Bureaucracy Purges as Cultural Revolutions

Modern political purges in democratic settings can operate like cultural revolutions: spontaneous, symbolic campaigns that substitute moral panic for policy analysis and routinize personnel removal without regard for institutional function. These episodes often begin from a mix of elite signaling and grassroots fervor and end up damaging state capacity and public services. — Recognizing purges as a cultural‑revolution phenomenon reframes debates about 'reform' and exposes tradeoffs between symbolic politics and functional governance across administrations and institutions.