Democratic centralisation

The Communist Party should be based on the principle of democratic centralisation. The chief principle of the latter is the elective nature of the lowest unit, the absolute authority of all the decisions of a higher unit upon the one immediately beneath, and a strong party central organ, whose decrees are binding upon all the leaders of party life between party conventions.

All the parties belonging to the Communist International should be formed on the basis of the principle of democratic centralisation. At the present time of acute civil war the Communist Party will only be able fully to do its duty when it is organised in a sufficiently thorough way, when it possesses an iron discipline and when its Party centre enjoys the confidence of the members of the Party, who are to endow this centre with complete power, authority and ample rights.

The idea of any such central organisation is unpalatable to some people. But the harsh lesson from the past is that if you do not have democratic centralisation your eventual reaction to centralised attacks on the movement will be the embracing of undemocratic, authoritarian forms of centralisation.