Achieving a change no one would accept at once by taking slices small enough that each is not worth resisting.
Attributed to Rákosi describing how the Hungarian opposition was eliminated. It is the geopolitical counterpart of foot-in-the-door: each slice is too small to justify the cost of resisting.
In practice
- A neighbour's fence moves four inches at each replacement, and no single move is worth a solicitor's letter.
- A contract renegotiated four times, each amendment minor, arrives at terms the original signatory would have refused outright.
- Standing
- The geopolitical counterpart of the foot-in-the-door technique.
- Subject
- Law & Politics
- Essay
- Competing accounts of how power works