People's Republic is a title that has often been used by Marxist-Leninist governments to describe their state. The motivation for using this term lies in the claim that Marxist-Leninists govern in accordance with the interests of the vast majority of the people, and, as such, a Marxist-Leninist republic is a people's republic. Many of these countries also called themselves socialist states in their constitutions; Albania, for instance, used both terms, "socialist" and "people's," in its official name from 1976 to 1991.
In the West, countries governed by Marxist-Leninists are referred to as "Communist states," though they never actually used this name for themselves and used the term countries of people's democracy. In the 1990s, many of the self-styled "People's Republics" of Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria) and Mongolia dropped the term and became known simply as "Republics" as they adopted liberal democratic systems of government — the term "People's Republic" being associated with the former Communist regimes.
Western Media may sometimes use just The People's Republic to refer to the People's Republic of China. When western media cover news which is reporting about Cross-Strait relations, they may sometimes use just the People's Republic to differentiate between the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People's Republic of China (Mainland China), though more often they simply say "Taiwan" and "China". However in Chinese media and scholars on both sides, usually refer to the People's Republic of China as "Mainland" and Republic of China as "Taiwan" to avoid referring to them directly as countries and getting caught up in a debate on their political status.
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Three current communist states include the words People's Republic in their full names:
Historical examples include:
Other titles commonly used by Marxist-Leninist states are Democratic Republic (e.g. the German Democratic Republic or the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia between 1943 and 1946), and Socialist Republic (e.g. the Socialist Republic of Vietnam).
However, neither of the two titles mentioned above, nor the term "People's Republic" itself, are unique to Marxist-Leninists. All three of them have also been used by a number of countries which are/were not Marxist-Leninist. The reason for this is the rather generic nature of the titles in question. Marxist-Leninists are by no means alone in claiming to be democratic, socialist or popular.
Thus, at the present time, there are two People's Republics which do not subscribe to Marxism-Leninism:
Historical examples include:
The term People's Republic is sometimes used by critics and satirists to describe areas perceived to be dominated by leftwing politics. Examples are The People's Republic of Madison, Wisconsin, "The People's Republic of New Jersey",[1] the People's Republic of Berkeley, the People's Republic of Montclair, "The People's Republic of Taxachussetts" (Massachusetts), the "People's Republic of South Yorkshire" or "The People's Republic of Chicago".[2][3] "People's Republic of California",[4]