Democratic centralism requires inductive adaptation rather than abstract rule-following.

Evidence

Democratic centralism offers an elastic formula, which can be embodied in many diverse forms; it comes alive in so far as it is interpreted and continually adapted to necessity. It consists in the critical pursuit of what is identical in seeming diversity of form and on the other hand of what is distinct and even opposed in apparent uniformity, in order to organise and interconnect closely that which is similar, but in such a way that the organising and the interconnecting appear to be a practical and “inductive” necessity, experimental, and not the result of a rationalistic, deductive, abstract process—i.e. one typical of pure intellectuals (or pure asses). — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 779

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines democratic centralism as an elastic, situational practice rather than fixed doctrine.
• XREF: connects to: Allegiance to democratic institutions rests on practices forming citizens, not rational justification — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 432