A legacy stops shaping politics once newer routines become cheaper

Evidence

Second, disaggregating the legacies of communism into specific patterns of elite advancement, policy innovation, and societal negotiation also moves us beyond the assertion that “history matters” and instead shows us precisely how it did so. Even a collapsed and discredited regime leaves behind legacies that may not be readily visible, but that nevertheless exert a powerful influence on political development. Disaggregation also shows us when and why a given legacy stops influencing political developments – when it is no longer the “cheapest” way to orient decision making, as the new policies it has set into motion consolidate and are established enough to exert their own influence. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 372

Categorization

• XREF: Speaks to reader’s core question about threat-based solidarity decaying when a cheaper organizing logic displaces it. — connects to: Stabilized politics make direct legacy influence fade into structure — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 135; What was progressive in one era can become politically backward in another — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 130; Legacies fade once cheaper alternatives consolidate after a regime collapses — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 372 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• What was progressive in one era can become politically backward in another #exemplifies (0.95) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 130