Poland
• 2.3 Czechoslovakia
• 2.4 Hungary

• 3.1 People's Republic of China
• 3.2 Vietnam
• 3.3 North Korea

Block parties in the GDR

The Fascist anti - democratic block

After the collapse of National Socialism, 1945, the Soviet Military Administration took over the power in the Soviet zone in Germany (SMAD ). In the summer of 1945 it allowed in the "Command No. 2," the establishment of four "anti-fascist " parties under the premise that it the " anti- Fascist democratic block " joined. These were ( in order of creation ):

• The Communist Party of Germany (KPD )
• The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( SPD),
• The Christian Democratic Union of Germany ( CDU) and
• The Liberal Democratic Party of Germany ( Liberal Democratic Party ).

On April 22, 1946, there came to the forced merger of the SPD and the KPD to the SED. The newly formed Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED ) triggered KPD and SPD from the block. 1948 were Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany ( DBD) and the National Democratic Party of Germany ( NDPD ) at. Around the same time the Federation of Trade Unions fdgb and soon after the youth organization FDJ and the Women's Federation DFD were taken to ensure that the political landscape in the GDR had already been formed.

Establishment of DBD and NDPD

The two conservative parties CDU and Liberal Democratic Party had been founded in June / July 1945 as an independent party and were later forced to SED course. In contrast, DBD and NDPD had been initiated by the SMAD 1948 to poach the political clientele the bourgeois parties, the CDU and the Liberal Democratic Party. The historian Hermann Weber described the two new parties as " organs of the SED " from the beginning.

With the Peasant Party from April 1948 farmers should be won, who had little access to the working party, the SED and the CDU were inclined towards. The SED sent to the Board 's own people, including the chairman Ernst gold tree that was before 1933 KPD member. She had almost 30,000 members in its first year.

The NDPD served, " the dividing line between former Nazis and non-Nazis aside ," as Stalin had expressed in March 1948. In June 1948, the NDPD received their license after the SMAD Order No. 35 denazification was canceled and " unloaded " former Nazi party members were allowed to be politically active. Even former officers and displaced persons should be captured by the new party. The SED Management Board discussed at its meeting in May, " this politically ambiguous people " should not give " the voting cattle " for the bourgeois parties, the CDU and LDP in the next election.

First NDPD Chairman, Lothar Bolz, since 1928 member of the KPD and later employee at the National Committee for a Free Germany in the Soviet Union. The party came in September 1948 when the block. In October, she had only two thousand members, in the final phase of the GDR over 100,000. Klaus Schroeder According to the SED significantly more former NSDAP members were involved than in the NDPD.

Functions

Weber writes, the block parties were therefore not resolved after 1949, because they would have occupied a alibi for the SED: You should obscure the communist party rule, simulate a pluralistic democracy. Secondly, they have exerted a transmission function: They should not disseminate certain ideas of the SED in other populations, for example by the CDU in Christian circles.

The block parties had the leading role of the SED recognize and therefore could not develop a separate policy. Some officials of the block parties showed some resistance. " The arrests of civil top officials [ ... ] led to intimidation and accelerated the DC circuit of these parties ," says Weber, and cites the example of the Liberal Democratic Party Minister Karl Hamann.

The number of representatives of the various parties and organizations in the elected bodies was determined in advance, since there was only a single list, which presented the Block ( Unity List (DDR ) ). The representatives of mass organizations were members of a large part of the SED and thus reinforced their position of power.

Representation and benefits of membership

The block parties were represented and executed there, the policy of the SED with in most bodies and institutions of the GDR to the People's Chamber and Council of Ministers (Government). All chairmen of the block parties were from 1960 Deputy to the Council of State, the formal head of state of East Germany. The Chairman of the State Council and the chairman of the National Defense Council, however, was always provided by the SED. Of the 45 members of the Council of Ministers came in 1989 only 4 of the block parties. The relevant ministries ( Foreign Affairs, Interior, Defence, State Security ) were always in the hands of SED members. All major policy decisions of the GDR have been taken by the Politburo of the SED, to which the block parties had no influence.

The officer corps of the security agencies like the state security, the block parties were not represented; In addition, the SED had different from the block parties not only territorial but also an organization in all factories, which made them again more present. Party days of the block parties were always after which the SED, notably: never in Berlin.

When the SED in 1987 counted about 2.2 million members, a total of 469,000 people were members (1977: 365,000 ) in the ( remaining ) block parties. At that time, the GDR had about 16 million residents, including eight million workers. Compared to the West German parties, these figures are very high: the largest Western Party, the SPD had in 1977 culminating with a million members in sixty million German citizens.

