Progressive parties use democratic centralism while regressive ones become unthinking bureaucratic executors

Evidence

When the party is progressive it functions “democratically” (democratic centralism); when the party is regressive it functions “bureaucratically” (bureaucratic centralism). The party in this second case is a simple, unthinking executor. It is then technically a policing organism, and its name of “political party” is simply a metaphor of a mythological character. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 685

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes democratic centralism from bureaucratic centralism as the structural signature of progressive vs regressive parties.
• XREF: Pairs directly with the theme of how modern bureaucratic rationality enables mass exclusion — a regressive party as ‘technically a policing organism’ is the institutional form of that rationality. — connects to: Successful democratic party regeneration required rapid centralization and undemocratic means — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 376; Party centralization backfires unless elites have skill responding to voters — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 414