New ruling groups must initially inherit existing functionary categories rather than replace them.

Evidence

However, though it is true that every new form of society and State has required a new type of functionary, it is also true that new ruling groups have never been able, at least initially, to ignore tradition or established interests—i.e. the categories of functionary (especially in the ecclesiastical and military spheres) who already existed and had been constituted before they came to power. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 771

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s toolkit around how regimes consolidate power — parallels the persistence of colonial-era bureaucracy in postcolonial states, a theme later Islamophobia readings will engage.
• DEFINE: Clarifies the distinction between a ruling group’s own new functionaries and inherited ‘traditional’ functionary categories like ecclesiastical and military corps.