>Important elements that our resident Leninists didn't feature in
> their definitions are: the centrality of The Party (singular, with a
> capital P - i.e., not the importance of organization or parties, but
> the importance of a single vanguard organization
Lenin's conception of the vanguard party wasn't a ahistorical notion. A vanguard party could come into existence only in a revolutionary situation. If there was no revolutionary situation, there would be no vanguard. The organisation would become either a sect or a mass reformist party. (Ref Lukacs: Lenin A Study in the Unity of His Thought)
Ulhas