Hungarian Communist reversals on reform showed responsiveness to societal protest.

Evidence

These policies were both a response to the 1956 tragedy and to the country’s worsening economic conditions in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The cycles of reform and retrenchment also showed responsiveness to societal demands: The second economy boomed throughout this period, and the party did not attempt to erase this capitalist blight. In 1972, as growth slowed down, the party attempted to tighten the agricultural policy, but once this led to shortages and protests, immediately loosened its grip. In its agricultural policies after 1968, the party allowed both autonomy for the cooperative enterprises and a great deal of private entrepreneurship. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 326

Categorization

• XREF: Shows the party learning responsiveness from a past catastrophe (1956) — parallel to how post-1989 parties might learn from the loss of their constitutive threat. — connects to: Hungarian party tolerated constructive opposition and real contested elections internally — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 314