Expellee organizations enforced an orthodox policy line by punishing political deviation

Evidence

A wide-ranging public consensus thus reigned among the government, the largest parties, and the expellee organizations on several key Ostpolitik issues. As a result, open discussion of the eastern borders and the political rights of the expellees took place within very narrow parameters during the Adenauer era. Politicians who publicly deviated from the orthodox line had to recant quickly under the massive protests of expellee leaders, who functioned as a kind of thought police on these issues. — Pertti Ahonen, Domestic Constraints on West German…, 105

Categorization

• QUESTION: Relevant to the reader’s frame: this is a threat-hardened belief whose external correction (by Brentano’s trial balloon) instantly backfired — worth comparing to the literature on correction backfire effects.
• XREF: connects to: The expellee leadership punished reconciliation advocates even though rank-and-file members favored them. — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East: Forced Migration…, 1552; Expellee organizations supported rigid indefinite continuation of Ostpolitik non-recognition policy. — Pertti Ahonen, Domestic Constraints on West German…, 53; Expellee organizations claimed a veto role over East policy. — Pertti Ahonen, Domestic Constraints on West German…, 68 (+8 more)

Related

• Expellee organizations supported rigid indefinite continuation of Ostpolitik non-recognition policy. (similarity 0.89)
• Expellee organizations crystallized anti-reunification-compromise principles during Cold War polarization. (similarity 0.87)
• Adenauer’s long tenure institutionalized expellee groups as de facto veto holders. (similarity 0.85)
• Expellee organizations claimed a veto role over East policy. (similarity 0.84)
• Expellee-organization opposition, not state-interest reasoning, drove Adenauer’s Ostpolitik reversals. (similarity 0.83)
• The expellee leadership punished reconciliation advocates even though rank-and-file members favored them. (similarity 0.83)
• Adenauer avoided an Ostpolitik toward Poland chiefly out of fear of upsetting expellee leaders. (similarity 0.83)
• Adenauer supported expellee demands instrumentally to shore up his Western policy, not from conviction. (similarity 0.82)
• Expellee groups could veto policy options but not shape policy positively (similarity 0.82)
• Adenauer publicly endorsed the expellees’ revisionist territorial claims. (similarity 0.82)
• Expellee organizations sustained West German revanchism by reinforcing refusal to accept the postwar border (similarity 0.81)
• Adenauer backed the expellee cause mainly to preempt social unrest. (similarity 0.81)
• Western Allies first banned then weaponized expellee organizations against communism (similarity 0.81)
• Allied authorities created expellee organizations as anti-communist tools (similarity 0.80)
• Adenauer weaponized expellee grievances to stall reunification and extract concessions (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Group members enforce extreme attitudes by punishing those with balanced views #exemplifies (0.82) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2019
• Expellee organizations crystallized anti-reunification-compromise principles during Cold War polarization. #expands (0.80) — Pertti Ahonen, Domestic Constraints on West German…, 29
• Cooperation is enforced through community expulsion of those who deviate #exemplifies (0.75) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1743
• Member-heavy parties get locked into orthodox stances that alienate the broader electorate #expands (0.72) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 687