Party statutes define the organization, membership, and program of the BKP. A statute promulgated during the Sixth Party Congress in 1954 proclaimed the party to be an "inseparable part of the world communist front" and acknowledged the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as the leading political force within the communist bloc countries. Later party statutes refined the basic document but did not change the premise that the BKP looks to the Soviet party for leadership.
Central to the observance of basic communist policy is adherence to the principles of democratic centralism. Patterned after the Soviet model, these principles call for a pyramidal form of command responsibility in which lower party organs are subordinated to the next higher body. This also means that decisions of higher bodies bind those below, individually and collectively. Party policy and practice encourage open discussion of issues during meetings of local party units as well as during conferences and congresses at higher levels; however, party discipline requires unitary action after a decision has been reached by the hierarchy.
The party hierarchy is composed of the Politburo, the Secretariat and, to some extent, the Central Committee, the membership of which interlock as one man may occupy two or more positions at any given time. Theoretically occupying the apex of power is the congress of the party that is held every five years, following the example of Soviet party congresses. The congress is made up of delegates from various party units on the basis of proportional representation of party members. The main statutory functions of the congress include revising or amending party statutes, deciding party policy, electing the Central Committee, and receiving reports concerning past progress and future plans. It is customary for major governmental programs or reforms to be presented to a party congress before promulgation. The Tenth Party Congress, for example, listened to readings of the draft of a new constitution and the Sixth Five-Year Plan (1971-75) and approved both unanimously. Actually, the purpose of a congress is to demonstrate unanimity and accord. The size of the congress (1,553 delegates in 1971) and the fact that it meets only at five-year intervals preclude carrying out its statutory role as a deliberative and policymaking body. Public politicking or wrangling by delegates to a party congress would be unprecedented.
