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Soviet democracy is a form of democracy in which workers elect representatives in the organs of power called soviets (councils). According to Lenin and other Soviet ideologists, Soviets represent the democratic will of the working class. Soviets can override any decision of any body or authority of the state by only simple majority. Any decision of a soviet of the proper level has power of law and does not require undersigning by the head of state.
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In theory
Local workers' soviets elect representatives that go on to form regional soviets, which in turn elect representatives that form higher soviets, and so on up to a Supreme Soviet, the highest legislative body of the entire country. This is a method of democracy through which the dictatorship of the proletariat can be exercised in large populations. The soviets are elected from worker's collectives from most reputable their members. Soviet democracy is democracy by proxy. This is to say that members of the soviets are close to those workers or lower soviet members that they represent and therefore can accurately translate the people's decisions into legislation. This is in contrast to representative democracy in which representatives are elected to make decisions at a national level in the interest of the people without mediums or intermediaries.
The first soviets, also called workers councils, were formed after the Russian Revolution of 1905. In Alan Moorehead's //www.ditext.com/moorehead/4.html The Russian Revolution (1958), the following passages describe the origin of soviets: "The other event concerns Trotsky. Directly the strike got under way in October, 1905, he came back secretly to Petrograd and joined in the work of organizing a general strike committee which was to act as a headquarters for the workers. Delegates, each representing five hundred men, were elected in the factories and sent to a central council or Soviet, and this Soviet now controlled the strike in Petrograd. It distributed arms and supplies, took charge of policy, issued its orders in the form of printed bulletins, arranged for guards and demonstrations, and acted, in fact, in much the same way as an army headquarters acts in the field. The idea of a Soviet was not new -- Axelrod and others had canvassed it some time before -- but this was the first actual experiment in giving the workers a central direction in an emergency, and although it only lasted a few weeks it set a pattern which was to be followed in 1917.
A similar body was set up in Moscow, but the Petrograd Soviet was the important one, and it was very largely controlled by the Mensheviks. Its first two presidents, Zubrovsky and Khrustalev-Nosar, followed more or less along the Menshevik line, and Trotsky shared the practical leadership with Parvus. The Bolsheviks in Petrograd tried at first to boycott the Soviet -- Lenin, whether at home or abroad, had no love for any organization which he could not control -- but finally they came in when they saw which way the wind was blowing."
Lenin and the Bolsheviks saw the soviet as the basic organizing unit of society in a communist system and supported this form of democracy. The soviets also played a considerable role in the February and October Revolution. At that time, they represented a variety of parties in addition to Bolsheviks. The soviet system, however, was betrayed by Lenin after the 1917 October Revolution, who in January 1918 convened and then dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly when it was realized that the Bolshevik party did not have a majority. This betrayal was, in fact, a coup. This gave rise to the Russian Civil War and a top-down dictatorship by Lenin.
Soon after the revolution, the Bolsheviks had to defend the newly formed government in the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1920. Two years after the Red Army's triumph in that civil war the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed.
Soon after the October Revolution, the effects of the civil war on the new soviet government are in part what led to the decline of soviet democracy in Russia (due to the authority a state must take on in war time) and to the emergence of the bureaucratic structure that maintained much control throughout the history of the Soviet Union. When Stalin came to power he consoliduated much more authority under the party. Soviets were transformed into the bureaucratic structure that existed throughout the history of the Soviet Union and were completely under control of the party officials. During the time of Joseph Stalin's leadership of the Soviet Union, the centralized power was consolidated under Stalin and the politburo rather than within the working class or proletariat.
In the Soviet Union
Soviet Constitution of 1977 stated:
- Article 1: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a socialist state of the whole people, expressing the will and interests of the workers, peasants, and intelligentsia, the working people of all the nations and nationalities of the country.''
- Article 2:
- All power in the USSR belongs to the people.
- The people exercise state power through Soviets of People's Deputies, which constitute the political foundation of the USSR.
- All other state bodies are under the control of, and accountable to, the Soviets of People's Deputies.
Unlike the Communist party hierarchy in which the local organizations elected representatives that formed higher structures, and so on up to the Central Committee (see democratic centralism), the Supreme Soviet was elected in the way very similar to the election of a legislature in a liberal democracy. According to Constitution of 1977:
- Article 95: Deputies to all Soviets shall be elected on the basis of universal, equal, and direct suffrage by secret ballot.
- Article 96:
- Elections shall be universal: all citizens of the USSR who have reached the age of 18 shall have the right to vote and to be elected, with the exception of persons who have been certified insane.
- To be eligible for election to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR a citizen of the USSR must have reached the age of 21.
- Article 97: Elections shall be equal: each citizen shall have one vote; all voters shall exercise the franchise on an equal footing.
- Article 98: Elections shall be direct: deputies to all Soviets of People's Deputies shall be elected by direct vote.
- Article 99: Voting at elections shall be secret: control over voters' exercise of the franchise is inadmissible.
Despite these provisions, the electors were not given much choice: the electoral bulletin sometimes contained only one name. This was achieved through the following control mechanisms over the elections:
- Article 100:
- The following shall have the right to nominate candidates: branches and organizations of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, trade unions, and the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League; cooperatives and other public organizations; work collectives, and meetings of servicemen in their military units.
- Citizens of the USSR and public organizations are guaranteed the right to free and all-round discussion of the political and personal qualities and competence of candidates, and the right to campaign for them at meetings, in the press, and on television and radio.
- The expenses involved in holding elections to Soviets of People's Deputies shall be met by the state.
During the early history of the Soviet Union, the Soviets were meant to be a method of democracy through which the dictatorship of the proletariat could be exercised in large populations. Later, they were called the dictatorship of all working people. Eventually, the word "dictatorship" was dropped from the Constitution of 1977.
Ideally, members of the soviets are close to those workers whom they represent and therefore can accurately translate the people's will into government decisions. Similar to the idea of representative democracy in which representatives are elected to make decisions at a national level, the Supreme Soviet members were supposed to represent the will of all working people. In reality, Soviets did not play any significant role in the Soviet Union, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was in control of the vast majority of decisions. The members of the Soviets were also nominated by the party (see Article 100 of the Constitution above). The leading role of the Communist party was a constitutional provision:
- Article 6:
- The leading and guiding force of the Soviet society and the nucleus of its political system, of all state organizations and public organizations, is the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The CPSU exists for the people and serves the people.
- The Communist Party, armed with Marxism-Leninism, determines the general perspectives of the development of society and the course of the home and foreign policy of the USSR, directs the great constructive work of the Soviet people, and imparts a planned, systematic and theoretically substantiated character to their struggle for the victory of communism.
- All party organizations shall function within the framework of the Constitution of the USSR.
While Soviets were supposed to be a legislature power, Executive Committees formed by the Soviets were supposed to be an executive power. Executive Committees were also controlled by the party organs. All versions of the Soviet constitution claimed that the people execute their power through the Soviets, but this was only a theoretical statement. In fact, many people did not make a connection between the name of the state, Soviet Union (Советский Союз) and the Soviets. According to one Russian joke, the state was named Soviet because the people liked to give each other lots of advice (in addition to "council", the word "soviet" can mean "counsel" in Russian).
To be the leader of the party, but not formally of the state evidently irritated Leonid Brezhnev, and he made himself both the General Secretary of the party and the Chairman of Supreme Soviet. Nikolai Podgorny, the former Chairman had to retire — according to yet another Russian joke because of "nebrezhnost" (this can mean "inaccuracy", "sloppiness" or "non-Brezhnev").
"Soviet democracy"