Fear of losing control froze the Czech party against all reform until 1989

Evidence

Since 1968 itself was a party reform, the party did not consider any further political or economic reforms, for fear of a similarly disastrous loss of control over society. The party document after 1969, “The Lessons of the Crisis Development in the party and society after the thirteenth congress of the KSCˇ ” (Poucˇen z krizov ho vy´voje ve straneˇ a spolecˇnosti po XIII. sjezdu KSCˇ) denounced any attempt at political or economic reform, either then or in the future. As late as 1989, the KSCˇ leader Milosˇ Jakesˇ argued that any revision or attempt to come to terms with the events of 1968 would mean that the party would fall apart. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 200

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Closed ideological-selection elites left the Czech party unable to adapt by 1989 — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 216; Communist parties survived only where leaders grasped that 1989 changed the system itself — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 348; A legitimacy belief froze reform and confirmed itself via Prague Spring — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 232 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• A legitimacy belief froze reform and confirmed itself via Prague Spring #expands (0.85) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 232
• Closed ideological-selection elites left the Czech party unable to adapt by 1989 #corroborates (0.82) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 216
• Elite inexperience and conservative dominance blocked Czechoslovak communist reform #corroborates (0.78) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 494
• Communist parties survived only where leaders grasped that 1989 changed the system itself #qualifies (0.75) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 348