The Great Divide Literacy, Nationalism, and the Communist Collapse

World Politics, Volume 59, Number 1, October 2006, pp. 83-115 (Article)Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press
DOI: 10.1353/wp.2007.0015WHY do some governing parties, closely associated with a collapsed authoritarian regime, nonetheless retain power and continue to govern? This paradoxical outcome occurred in 45 percent of countries of the former Soviet Union and its satellites. In some of these countries the first free elections returned the Communist Party to rule, while in others unreconstructed communists retained power and free elections were never held. In the remaining 55 percent, however, communist parties lost the first free elections and exited power completely.