Reform took hold through three linked layers of party insiders

Evidence

As a result, an openly reformist wing of the party leadership had formed by the late 1980s, and found considerable support both within and outside the party. Three separate layers of reformists arose: First, a grassroots movement of local reformists within the party developed. Although well organized, they had no formal access to power. However, they were able to forge alliances with some of the reformers in the party elite (such as Imre Pozsgay), who then acted as their political “godfathers,” attending national meetings of the reform movement, speaking out in their favor, and promoting reform ideas. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 320

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to reader’s question about whether a manufactured external threat sustains solidarity: here reformism grew inside the party precisely as loyalty to ideology/monopoly eroded. — connects to: Parties can be analyzed through three distinct organizational faces. — John T. Ishiyama, Party Organization and the Political…, 31; Deep party penetration of society forced reform to originate from within the party. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 196; A three-tier reformist coalition spanning grassroots to elite drove the Hungarian party’s transformation — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 320

Broader Connections

• Parties can be analyzed through three distinct organizational faces. #expands (0.85) — John T. Ishiyama, Party Organization and the Political…, 31