The Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) that was transformed into a mass party prior to the institution of the Socialist Constitution that mandated one-party rule became the supreme economic as well as political authority of Myanmar. The elected government formulated and executed long- and short-term economic plans under the guidance of the BSPP cadres whose supervisory and monitoring functions extended from the centre through the regional hierarchy of party apparatus down to the enterprise and ward/village tract level.

BURMA SOCIALIST PROGRAMME PARTY MONOPOLY

Instituted on 3 January 1974, the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma was a unitary one-party socialist state led by the BSPP. Electoral representation was based on a four-tier hierarchy consisting of three regional people's councils (ward/village, township, and state/division) and the Pyithu Hluttaw (“Parliament”), held on a quadrennial basis. However, given the BSPP's prerogative of nominating “official” candidates, elections implied confirmation rather than competition.

The locus of all three state powers (executive, judicial, and legislative) was the BSPP-dominated unicameral Pyithu Hluttaw, thereby blurring the demarcation between the party and the state. There were regional and local administrative and judicial bodies under the central organs of state power. The state executive operated under the leadership and guidance of the Central Committee and the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the BSPP. Similarly, the territorial hierarchy of people's councils were supervised by the corresponding regional party organs. The new political order was predicated upon the BSPP's “centralized control, pervasive authority and sole legitimacy”.