Electoral success made party activists complacent about further transformation

Evidence

Weiss continued to insist on quick and decisive change: “either we will quickly and thoroughly change the ideology, organization, and obviously, the name, to a modern left party with its own original identity, friendly and real national program and strong political personalities, as we approved at the Extraordinary Congress of the KSS, or we won’t be able to get rid of all neostalinist ballast. We will then change into a sect, which will lose real influence in society.” The need for rapid organizational change, and for the elite impetus for it, became all the more apparent in the summer of 1990. By then, the will to transform the party had weakened – some party activists had argued that the success in the elections indicated that no real change was necessary. By August 1991, Weiss argued that the “historical opportunity” for the KSCˇ M to change had been lost. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 512

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s comparative case: successor parties that survived by finding a new threat vs. those that grew complacent. This Slovak case shows electoral success itself undermining the reform impulse — a distinct dynamic from building a new enemy. — connects to: Election-centered grassroots mobilization structurally demobilizes activists after winning — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black: How Race Still…, 617; Election-centered organizing builds demobilization into successful activism — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black: How Race Still…, 617; Blairism won elections by sacrificing the party’s sense of purpose — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1850

Broader Connections

• Election-centered grassroots mobilization structurally demobilizes activists after winning #corroborates (0.88) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 617
• Election-centered organizing builds demobilization into successful activism #corroborates (0.85) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 617