Early centralized control lets parties shift policy stances more readily

Evidence

First, organizational centralization allowed the parties to change their stances more readily than the retention of a member-heavy, decentralized organization. As Table 3.3 shows, the Slovak and Polish parties could more readily change their views (as shown by the variance around the mean of the stances). The Polish party especially could evolve its views to a strong support of economic reform, as a result of its centralized, flexible program-writing mechanisms. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 704

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Centralized party structures enable disciplined and nuanced outbidding strategies — Cathy Gormley-Heenan and Roger Macginty, Ethnic Outbidding and Party…, 96; Institutional authority can override a party’s own internal majority preference — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 142; Democratic centralism means adapting constantly to movement rather than hardening into bureaucracy (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Centralized party structures enable disciplined and nuanced outbidding strategies #expands (0.85) — Cathy Gormley-Heenan and Roger Macginty, Ethnic Outbidding and Party…, 96
• Democratic centralism means adapting constantly to movement rather than hardening into bureaucracy #expands (0.80)
• Insecurity drove new states to keep centralized control rather than federate #exemplifies (0.80) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2496
• Institutional authority can override a party’s own internal majority preference #complicates (0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 142