集体领导，被一些政治派别认定“一种寡头统治的形式”，通常存在在共产党管理的社会主义国家里。不过，“集体领导”这个词语本身的主旨是指：将某些“权能”从个人（比如，党主席）分配到一个集体中由多人共同决策的意思。

以中华人民共和国政治为例，“中央权力”被分散到中共中央政治局（常委会）、总书记、中央书记处，同时仍然保留一位最终决策者（最高领导人）做统筹；在越南，权力较为分散，由党总书记、国家主席、政府总理以及包括越共中央政治局、中央书记处和中央委员会等在内的合议机构分享。在别的领域的“集体领导”的例子就不一一列举，比如，董事会。

Collective leadership is considered an ideal form of ruling a communist party, both within and outside a socialist state. Its main task is to distribute powers and functions from the individual to a single group. For instance, in China or in Vietnam, when the country was ruled by Le Duan, powers have been distributed from the office of General Secretary of the Communist Party and shared with the Politburo Standing Committee while still retaining one ruler. Nowadays, in Vietnam there is not one paramount leader, and power is shared by the party General Secretary, President and the Prime Minister along with collegial bodies such as the Politburo, Secretariat and the Central Committee.