Lax ideological standards enabled both monopoly rule and later democratic transformation.
Evidence
The more the party recruited from the outside, recirculated its elites, and allowed a measure of internal party pluralism, the greater the chances that pragmatic, experienced individuals could ascend in the party. These sorts of elites were most likely to be able to transform the parties in 1989. Ironically, then, the same policies of lax ideological standards and cooptation of the capable that allowed the parties to rule as monopolists also enabled the parties to transform and compete successfully when democracy arrived. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 367
Categorization
- XREF: Parallels the reader’s interest in whether professed ideological rigor actually serves survival — here the irony is that ideological laxity, not rigor, made parties adaptable, echoing the divergences between professed conviction and functional behavior. — connects to: Neoliberalism reversed classical liberalism’s suspicion of monopoly and corporate power. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2133; Early classical liberals saw monopoly as a threat to democratic politics. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1072
- ADDENDUM: Supports the ‘Grafting & Growth’ frame of resources that seem like weaknesses actually enabling adaptation — the coopted elites are repurposable infrastructure.
Broader Connections
- Early classical liberals saw monopoly as a threat to democratic politics.
#expands(0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1072 - Neoliberalism reversed classical liberalism’s suspicion of monopoly and corporate power.
#qualifies(0.78) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2133