People's democratic dictatorship

The People's Democratic Dictatorship is a model of government devised by Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party from 1943 to 1976, in which the State and the Communist Party democratically represent the interests of the People and carry out their will by acting on their behalf as any elected government is theoretically supposed to. Unlike a typical democratic society however, the State has certain dictatorial powers intended to allow it to ensure the continuation of Communist governance and - at least in theory - protect the People from those who would seek to destroy the government system or revert to the previous one (reactionism). In the People's Republic of China, such a dictatorship takes the form of a de jure multi-party democracy. In practice, the system of a People's Democratic Dictatorship allowed figures such as Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and - to a much lesser degree - Jiang Zemin to establish personal dictatorships. Recently however, the system has been seen to democraticise, today promoting the collective leadership of the CCP's Politburo Standing Committee and leading to some democratic reform according to proponents.

Micronationally, many Communist States can be described officially or unofficially as People's Democratic Dictatorships. The Democratic People's Republic of Erusia officially calls itself a Communist Democracy, but is in practice seen to be a People's Democratic Dictatorship - indeed, the term has been used by Erusian National Communist Party leader Robert Lethler to refer to the nation as such. The Federated Republics of A1 is another example of a long-running PDD, though it also uses a different official name for its system of government and places greater emphasis on personal rather than collective leadership. More recently, the Socialist Republic of Murrayfield could be described as another micronational example of such a society, along similar lines to A1.

Criticism

Some criticize that this form of government has nothing to do with democracy or the people, and is thus merely a pretentious form of despotism.