Contents
The term salami tactics comes from postwar Hungary. It describes an approach in which you don’t defeat your opponent in one blow but whittle them down piece by piece. Each individual step seems limited. Only when you add them up does it become clear what has happened. If you want to understand how power is shifted by stealth, this is the original model of Salami Tactics.
A clear election victory for the others
Situation
In November 1945, Hungary, under Soviet occupation, elects a new parliament. The Independent Smallholders’ Party wins about 57% of the vote, the Communists about 17%. Under pressure from the occupying power, a coalition is formed nonetheless, in which the Communists share in government.
Link to the principle
Salami tactics often come into play where an open attack has no chance. With 17%, the Communists could not force a majority. But they could change, step by step, the conditions under which the majority governed.
The first slice: the police
Situation
Under Soviet pressure, the Communists receive the Interior Ministry, even though it had initially been earmarked for the Smallholders. According to Rákosi’s own account, state security was entirely in Communist hands from the very first day. In March 1946, the Communists, the Social Democrats and other groups form the Left-Wing Bloc. Its first demand: the Smallholders are to expel 20 supposedly reactionary deputies from their parliamentary group.
Link to the principle
Each demand can be justified on its own. Who would defend reactionaries? The Smallholders give in to save the coalition. In this way, their majority shrinks without any visible break.
The leadership of the majority party falls
Situation
In February 1947, the Soviet authorities arrest Béla Kovács, the Smallholders’ general secretary, and take him to the Soviet Union. In May 1947, Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy travels to Switzerland. The Communists use his absence to topple him. Because his son is being held in Budapest, he announces his resignation at the end of May. He does not return to Hungary.
Link to the principle
Taken one by one, these steps are limited, too: an arrest, a resignation. But now the majority party has no leadership. In the August 1947 election, which is marred by electoral fraud, the Communists become the largest party with about 22%.
The last slices
Situation
In June 1948, the Social Democrats are forced to merge with the Communists into the Hungarian Working People’s Party. In December 1948, Cardinal József Mindszenty is arrested. In the May 1949 election, there is only a single unity list, and in August a new constitution on the Soviet model comes into force. In the economy, too, according to Rákosi’s account, the party proceeded in stages: first state supervision of the banks and mines, then their nationalization.
Link to the principle
In the end, nothing is left of the salami. No single step had moved the West or the Hungarian population to unified resistance. That is exactly what the tactic relies on.
The confession
Situation
In 1952, Rákosi describes the approach in a party journal. The U.S. magazine TIME reports on it in April 1952 under the headline “Salami Tactics.” Rákosi admits that the party concealed its real goal, the dictatorship of the proletariat, from its coalition partners and even from many of its own members. He himself compares the step-by-step demands to cutting up a salami. Whether he invented the image or picked it up is disputed.
Link to the principle
Salami tactics depend on the goal remaining invisible. Had it been stated openly, the partners would have resisted sooner.
Key takeaways
Key lessons
- With every small concession, ask where the series is leading.
- Pay particular attention to key positions such as the police, finances or personnel.
- A concession made to keep the peace can be the next step toward losing.
- Decide early where your limit lies.
- Whoever hides their goal often gives it away through the direction of their steps.
Summary
Between 1945 and 1949, the Hungarian Communists under Mátyás Rákosi seized power, even though they had clearly lost the election. They first secured the police, then weakened the majority party and finally eliminated all other forces. No single step provoked unified resistance. Rákosi himself later compared this to cutting up a salami.
Sources
- Thomas C. Schelling: Arms and Influence. New Haven: Yale University Press 1966.
