 When Mao died in 1976, a brief crisis of legitimation followed, as the cult of personality died with him and the CPC was left without its last strong grounds for authority.Since the party's core socialist policies had also failed, in order to regain and maintain legitimacy the party was forced to shift away from its longstanding focus on Marxist ideology, economic socialism, and charismatic appeals to focusing on political and economic rationalization and legalization instead.The party's economic achievements (e.g.