From Chaos to Control: Is the West Heading Toward a One-Party Future?

The Role of Political Parties as Systemic Governance Tools

China’s one-party system leaves us perplexed, but the West may be moving along a trajectory leading it to a similar political structure.

The stark contrast between the West and China appeared clear when comparing the speech by President Trump at the United Nations on September 23rd with that of President Xi Jinping one day later. Trump’s speech was aggressive, focused on chaos, war, and destruction. Xi Jinping came out with peace, clean air, and prosperity. And it is not just a question of specific leaders. The US and other Western countries have followed aggressive military policies for decades, while China has been mostly peaceful and concentrating on building a prosperous economy. What’s going on with the West?

It is an especially remarkable story if we consider that, in the West, we are used to the idea that our multi-party democratic system is inherently superior to one-party systems, such as the Chinese or the old Soviet ones. But how do we reconcile this belief with the evident success of China? What was wrong with the Soviet Union but not with China? That leads us to ask a basic question: what is a political party for?

Taking into account that every rule has exceptions, I analyzed several historical cases of the cycles of ancient and modern political parties. You can read the details in the appendix. Here, let me summarize the results:

1. Political parties are instruments of change. Most of them start their existence promising to put “the people” in power, getting rid of parasitic and oppressive elites. Sometimes they manage to do exactly that, generating bloody revolutions. It is the case, for instance, of the Soviet Communists.

2. Once in power, the former revolutionary hotheads tend to become more conservative, blending into the state structures they promised to destroy or reform. A case in point was Italian Fascism, which was gradually becoming more bourgeois after its initial aggressive ideological phase.

3. We tend to associate political parties with democracy, but they are not necessarily democratic organizations. Their strong ideological commitment will lead them to justify any means to impose their ideas, including violence, persuasion, and corruption. The story of how political movements reneged their promises once in power is long and variegated. Perhaps the starkest example is the recent one of how the German Greens turned themselves from pacifists into warmongers once becoming part of the government coalition.

4. Multi-party or two-party systems are inherently unstable unless the differences are purely cosmetic, as was the case in the US up to not long ago. But it is a precarious equilibrium and, typically, when one of the parties manages to take power, it proceeds to consolidate it by not calling further elections. Or by ruling that the other parties cannot run in them. The Italian Fascist Party gained absolute power by a series of steps, all legal and all approved by the Italian People. But, in some cases, this phase involves the jailing or the extermination of the members of the opposition parties.

5. Parties tend to have a short life cycle in comparison to that of the state in which they grow. Soviet Communism lasted less than 80 years, Fascism a little more than 20 years. The recent M5S party in Italy survived as a relevant political force for less than 10 years.

Now, what about the Chinese Communist Party? It is not an atypical case. It started as a radical movement that went through an ideologically destructive phase, the “Cultural Revolution.” But, in time, it shifted to a more conservative structure dedicated to progress, harmony, and prosperity according to Chinese Confucian principles. Its moderate policies were successful in improving the conditions of life of Chinese Citizens, and now the Communist Party is deeply embedded in Chinese society, facing no significant internal opposition.

It is a system that we Westerners tend to dislike because of the Government’s capillary control over every aspect of people’s lives. But it works: it ensures stability and redistribution of wealth at levels similar to those of Western countries. Western people often fault China for its repression of the separatist movement in the Xinjiang region, which is undoubtedly a sore spot. Still, whatever the Chinese Government did and is doing there, it does not compare with the aggressive and violent policies of Western governments in recent times.

Why did Chinese Communism persist, while the Soviet version disappeared? In history, you can ask plenty of questions, but there may not be as many answers, at least in terms of certainty about them. The success of Chinese Communism may be the result of how well it blended with the old Chinese imperial government system, where it played the same role as the old imperial bureaucracy that tested candidates on the basis of their knowledge of Confucian classics. Or it may be because the Chinese leaders are traditionally cautious, and they never embarked on disastrous military adventures such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. In any case, nothing lasts forever, and Chinese Communism can’t be an exception. But, for the time being, it is a stable system that keeps working and generating stability rather than the chaos engulfing Western countries nowadays.

So, should we adopt the Chinese one-party system? We might argue that it would be a good idea (as Gandhi said about Western Civilization), but we are not Chinese, and it may still take some time before we absorb the Confucian principles of harmony and benevolence in the West. In practice, though, things always change, and the US may be following a typical historical trajectory that leads from a two-party system to a single-party one.

Up to not long ago, the two parties in the US, the Dems and the Reps, tended to respect each other, and the ideological differences were minor. Now, a chasm seems to be developing between them, larger and larger as time goes by. The recent case of Charlie Kirk’s assassination has highlighted how deep the chasm is and how harsh the confrontation has become, with some Democrats rejoicing on social media about the killing and some Republicans exploiting that to gain political leverage.

Given the situation, it is not unthinkable that the Republicans in power could declare the Democratic Party a terrorist organization, invoking the legal definition of domestic terrorism under 18 U.S.C. § 2331. On the opposite side, after the 2021 assault on the Capitol Building by Trump’s supporters, several Democratic politicians advocated treating the riot like a terrorist attack, also invoking the legal definition of domestic terrorism. In both cases, the US political system would be turned into a one-party system; not unlike China.

