Organizational transformation hinged on elite skills and a usable past

Evidence

The substance of organizational transformation consisted of four key decisions: the entrance of new elites into the party leadership, the extent to which these leaders pursued centralization, the party’s break with its past, and the pace of these transformations. The direction and scope of these changes depended on both the new elites’ portable skills and the kind of usable past the elites had at their disposal. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 389

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the book’s core framework: transformation = new elites + centralization + break with past + pace, all conditioned by portable skills and available ‘usable past’.
• XREF: connects to: Elite skills accumulate even when reform efforts fail — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 161; Prior administrative experience and a usable past equipped MSzP elites to regenerate — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 362; Elite skills and party cohesion drive successful postcommunist transformation. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 72 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Elite skill, not ideology, drove communist party organizational regeneration #expands (0.90) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 390
• Elite skill and pragmatism, not ideology, drove successful party transformation. #corroborates (0.88)
• Elite skills and party cohesion drive successful postcommunist transformation. #expands (0.85) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 72