Cover -- Half-title -- Series-title -- Dedication -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- The Paradox of Political Persistence -- Political Continuity in Hungary -- Refining the Problem -- Anticipating the Argument -- Research Design and Methods -- A Road Map -- 1 Explaining Political Persistence -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 Theoretical Approaches -- 1.2.1 Two Views of Persistence -- 1.2.2 The Challenge of Redemocratization -- 1.3 What Counts as Continuity? -- 1.3.1 Symbolic Continuity -- 1.3.2 "Historic" Parties -- 1.3.3 From Parties to Blocs -- 1.4 Illuminating the Trajectory -- 1.4.1 Methodological Concerns -- 1.4.2 The Churches under Communism -- 1.5 An Institutional Explanation -- 1.5.1 Clerical Resistance and the Survival of Church Community -- 1.5.2 Churches as Contexts -- 1.6 Conclusion -- 2 Electoral Persistence and Volatility in Hungary -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Precommunist Blocs and Elections -- 2.3 Postcommunist Blocs and Elections -- 2.3.1 Blocs -- 2.3.2 Elections -- 2.4 Electoral Evolution, 1945-1998 -- 2.5 Conclusion -- 3 The Churches First Confront Communism -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 The Churches before State-Socialism -- 3.3 Enfeeblement -- 3.4 Institutions of Surveillance and Control -- 3.4.1 Laws and Ministerial Decrees -- 3.4.2 Patriotic Priests -- 3.4.3 Agreements between Church and State -- 3.4.4 State Office for Church Affairs -- 3.5 Conclusion -- 4 The Battle for Souls, 1948-1956 -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Obstacles to Inculcating Socialism -- 4.3 Repression and Resistance, 1949-1953 -- 4.4 Exploiting Room to Maneuver, 1953-1956 -- 4.5 1956 -- 4.6 Assessing the Battle for Souls -- 4.7 Conclusion -- 5 The Battle for Souls after 1956 -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Normalization -- 5.3 The Party Offensive at the Local Level -- 5.4 Clerical Resistance.

5.5 Collectivization -- 5.6 Elite Conciliation, Local Conflict -- 5.7 Reassessing the Battle for Souls -- 5.8 Beyond Religious Instruction -- 5.9 Conclusion -- 6 Church Community and Rightist Persistence -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 Sample Characteristics -- 6.3 The Influence of the Past -- 6.4 The Importance of Church Community: Prima Facie Evidence -- 6.5 Multivariate Evidence -- 6.6 Unpacking "Church Community": Religious Trajectories under Communism -- 6.7 Confessional Differences -- 6.8 Who Supported the Right? Ecological Inferences and Survey Results -- 6.8.1 Ecological Inferences -- 6.8.2 Survey Results -- 6.9 Conclusion -- 7 Conclusion -- 7.1 Introduction -- 7.2 Implications -- 7.2.1 Hungary -- 7.2.2 State-Socialism -- 7.2.3 Path Dependence -- 7.3 Toward a General Theory of Persistence -- Appendices -- Appendix 1. Deviation between the Database Results and the Official Results -- Appendix 2. Guide to Party Abbreviations -- Appendix 3. Members of the Leftist, Liberal, and Rightist Blocs -- Appendix 4 -- Appendix 5. A Note on Data Sources -- Bibliography -- Secondary Sources -- Primary Sources -- Zala County Archive -- Hajdú-Bihar County Archive -- Hungarian National Archive -- Reformed Church Archive, Debrecen -- Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County Archive -- Veszprém Archepiscopal Archive -- Index.