Scholars treated authoritarian legacies as purely destabilizing to new democracies

Evidence

Many scholars debating the relative influence of new institutions or the legacies of the past have emphasized that international pressures and the building of new democratic institutions overwhelm the influence of authoritarian legacies (Crawford and Lijphart 1995, 1997, Geddes 1995). Accordingly, scholars have mostly focused on the new structures of representation: the new political parties, nationalist appeals, trade unions, parliaments, and social movements (Bielasiak 1997, DiPalma 1991, Jasiewicz 1993b, Kopeck´y 1995). Insofar as the authoritarian past influenced democratic consolidation, its effects were said to be largely destabilizing and menacing to democracy. In other cases of democratic transitions, such as those in Latin America, the institutions of the former regime have often acted as a direct or implicit threat to democracy. Thus, students of “communist legacies,” following Ken Jowitt (1992), have noted the negative influence of the social attitudes and political expectations developed during preceding five decades of authoritarianism (Hanson 1995, Baranyi and Volgyes 1995, Millar and Wolchik 1994). — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 95

Categorization

• XREF: Sets up the book’s reframing of communist legacies as resources rather than pure liabilities — a corrective to Jowitt-derived ‘negative influence’ scholarship on all post-authoritarian parties. — connects to: Inclusive authoritarian legacies reduce zero-sum ethnic politics during democratic transitions — Johan Brosché and Hanne Fjelde and Kristine Höglund, Electoral violence and the legacy of…, 38; Post-war research framed authoritarianism as a threat to democratic civilization — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice: Society,…, 276; Expertise from an authoritarian past made successor parties valuable yet discredited partners — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 1229

Broader Connections

• Inclusive authoritarian legacies reduce zero-sum ethnic politics during democratic transitions #qualifies (0.85) — Johan Brosché and Hanne Fjelde and Kristine Höglund, Electoral violence and the legacy of…, 38
• Post-war research framed authoritarianism as a threat to democratic civilization #corroborates (0.80) — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 276
• Expertise from an authoritarian past made successor parties valuable yet discredited partners #qualifies (0.78) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 1229