A one-party system is the normal state of things in most of the world. I am not saying it would be a good thing for the US, but it might give it the stability it desperately needs in order to maintain at least part of its Global Empire. It could happen, but the Americans are not Chinese, and the idea could well backfire and degenerate into a full-fledged civil war. But so is the way of history, never exactly repeating, yet following similar paths all the time.

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Appendix 1 — Technology and political parties

Modern political parties are the result of modern communication technologies. In ancient times, you had a king or an emperor, and that was all politics was about. Then, the printing press came, and one of the consequences was Communism. Fascism came later, as a direct result of the diffusion of printed mass media. It was a triumph of mass propaganda that was later imitated by the German Nazis. Modern governments still use the propaganda techniques developed during that historical phase.

But things always change. New technologies emerged, and they had a profound impact. In 1994, Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian financial tycoon, had the brilliant idea of exploiting the TV channels he owned to promote his ascent to power. So, he established his “Forza Italia” party, which shed away most of the trappings of the old political parties to concentrate on bringing the message via TV to the least cultured fraction of the population to gain their votes. It worked beautifully. Berlusconi remained a powerful force in Italy until his death in 2017. Barack Obama used some similar techniques in the US.

Then, in 2009, an Italian entrepreneur, Gianroberto Casaleggio, and the actor Beppe Grillo established the first Web-based political party, the “Five Star Movement” (M5S). All communications among party members were to occur on a specific platform that Casaleggio had created. It also served as a decision-making instrument. The movement had a certain success, and in 2020, the M5S government led by Giuseppe Conte managed the COVID-19 crisis in what will probably be remembered as the greatest failure in crisis management after Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812. Right now, the M5S is a spent force, although it still exists as a political party.

It is a continuing story. The world’s communication system is evolving at a dramatic speed, and the traditional parties are rapidly becoming as obsolete as town criers screaming, “Hear ye! Hear ye!” The next big thing will be AI-based political parties. We saw some hints of this possible future in the DOGE initiative by Elon Musk, but that was just a start. AI entering the fray will create enormous changes. As a propaganda machine in the hands of evil forces, its impact could be enormous. The final may well be something unrecognizable as a political party, although it may play the same role.

Appendix 2: Historical Political Parties.

Here is a list of the entities that formed a parallel governance backbone in ancient and modern states and that we may define as “parties” in one or another way. It is a list that goes back to the times of the Roman Empire. It is not complete; these are just some examples that I think are interesting to review.

1. The Christian Church. It took over in Europe when the Roman State became unable to maintain control over its territories. It was based on Christian principles, it emphasized poverty and personal virtues, and it was especially suitable to the hard times of the late Roman Empire and early Middle Ages. It played a fundamental role in maintaining Roman knowledge and culture during the so-called “Dark Ages.” It was not suitable for the economic expansion of the Renaissance, and it gradually faded out, although it still exists.

2. The Blues and Greens in the Byzantine Empire. These groups originated in the Roman Republic as early as the 1st century BCE, when they began as organized supporter clubs for the colors worn by charioteers in the Circus Maximus. By the 5th century CE, however, they had evolved into powerful guilds. That made them one of the earliest examples of proto-political parties with organized structures, ideological leanings, and the ability to mobilize crowds. The Blues typically represented the upper classes, conservative merchants, and religious orthodoxy (Chalcedonian Christianity), while the Greens appealed to the lower classes, merchants, and often Monophysitism (a Christological doctrine emphasizing Christ’s single divine nature). The Greens were wiped out by the Imperial forces supporting the Blues during the “Nika” rebellion of January 532 CE. But the Blues faded out afterward. too.

3. The Guelphs and the Ghibellines in Italy. Two opposing factions in medieval Italy, particularly from the 12th to 14th centuries. The Guelphs supported the Papacy and its authority over secular rulers, typically associated with the city's bourgeois class. The Ghibellines backed the Holy Roman Emperor and imperial authority and were typically associated with feudal nobility and rural aristocrats. Later, the Ghibellines disappeared, but the Guelphs split into “Black” and “White” factions. They disappeared with the loss of importance of the Papacy and the Empire in Europe.

4. The Jacobins in France. They were a revolutionary political club in France during the French Revolution (1789–1799), named after their meeting place, the Dominican convent of Saint Jacques in Paris. They are a significant step closer to modern political parties in terms of tending to be a “single party” that dominated the state on the basis of ideological concepts. Among other things, they orchestrated the deposition and the decapitation of King Louis XVI (1793). They were the origin of the “Terror” period in France, 1793–1794, a phenomenon that was repeated in later history when strongly ideologized (fanatical, if you like) parties took over the state structure.

