China Official post-Mao historiography portrays 1966 as the year when
Mao wrongly abandoned the organizational principle of collective leadership (
jiti lingdao 集体领导). Collective leadership in the
People's Republic of China (PRC) and the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is generally considered to have then begun with reformist
Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s during the same time period as the
reform and opening up, 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. 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. 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. Xi has 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. 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. 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. 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.
Vietnam 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. Power is shared between the General Secretary,
President, the
Prime Minister as well as the
National Assembly Chairmain along with collegial bodies such as the
Politburo,
Secretariat and the
Central Committee.
Soviet Union Collective leadership (, '
) or Collectivity of leadership (, '), 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. According to
Soviet literature,
Vladimir Lenin was 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 Stalin of
one-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 reigns of
Yuri 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. ==Other left-wing parties==