Elite skills accumulate even when reform efforts fail

Evidence

Thus, the postwar communist period shaped both the elites’ portable skills and their usable past. Postwar takeovers of power set the stage for subsequent organizational strategies and practices pursued by the communist parties. Subsequently, the levels of reform and societal negotiation ebbed and flowed, as such efforts were pursued, only for the parties to backtrack. However, even as these reforms and negotiation efforts themselves were not cumulative, the skills and experiences gained by the elites were. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 161

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Policy-reform experience and prior opposition negotiations gave elites portable skills later rewarded in democracy. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 368; Organizational transformation hinged on elite skills and a usable past — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 389; Elite skill level determined how decisively communist parties reformed at their congresses — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 442 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Skills that sustained authoritarian rule can be repurposed for democratic success afterward #corroborates (0.90) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 122
• Policy-reform experience and prior opposition negotiations gave elites portable skills later rewarded in democracy. #corroborates (0.85) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 368
• Elite skills and party cohesion drive successful postcommunist transformation. #corroborates (0.85) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 72
• Elite skill, not ideology, drove communist party organizational regeneration #corroborates (0.85) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 390
• Elite skill and pragmatism, not ideology, drove successful party transformation. #corroborates (0.85)
• Organizational transformation hinged on elite skills and a usable past #expands (0.80) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 389
• Elite skill level determined how decisively communist parties reformed at their congresses #exemplifies (0.80) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 442
• Centralized control’s blind spots inadvertently produced reform-capable Slovak elites #corroborates (0.80) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 218
• Elites lacking portable skills become hostages to their conservative rank and file. #corroborates (0.80)
• Institutional legacies persist through deliberate elite action, not inertia alone #complicates (0.75) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 371