Dual power is the equal status of the two branches of government

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:55

Dual power is a historical reality that has happened on all continents at all times. But it was called differently: diarchy, duumvirate. The principate was also a diarchy, a specific form of the early Roman monarchy, in which the emperor was opposed by the Senate, supported by the people. The essence of these phenomena is the same - the equal status of the two highest officials or centers in the state.

Many countries are familiar with dual power

From the lexical meaning of the word it is clear that dual power is the power of two. There are many examples in history when two people ruled the country at the same time. In Spain, these are Ferdinand and Isabella ruling together.

In countries like Bhutan (which still exists) and Tibet, there was a dual system of government. Peter I in 1682 ascended the throne together with his brother Ivan. But dual power is different for dual power. If the Spanish dictators were a single entity, then the tsars Ivan V and Peter I were antagonists who sat on the thronesimultaneously as a result of a bloody streltsy revolt. They represented two clans that hated each other - the Miloslavskys and the Naryshkins. Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, the Golden Horde and Medieval Sweden, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, England and Scotland during the time of William III of Orange are familiar with such dual power.

Short-term phenomenon in case of confrontation

Almost always, the power of two gives rise to confusion and does not last long by historical standards. That is, dual power unsupported by a common idea and goals is a temporary phenomenon. Political confrontation cannot be constructive. And the country under him will not be prosperous. This is in the case when there is no interaction between power centers, when all power is not divided between them to achieve a better result, but, on the contrary, there is a fierce confrontation between two administrative units charged with equal powers. In such a situation, one way out is possible - one of the parties needs to win and concentrate power in their own and only in their own hands. Therefore, dual power is always dangerous, as a rule, it is always accompanied by a civil war and a lot of bloodshed.

Purely domestic phenomenon

The most striking and illustrative example of this statement is the dual power in Russia, which was established after the February Revolution and lasted from March to July 1917. Despite the fact that history has already known cases of a dual system of government, analogous to what happened in Russia,did not have. As noted above, dual power is two branches of power that exist in parallel. In the seventeenth year in Russia, one of them was the Provisional Government, which was an organ of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the other - the Soviets of Workers and Soldiers' Deputies, the sprout of the future power of the people. But at that moment, the overwhelming majority of seats in the Soviet went to the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries - 250, the Bolsheviks received only 28. This happened because the predecessor of the Petrosoviet was the Working Group of the Central Military Industrial Committee (TsVPK) created by the Mensheviks in 1915. At the head was the Menshevik K. A. Gvozdev. The Bolsheviks still had little organizational experience.

Anti-People's Menshevik government

Naturally, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks pursued their own policies. The main idea they declare is that the country is not yet ripe for a socialist revolution. They also proposed the creation of a Provisional Government, which was invested with power, but the Soviets retained the right to control the activities of the new government structure. The Soviets relied on the strength of the insurgent people, but the bourgeois Provisional Government was in power. The dual power that arose in February is a political confrontation between the people and the bourgeoisie. The two branches of power had different goals - the Bolsheviks demanded the continuation of the revolution, as a result of the victory of which the dictatorship of the proletariat would be established, the bourgeoisie demanded the continuation of the war. They disagreed on almost all issues, agreement was reached only on a ban on the seizure of the lands of the landowners. Solving complex problems due to impossibilitycompromise was postponed until later.

Trouble well known to Russia

Naturally, in such a situation, the crisis of the Provisional Government came already in mid-March. G. E. Lvov became chairman of the next coalition government of "socialist ministers", which lasted 1.5 months and survived two crises in such a short period of time. In general, from March to October, 4 compositions of the Provisional Government replaced each other.

It was noted above that dual power is almost always turmoil. There was no point, however, each newly elected Provisional Government demanded the continuation of the war and the fulfillment of obligations to the allies. The Soviets, headed by the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, were essentially at one with the government, which undermined the confidence of the people, causing their indignation. A bloody confrontation was brewing. In July, a 500,000-strong demonstration was shot down by troops loyal to the Provisional Government, whose formation was facilitated by the February Revolution. The dual power ended with the victory of the bourgeoisie. The Bolshevik Party was banned and went underground.