Personality cult, political culture and party structure

Abstract

One development in the study of the socialist states over the last decade or so has been the adoption of political culture as a methodological tool. Following the lead of the discipline as a whole during the 196Os, political scientists studying the socialist states have turned to this concept as a methodological device to overcome deficiencies in their conceptual armoury.’ This approach has produced much stimulating literature, but it has also had its critics.2 Those seeking to apply the concept to the socialist states have generally been unable to resolve the problems associated with the concept in those other areas of the discipline in which it has been used. This has been demonstrated recently in the pages of this journal. In an interesting essay, Jeremy T. Paltiel has sought to explore the relationship between political culture in Leninist regimes and the cult of personality.3 Stated briefly, and somewhat baldly, his argument is as follows: attempts to explain the emergence of a cult of personality by reference to autocratic elements in traditional political culture must fail because while all traditional political cultures have an autocratic authority figure, personality cults do not emerge in all such societies. The question for Paltiel is ‘under what circumstances do traditional themes become salient outside their original setting. ?‘4 His answer is a particular type of developmental crisis which the Leninist party must face. This is associated with the combat culture which characterizes this type of party. Once external enemies have been overcome-and this was achieved through the First Five Year Plan and agricultural collectivization in both the Soviet Union and China-the continued salience of the combat culture of the party is ensured by the introversion of that culture: when there are no more enemies outside the party, enemies are sought inside it. It is this mobilization of the combat culture against party members and leaders that brings about the cult of personality. 5 The ‘exaggeration of the leader’s personal authority, an element of the traditional cultural vocabulary, but a minor, or