Who was a member of a block party, so that showed some willingness to adapt to the regime, but without being a member of the SED. Since the block parties was awarded a certain number of positions in government and society, could be positive for your career a block party membership. The way over the block party was then in individual cases maybe even faster than the SED, since the block parties had fewer members. Nevertheless, it was excluded from the real positions of power in the state, if you were not a line -abiding member of the SED.

In the vernacular, the block parties and their members were sometimes called " Recorders ".

Last years of the GDR

In the late 1980s, shortly before the political changes, the block parties began, very carefully distanced itself from the policy of the SED to go. So Manfred Gerlach expressed, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, openly sympathetic to the Soviet state leadership under Mikhail Gorbachev.

While the change in the GDR the Democratic bloc of parties and mass organizations from late autumn 1989. CDU, DBD, the Liberal Democratic Party and NDPD crumbled away increasingly from the SED policy. 1990, the former block parties of Western parties joined. So LDPD and NDPD combined with the FDP and the DBD and East CDU with the West CDU.

Block party systems in other Eastern Bloc countries

In the Soviet Union itself, but also in a number of its satellites, there was only one party, the Communist. Block party systems known except the GDR nor Bulgaria, the People's Republic of Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Bulgaria

In the People's Republic of Bulgaria existed except the Bulgarian Communist Party ( 1978: 817,000 members), a Bulgarian national union of farmers ( 120,000 members).

Poland

In Poland, the leader ( Communist ) Party was the Polish United Workers' Party ( PZPR ), consisting of " forced merger " of the communist Polish Workers Party ( PPR) and the Social Democratic Polish Socialist Party ( PPS) was established in 1948. The PPR was trying to establish itself on the system of an electoral block a unified election list of common candidate. To participate all block parties were committed.

These were in addition to PPR and PPS, the Polish People's Party (PSL ), a large centrist folk and peasant party, the SP, a completely dependent on the PPR craft party, the SL, which was also dependent on the PPR, and the SD, another small liberal- democratic party.

After 1948, the former bourgeois parties were merged into two block parties. These were the ZSL (United Peasant Party ) and the SD ( Democratic Alliance ). In addition, small Catholic groups were represented in Parliament, the Unia Chrześcijańsko - społeczna ( UCHS, Christian Social Union), the Association of PAX and the Polish Catholic Social Union ( PZKS ). However, the Polish United Workers Party decreed as such always absolute majorities in Parliament, unlike the SED in the GDR.

1976 and 1977 had the PZPR 2.45 million, the ZSL 420,000 ( mostly farmers ) and the SD 90,000 (rather urban middle class ) members.

1989, the ZSL sparked the subordination to the PZPR, renamed itself back into PSL and carried the Mazowiecki government into office. The SD and the Christian groups played in the first democratic elections after 1989 is no longer relevant, but later re- organized under a different name, such as the League of Polish Families.

Czechoslovakia

The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic also block parties. In the Czech republic the communists organized themselves into the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (1976: 1.3 million members) and in Slovakia in the Communist Party of Slovakia. Other parties in the National Front were the Czechoslovak People's Party ( Christian Social for citizens) and the Czechoslovak Socialist Party ( urban middle class ). In Slovakia, there was the party of the Slovak renewal and the Slovak Freedom Party.

Hungary

In the People's Republic of Hungary in 1956, Imre Nagy had admitted in his short reign of other parties, but they are not to be regarded as block parties. Before and after the communist regime has banned all parties except the Communist ( the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party ).

Other socialist countries

People's Republic of China

In the People's Republic of China, there are, in addition to the ruling Communist Party of China, eight "democratic parties ":

• Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang, the left wing of the former Kuomintang who came to the communists in the civil war in 1948
• China Democratic League
• China Democratic National Construction Association
• China Association for Promoting Democracy
• Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party
• China Zhi Gong Party
• The society of September 3
• Democratic Self -government League Taiwan

They all have less than each 150,000 members, the Communist however, 70 million. Other parties exist only in the underground.

Vietnam

In the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Communist Party of Vietnam allowed two other parties, the Democratic Party from June 1944 ( for merchants ) and the Socialist Party (especially "intelligence" ) of July 1946., You recognize the leadership of the Communists and working in the Fatherland Front with.

North Korea

In North Korea, there is next to the ruling Workers' Party of Korea or the Korean Social Democratic Party and the Chondoistische Ch'ŏngu party. These are joined together in the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland.

Syria

Syria is ruled by the Baath Party, which combines Arab nationalism with socialist elements. In the National Progressive Front In total there are ten parties, including the Syrian Communist Party, the Nasserist Arab Socialist Union and the Nationalist Syrian Social Nationalist Party and some splinter parties formed by former Baathists.