I'm not. In China political struggle is hidden from the public and happens behind the scenes. Same thing happened in the Soviet Union. This made me interested i

I'm not. In China political struggle is hidden from the public and happens behind the scenes. Same thing happened in the Soviet Union. This made me interested in how autocratic political systems operate but there's not much scholarship on this. I found studying one party systems in America to be helpful in understanding the autocratic political system. In a one party rule state the senatorial/gubernatorial race is not competitive and always won by the one party in power. To appear on the ballot as a representative of that party requires the party endorsement. In effect the party endorsement is the election. However the endorsement process is controlled by the party and not open to the public. Endorsement selection is based primarily on how much money the prospective candidate can get their friends to donate. (From this money some percent is kicked back to the party and the rest is spent on services provided by party apparatchiks. It is a closed ecosystem). The other requirement is canonical adherence, though this is more required for national politics. How the parties work behind closed doors I'm less familiar with because im not an insider, in the Chinese communist party case or the American case.