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MongoliaParty Congress
The party congress, convened regularly every five years, is
theoretically the most authoritative body in the Mongolian party
system
(see table 12, Appendix).
The Nineteenth Party Congress of
the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, convened in May 1986,
was attended by 851 delegates--for 79 percent of whom it was
their first party congress. An overview of the composition of the
delegates revealed that 66 percent also were deputies to the
People's Great Hural or to assemblies of people's deputies.
Thirty-three percent were workers in industry, construction and
communications; 17 percent were collectivized herdsmen; and 50
percent were white-collar workers, including members of the
military and the intelligentsia. Seventy-nine percent were of the
majority Khalkha nationality
(see Mongols and Kazakhs
, ch. 2).
These statistics showed predominantly urban and educated
delegates, and they indicated the professionalization of the
Mongolian leadership, much like what had occurred in the Soviet
Union by the 1960s. In 1986 women accounted for 21 percent of the
total number of delegates, which suggested a substantial
representation within the leadership until this figure was
balanced against the 30 percent of total party membership that
women held in 1986.
The party congress also elects the Central Auditing
Commission, which examines and verifies state expenditures. The
Nineteenth Party Congress elected a Central Auditing Commission
of twenty-three members, smaller than the previous commission of
thirty-one, elected in 1981. Eighty-three percent of the
commission's members were newly elected.
The Nineteenth Congress also stated its commitment to the
existing Party Program, which in essence is dedicated to
completing the "construction of socialism" in Mongolia. The Party
Program contains the concepts and goals to be realized through
the five-year plans and implemented by the government
bureaucracy. As stated in the program, the party's role is to
instill total commitment among citizens toward this goal: "The
party will devote unflagging attention to organizing resolute
struggle against views and morals as well as survivals of the
past alien to socialism in the minds and lives of people."
Extolling the values of patriotism and "proletarian
internationalism," the program dictates that Mongolia "will
educate the working people in the limitless love and devotion to
their homeland, the Soviet Union and other countries in the
socialist community. . . ."
Because the party congress of the Mongolian People's
Revolutionary Party meets in regular session only every five
years, it cannot serve as the governing party organization.
Rather, one of its key functions is to elect the Central
Committee, the body that sets the tone and establishes the
overall leadership for the country.
Data as of June 1989
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