Programmed despotism: the Albanian communist state as an “organised society”

Purpose This article contributes to social systems theory’s (SST) conceptualisation of Soviet-style “organised societies” by reconceptualising Stalinist party purges as a dysfunctional means of system recalibration in the face of external change. Design/methodology/approach Discourse analysis of key texts focusing on semantic coherence, ideological control and operational closure. Findings This study considers the appearance and narration of purge as a means of insulating Albania’s party-state system from challenges derived from its environment. Purges allowed the system to internally process external changes without restructuring state-society relations, undermining its operational closure or overhauling its preferred routine. Originality/value SST has conceptualised communist states as organised societies. This article extends this conceptualisation and links it more closely with Luhmannian organisational theory to offer a novel conceptualisation of political purges as a despotic and episodic form of management programming.