Personalizing Party Ideology: Institutional Change and Ideological Governance in China’s Politburo Collective Study Sessions, 2002–2025

Abstract The Politburo Collective Study Sessions (PCSS) have served as a key institutional mechanism of elite ideological governance in China since 2002. Over the past two decades, these sessions have adapted to shifting leadership priorities, particularly under Xi Jinping, who has reoriented ideological governance from collective Marxist–Leninist frameworks toward leader-centered slogans and symbolic personalization. Drawing on an original dataset of 177 PCSS reports from December 2002 to June 2025, this study examines changes in session format, speaker composition, thematic agenda, and ideological framing. It reveals a marked decline in pluralistic participation and institutionalized ideological framing under Xi, alongside a growing emphasis on security themes and personalized ideological authority. This transformation illustrates how enduring authoritarian institutions can be repurposed to reinforce centralized leadership while maintaining formal continuity. These findings contribute to scholarship on ideological governance and institutional adaptation in contemporary Chinese authoritarianism by specifying how personalization is institutionalized through routine elite political rituals.