politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

, "the line", "the party line", or "the lines to take" is an

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a Literal and figurative language, figurative or non-literal meaning (linguistic), meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic speech, formulaic ...

for a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

social movement A social movement is either a loosely or carefully organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a Social issue, social or Political movement, political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to re ...

's canon agenda, as well as ideological elements specific to the organization's partisanship. The common phrase " toeing the party line" describes a person who speaks in a manner that conforms to their political party's position, with the position frequently defined by the party leadership. The party structure pushing its representatives in parliament to vote along the line is referred to as party discipline, and efforts to enforce it are referred to as " whipping". Likewise, a party-line vote is one in which most or all of the legislators from each political party voted in accordance with that party's policies. In several countries, a whip attempts to ensure this. The Marxist–Leninist concept of

democratic centralism Democratic centralism is the organisational principle of most communist parties, in which decisions are made by a process of vigorous and open debate amongst party membership, and are subsequently binding upon all members of the party. The co ...

involves strict adherence to, and defence of, a communist party's positions in public known as the general line of the party or political line. According to the American educator Herbert Kohl, writing about debates in New York in the late 1940s and early 1950s, " e term ' politically correct' was used disparagingly to refer to someone whose loyalty to the CP line overrode compassion and led to bad politics. It was used by Socialists against Communists, and was meant to separate out Socialists who believed in equalitarian moral ideas from dogmatic Communists who would advocate and defend party positions regardless of their moral substance." Used loosely, the phrase "the party line" may also refer to the non-party organizations such as religious groups, business offices, or a social network that may have a semi-official organizational policy or position that is unrelated to any political party. In this sense it is used to describe following a certain plan of actions defined by the organization.

In Leninism

Leninism Leninism (, ) is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vangu ...

, the party line (also a correct line) is much more than a party program: it combines statements on the domestic and international affairs, a set of policy guidelines, and an almost sacral ideological-political statement. In

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

, at least in the 1960s, the term had a strong association with the American Communist Party.

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* * * Political concepts Political terminology Political whips {{Poli-term-stub

In Leninism

See also

References

Sources