Salami Tactics
살라미 전술
A political tactic popularized by Mátyás Rákosi in the late 1940s to describe the Hungarian Communist Party's method of seizing power by slicing away opposition forces piecemeal rather than eliminating them all at once. It operated by splitting coalition partners, expelling first the right wing, then the center, then the more independent-minded left of each rival party, leaving only compliant fellow travelers. The term became the standard description of how communist parties across Soviet-occupied Eastern Europe established single-party dictatorships after World War II, and later entered political science and game theory as a general term for gradual power expansion through incremental erosion.
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Sources
- Wikipedia (EN) Wikipedia article on the origin and meaning of salami tactics in politics, quoting Rákosi's own description of the method in Szociális Szemle and noting the possible alternative origin from Zoltán Pfeiffer.
- time.com Time magazine (1952) reporting Rákosi's own candid explanation of salami tactics in the party journal Social Review, covering banks, industry, land reform, churches, and the secret police.
- hu.wikipedia.org Hungarian Wikipedia article detailing the tactic's application: banning fascist parties, arresting rival leaders, splitting remaining parties, and forcing survivors into the Hungarian Independence People's Front.
- Wikipedia (RU) Russian Wikipedia article situating the term in game theory and international politics, and describing Rákosi's use of it to eliminate the Smallholders Party.