Past regime practices predict how communist parties exited power

Evidence

The type and pace of the transitions themselves are actually endogenous to past party practices – the more the party had stonewalled and refused to address society’s grievances, the more likely it was to collapse (as in East Germany, Romania, or in Czechoslovakia). In contrast, the more a party had earlier engaged in negotiation and policy reform, the more likely it was to negotiate its way out of power (as in Poland or in Hungary). … Hence, retrospection and adjustment of strategy to reflect environmental feedback became far more problematic. … Instead, the parties’ responses to these powerful environmental factors were mediated by internal organizational factors, and specifically, the elites’ ability to devise and implement strategies of regeneration. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 100

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the post-1989 puzzle of which parties survived by finding a new threat vs. decaying — past organizational practice rather than primordial identity predicts response. — connects to: Communist organizational legacies paradoxically enabled successor parties’ democratic survival; Successor party resurgence combined post-1989 conditions, communist legacies, and crafted appeals — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 1197; Communist successor parties thrived most where prior regimes suppressed independent challengers — John T. Ishiyama, Party Organization and the Political…, 23 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Communist organizational legacies paradoxically enabled successor parties’ democratic survival #corroborates (0.90)
• Pre-democratic organizational practices shaped successor parties’ post-regime survival capacities #corroborates (0.90) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 88
• Communist-era organizational flexibility determined which parties later thrived democratically #corroborates (0.90) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 62
• Successor party resurgence combined post-1989 conditions, communist legacies, and crafted appeals #expands (0.85) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 1197
• Communist successor parties thrived most where prior regimes suppressed independent challengers #expands (0.80) — John T. Ishiyama, Party Organization and the Political…, 23
• Authoritarian-era party practices can later produce democratic competence #expands (0.80) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 122