One-party state

The contest took place within a one-party state, not through an election between rival political parties. Winning meant gaining support inside the Communist Party, whose leaders controlled government decisions. Stalin’s victory therefore depended on organisation and alliances as well as competing ideas about the USSR’s future.

Mao was also a nationalist: he wanted China to shape its own future and develop a form of communism suited to Chinese conditions. He believed that the CCP should lead this transformation through a one-party state, rather than allow rival parties to compete freely for government.

Germany had become a one-party state: voters could no longer choose an alternative party to govern.