one-party state

State in which one political party dominates, constitutionally or unofficially, to the point where there is no effective opposition. There may be no legal alternative parties, as, for example, in Cuba. In other instances, a few token members of an opposition party may be tolerated, or one party may be permanently in power, with no elections. The one-party state differs from the ‘dominant-party’ state, where one party controls government for an extended period, as the Liberal Democrats did in Japan 1955–93, but where there are openly-democratic competitive elections.

Since 1989 pluralism has spread rapidly throughout the world and one-party states are now in a minority.