5. The Freemasons. Not really a political party, but one of the many semi-secret societies that appeared at the end of the 18th century with the purpose of subverting the old order and replace it with the entrepreneur class using popular revolution. The Freemasons were followed by other secret societies with different names: the “Adelphians,” (”brothers”) the “Philadelphians,” and more. The Carbonari were the Italian version of this movement of ideas. They never were very successful, but some are still around, and we may recognize their methods and style in some modern secret revolutionary organizations such as Al Qaida.

6. The Communist Party. The Communist movement began with the Communist League (1847–1852), a small international group of radicals that commissioned Marx and Engels to write the Communist Manifesto. Later, Communist parties formed across Europe and beyond, with the first major national party being the Social Democratic Labour Party in Russia (1898), which split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, became the Russian Communist Party after seizing power in 1917. Then, they proceeded to eliminate the Mensheviks. We all know how the parable of Communism evolved in the Soviet Union: after some 80 years of dominance over the state, both the party and the state collapsed in 1991. National Communist parties in Europe also collapsed shortly afterward. But the Chinese Communist Party is still alive and well.

7. The Fascist party in Italy. Fascism began with the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (Italian Combat Leagues), founded by Mussolini in March 1919 in Milan. Initially a loose coalition of nationalists, war veterans, and anti-socialists, it became the National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF) in 1921. It was formed with the specific idea of fighting the Communists, and it adopted several of its methods and trapping, although with different colors and symbols. Despite having been created with capital from the upper class, it had a strong populist appeal. It is one of the earliest examples of a “totalitarian” party taking over the state, even having its own militia (the camicie nere, the blackshirts). Mainly, Fascists were nationalists and racists, but they gradually lost their violent and aggressive initial habits, becoming relatively moderate in many respects and slowly merging with the regular state apparatus. Their reliance on a single madman, supposed to be “always right,” and the idea that Italy should rebuild the Roman Empire brought their downfall in 1945.

8. The Nazist party in Germany. Formed by Adolf Hitler in 1920, evolving from the German Workers’ Party (DAP), adopting the swastika and the “National Socialist” label to appeal to both nationalists and workers. Nazism was formed by adopting many ideas and methods of the Italian Fascist Party, but it was more extreme in many ways. It combined ultra-nationalism, anti-Semitism, and racial supremacy centered on the “Aryan” myth. It was highly centralized, with its paramilitary wings (SA, SS), youth groups (Hitler Youth), and extensive propaganda led by figures like Joseph Goebbels. The Nazis ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. Their defeat in 1945 ended the regime, with the Nazi party banned and most of its leaders executed.

9. The Christian Democrats (DC) in Italy. The DC emerged in 1943 from its original form as the “Partito Popolare Italiano, PPI” as a broad coalition of anti-fascist and anti-Communist Catholics, reviving the PPI’s crusader shield symbol (scudo crociato). They were embedded in a multi-party system, so they weren’t a “totalitarian” style party. But, in practice, they monopolized power and dominated Italian politics. They governed continuously from 1945 to 1994 (the longest ruling party in Western European history). Despite their military-based logo, they were very moderate in their ideology, something that surely helped their long-term existence.

10. The Ba’ath Party in the Middle East. Founded in Syria in 1947 by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, and others, promoting a blend of Arab nationalism, socialism, and anti-imperialism. It became a dominant force in Syria and Iraq, shaping their politics through authoritarian regimes. The Ba’ath Party advocated Pan-Arabism (uniting Arab nations), secular socialism, and anti-imperialism. It promoted a strong, centralized state, modernization, and social reforms (e.g., land redistribution, education), while rejecting Western liberalism and Marxism’s class focus. It faded with the defeat of the States in which it was entrenched. Iraq was defeated in 2003 by the United States, and Syria by a Revolutionary Islamic coalition in 2024.

11. The Iranian Basij. It is not a formal political party but functions in ways that resemble one: as a key pillar of the Islamic Republic’s hardline conservative faction, mobilizing supporters, enforcing ideology, and influencing elections. Formally known as the Sâzmân-e Basij-e Mostaz’afin (”Organization for the Mobilization of the Oppressed”), it operates under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and reports directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader. The Basij embodies the regime’s vision of a “20 million-strong army” of ideologically committed citizens, blending military, social control, and political roles. A parallel organization is that of Hezbollah, active in Lebanon and other Middle Eastern regions.

12. The Green Party in Europe. A party that had a specifically strong ideological line. It had some success in the 1990s, but it never succeeded in gaining political traction unless its members sold themselves to the traditional parties. Now they still exist in some countries, but as a marginal force or — as in Germany — as an unrecognizable mongrel.

13. “Forza Italia.” A right-wing populist party in Italy that effectively used media-based propaganda techniques to obtain vote from the least educated voters using simplified messages. It was a creation of a single man, Silvio Berlusconi, who used his financial means to create it and propel himself to leadership in Italy. It had some success, but with the death of Berlusconi in 2023, it is now a minor force in Italian politics.

14. The “5-star” movement. A political party created from scratch in 2009 with the idea of using social media as its backbone and communication method. It didn’t have a specific ideological base except generic ideas about fighting corruption and returning power to “the people.” It had some initial success, but it rapidly faded when its “mind,” Roberto Casaleggio, died in 2016.