Post-communist parties survived by positioning as managers of transition for the excluded majority

Evidence

Throughout 1990–8, the party’s past experience led the party to formulate a set of responsive appeals, which paid attention to the specificities of the Hungarian political scene, and especially the greater need for economically redistributive arguments. The MSzP addressed a wide electorate, making “two basic economic arguments: that the government’s approach toward economic transition had been unjust and that hostility toward state enterprises and the welfare state was selfdefeating and inconsistent with fundamental social needs and preferences. In effect, the MSzP understood that the bulk of the population had been excluded from reaping the rewards of the economic transition and had only shouldered its burdens.” At the same time, however, the party sought to reassure the new businesspeople and entrepreneurs, and so some party leaders even announced that the party stood “closer to liberals that to the conservatives.” — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 929

Categorization

• XREF: Direct comparator evidence for post-1989 successor party survival strategy — the MSzP found new audience (excluded losers of transition) rather than decaying; parallels my communist-successor-party comparison research. — connects to: Post-1989 communist successors varied from full regeneration to protest parties — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 110; Communist parties survived only where leaders grasped that 1989 changed the system itself — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 348; Successor party resurgence combined post-1989 conditions, communist legacies, and crafted appeals — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 1197 (+7 more)
• QUESTION: The MSzP appealed simultaneously to transition’s losers and to entrepreneurs — did this double appeal strain credibility or was it the key to broadening?

Broader Connections

• Successor party resurgence combined post-1989 conditions, communist legacies, and crafted appeals #expands (0.88) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 1197
• Parties with low initial legitimacy survived by bargaining with society #corroborates (0.85) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 330
• Pre-democratic organizational practices shaped successor parties’ post-regime survival capacities #corroborates (0.82) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 88
• Party survival hinges on internal actions, not external transition pressures #contradicts (0.75) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 59