The terms party conference (UK English), political convention (US English), and party congress usually refer to a general meeting of a political party. The conference is attended by certain delegates who represent the party membership. In most political parties, the party conference is the highest decision-making body of the organization, tasked with electing or nominating the party's leaders or leadership bodies, deciding party policy, and setting the party's platform and agendas.

The term conference or caucus may also refer to the organization of all party members as a whole.

The definitions of all of these terms vary greatly, depending on the country and situation in which they are used.

Leadership roles

• Chairmanship — Chosen from within the body's membership to preside over its business.
• Secretary — Responsible for keeping minutes of the conference's proceedings.
• Policy committees — Responsible for setting and maintaining review of current party policy, and preparing proposals for presentation to the full conference.

Communist states

• Communist parties convene a congress to elect a Central Committee
  Central Committee
  Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
  
  , which in turn sets up a Politburo
  Politburo
  Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...
  
  .
• A Communist conference may also meet on occasion, to discuss a particular issue or plan an event, but would have no such official powers.

United States

The term party conference is used in the United States to refer to the equivalent of parliamentary groups in other countries.

See also

• Ardfheis, Irish term for a party conference
• Political parties
  Political Parties
  Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy is a book by sociologist Robert Michels, published in 1911 , and first introducing the concept of iron law of oligarchy...
  
  
• List of political parties around the world
• Political convention
  Political convention
  In politics, a political convention is a meeting of a political party, typically to select party candidates.In the United States, a political convention usually refers to a presidential nominating convention, but it can also refer to state, county, or congressional district nominating conventions...
  
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