Development of Parties and Party Systems in ... - lah@sam.sdu.dk

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which attitudes to state regulation and the welfare state are the most decisive single factorsseparating the parties involved in elections.In the case of Poland the left-right axis has been closely linked to the socio-cultural dimension, inparticular questions about the proper role of the church in society and attitudes to the communistpast. Parties with a strong anti-communist and market- and euro-sceptical characteristics has beendescribed as right-traditionalistic. On social issues and state regulation the Polish right wing partieshave behaved more ”social democratic” than the post-communist parties, including the democraticleft alliance SLD and the Peasants Party (PSL). Symbolic politics and low programme crystalizationwas striking, at least compared with conservative-liberal parties and most parties on the politicalLeft.On the other end of the scale we find conservative-liberal parties. These parties are strongsupporters of free market economy. Furthermore they are pro-European and against restitution tothe church and church interference in politics, e.g. in questions about religious instruction in schoolsand abortion. The Freedom Union (UW) in Poland, the ODS and ODA in the Czech Republic andthe Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) in Hungary belong to parties of the conservative-liberaltype.The political left can be divided in orthodox communist parties, left wing social democratic postcommunistparties with roots in reform minded sections of the communist parties and the “modern”nomenklaturea and finally authentic historical social democratic parties with roots back to theperiod before the communist take-over and the forced unifications of social democratic andcommunist parties.The parties in the CECC’s have been divided according to partly overlapping criteria. Neoliberalpro-market and pro-western parties have been contrasted to neo-traditionalistic particularistic andsocialdemocratic type political parties. The parties have alternately been considered as progressive,traditionalist, liberal and authoritarian. On that basis there has been distinguished betweenmodern/rational versus neotraditional/nationalist parties. Furthermore, pro-market and pro-westernparties have been contrasted to market sceptical religious, agrarian or populist socialist (Thomas,1999:8).As noted above, also the division between mass parties, cadre parties, catch-all parties and cartelparties may be relevant also in the post-communist context. The parties in the CEEC’s seemed tomove towards the catch-all electoral-professional type party models, built up hierarchially andcentralitically governed and with tenuous links to the social groups. In other words, the partiesseems to have concentrated on “a wider clientele of voters ... rather than opt for the well-definedsegments of society” 15 . Only agrarian parties, e.g. the PSL in Poland and the IndependentHusmands Party (FKGP) in Hungary were equivalent to distinct class parties. The modern promarketparties suffered at the elections due to absence of a strong and prosperous middle class (“themissing midle”). Thus, the emergence of rather strong right-traditionalist political parties have beenconsidered as a result of the civilisational “backwardness” and the unfinished and distortedmodernisation.15 Peter Kopecky, “Developing Party Organisations in East-Central Europe: What Type of Party is likely to emerge?”,Party Politics, 4, 1995:515-534.22
Before 1989 “postcommunist” parties had cooperated closely with the communist parties inside thenational fronts, other “historic” parties had been outlawed under the communist rule and were“reborn” after the demise of communism. We also find parties established almost spontaneouslyand maybe therefore hardly can be placed on a right-left scale 16 . In some cases, the memories aboutthe uprisings against the communist regimes and the circumstances and the ways of demise of theold regime had created specific “foundation myths”, leading to “early freezing” of old socio-culturalcleavages.The agrarian parties can not easily be placed on the right-left axis. In Poland the peasants party PSLhave constituted a centre-left party because of the historic background in the communist period andthe cooperation with left alliance SLD after 1990. The Christian-Democratic KDU-CSL took part inthe ODS-led governments in the Czech Republic, after the 2002 election in Vladimir Spidlas socialdemocratic led government. In Hungary, the Smallholders Party (FKGP) has appeared as an classparty only entering coalitions with the centre-right Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) andFIDESZ.The right-leftPost-communist conflicts and cleavagesdimension deviatedfrom those known• (post)communism versus anticommunism (all countries)from alreadyestablished partysystems in the• state versus church (e.g. Poland)West. Cleavages inthe post-communist• liberalism versus cosmopolitism (e.g. Hungary)CEECs tended tobe• National ethnic conflicts (e.g. in Slovakia)multidimensionaland as rightlyagued by Mikos• Free market versus regulated market the Czech Republic) Haraszti to aextent alsoculturally andpolically(communist-anticommunist) based 17 . There has therefore rightly been talked about specific“cleavages and conflict lines of transformation” (Hlousek etc, 2004:48). In the first stage the partiesand individual participants became representatives of the (post) communism versus anticommunismconflict. In the later stages of post-communism the socio-economic cleavages, e.g. the conflictabout the free market versus regulated market conflict, became more striking and not only in theCzech Republic. Cultural cleavages, including national ethnic conflicts have especially beenstriking in the “deviating case” of Slovakia, maybe due to the late and complex nation building, thatbrought the parties and party systems unstable, “immature” and “non standard” characteristics.Opposite, socio-economic cleavages have been rather weak in the case of Slovakia1.7. Anti-communism and the Right16 Michal Klima, “Consolidation and Stablization of the Party System in the Czech Republic”, Political Studies(1998):496.17 Miklos Haraszti, “Young Bloods, Hungary’s election results promise a new taste of political salami”, Transitions,July 1998:48-52.23
Page 3: “This provisional situation chara
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Page 10 and 11: the significance of strategic choic
Page 12 and 13: presidentialism gave rise to “flo
Page 14 and 15: antipolitics and reinforcement of a
Page 16 and 17: In the late 1990’s elections most
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Page 28 and 29: Cartel agreementsbetter representat
Page 30 and 31: Basically the absence of clear cons
Page 32 and 33: After 1989 different types of polit
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Page 48 and 49: Finally, Solidarity can also be con
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Page 52 and 53: The economic recession and the grav
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Page 56 and 57: The formation of AWS can be conside
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Page 66 and 67: 2001 parliamentary election, howeve
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establishment like than LPR’s. Th
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jobs in rural areas, especially sma
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industrial policy. According to the
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pressurizing the government to give
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democrats, thereby locating itself
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To conclude, the Freedom Union (UW)
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Polish middle class. Thus, in Janua
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such as KSCM and KSS in The Czech R
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The SLD leaders were mainly recruit
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the falling popular support for pri
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innovation was formation of the pol
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place after talks with each applica
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Has the Left any freedom of manoeuv
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medicine, changes in the labour cod
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The Labour Union (UP), Democratic U
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Nevertheless, before that had taken
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