Suppressing democracy trained communist elites in the skills democratic competition later needed

Evidence

These political resources did not emerge during the transition, or in the months preceding it, but in decades-long practices of the communist parties. Policies of recruitment and advancement within the communist parties could select relatively pragmatic elite cohorts. Predemocratic policy reforms, however half-hearted, both emphasized the importance of cohesive leadership and required overcoming internal barriers and building coalitions. Engaging the anticommunist societal opposition forced the future successor elites to negotiate and to compete for the public’s favor, emphasizing the need for popular, responsive appeals and effective persuasion of the public. … Ironically, therefore, containing democracy in the communist era required many of the same skills and policies that would later make the parties such effective democratic competitors. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 64

Categorization

• XREF: Contradicts a common assimilationist assumption that democratic skill must be learned by participating in democracy — informs the reader’s comparative question about whether threat-oriented competences transfer once the threat dissolves. — connects to: Pre-1989 administrative skills ported directly into post-transition democratic competition. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 368; Communist organizational legacies paradoxically enabled successor parties’ democratic survival; Communist-era organizational flexibility determined which parties later thrived democratically — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 62 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Communist organizational legacies paradoxically enabled successor parties’ democratic survival #corroborates (0.85)
• Communist-era organizational flexibility determined which parties later thrived democratically #expands (0.80) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 62
• Communist successor parties thrived most where prior regimes suppressed independent challengers #expands (0.80) — John T. Ishiyama, Party Organization and the Political…, 23
• Closed recruitment selecting for ideological loyalty produced hidebound elites unable to adapt #contradicts (0.80) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 216
• Successor party resurgence combined post-1989 conditions, communist legacies, and crafted appeals #qualifies (0.75) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 1197
• Post-communist parties survived by positioning as managers of transition for the excluded majority #qualifies (0.72) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 929