Salami tactics

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Mátyás Rákosi coined the phrase "salami tactics"

Salami tactics, also known as the salami-slice strategy, is a divide and conquer process of threats and alliances used to overcome opposition. With it, an aggressor can influence and eventually dominate a landscape, typically political, piece by piece. In this fashion, the "salami" is taken in slices, until one realizes (too late) that it's gone in its entirety. In some cases it includes the creation of several factions within the opposing political party and then dismantling that party from the inside, without causing the "sliced" sides to protest.

The term was coined in the late 1940s by the Stalinist Mátyás Rákosi to describe the actions of the Hungarian Communist Party (szalámitaktika). This strategy was also used in the majority of Eastern European countries in the second half of the 1940s.

Similar tactics had been used previously by many different political parties and groups wishing to consolidate their power in various countries. For example, Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party achieved absolute power in Germany within the early months of 1933 by squeezing out his conservative partners, after those conservative partners helped in the outlawing of Communists and Social Democrats and granting emergency powers to him.

The term "salami tactics" is also used in business and means that someone presents problems or solutions in pieces, and so it is hard to get the big picture.