The PDRE's government was highly centralized with a "de facto" power structure similar to other communist states. The legislature, the National Shengo, was nominally the highest organ of state power. A president served as head of state and head of government, with sweeping executive and legislative powers. The president served as chairman of the Council of State, which acted for the Shengo between sessions. In practice, the principles of democratic centralism meant that the Shengo did little more than rubber-stamp decisions already made by the WPE and its Politburo. As both president and party leader, Mengistu was a virtual dictator. He and the surviving members of the Derg dominated the WPE's Politburo. The constitution guaranteed all manner of personal freedoms, but the government paid almost no attention to them in practice.