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

Anti-communism has been defined in different ways. Right-liberal parties have primarily paidattention to economic subjects, e.g. the the transition from plan to market, and therefore not placedquestions about “lustrace” (“purification”) and “dekomunizacji” high on the polical agenda. Thoseparties simply do not recognize their post-communist competitors as legitimate. Opposite, forsocialliberals like Tadeusz Mazowiecki in Poland and Jiri Dienstbier in the Czech Republic thereckoning with the past should be structural, not a question about revenge. Opposite, theconservative-traditionalists talked in favour of “speeding up” of the purification of the new wonpost-communist system. In other words, the different opinions about the past were tranfereed to thefuture. In Poland disagreements about the role of the Catholic Church seemed to divide the politicalparties more than questions about the economic and social policy. The conservative-liberals and theconservative traditionalists were deeply divided as regards qustions about state regulation and freemarket economy.The conservative-traditionalists can be placed on the political right because of nationalistic andpatriotic slogans and semi-authoritharian and anti-modernistic attitudes. The political line wascharacterized by “pragmatization without de-idelogization”. At he same time the conservativetraditionalistsspoke in favour of more state intervention, a more pro-family policy, more socialjustice and expressed a considerable euroscepticism. For the conservative-traditionalists the enemywas not only the “post-communists”, but also so-called “traitors” inside their own camp, mainly theneoliberals and EU-federalists. The many “wars in the top” inside rhe right wing camp inevitablyenhanced radicalisation and polarisation, especially on the symbolic and personal level.Among the national-populists the anti-elite, anti-urban and anti-cosmopolitic attitudes were striking.Inside that group the notion “the people” also had a social meaning, leading back to the archaicagrarian societys old loyalty to the conservative ruling class. For many national-populists politicswas considered as a “dirty business” based on specific antipolitical feelings. The support todemocracy was conditional as subjects linked to moral and etics, e.g. questions about abortion, wereplaced “above politics”. Under communism they fought as dissidents for political freedom, but afterthe victory, they did not necessarily love the new won freedom. As politicians many behaved like“amateurs”. However, in the longer term the political arena could not be stabilised primarily byidentity based symbolic politics. The fate of the governments were determined by good or badgovernance and the elections became retrospective, not like at the beginning referenda for or againstthe new versus the old system.The right-traditionalist parties soon became divided in a moderate Christian conservative versus amore uncompromising fundamentalis wing. The fight between Jozsef Antall and Istvan Csurkainside the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) and the split indside Sajudis in Lithuania and theUnion of Democratic Forces (UDF) in Bulgaria can be taken as examples. The black and whitejudgments were striking, not only against the “postcommunists”; the “enemy” they found alsoinside own camp. Neoliberalism mostly constituted a political reaction against the one party ruleand the old plan system, transmitted to the CEEC’s from the West and only to a small extent rootedin the society.1.8. The dilemmas of the LeftJust after 1989 the socialist ideology was brought in a deep miscredit. The demise of communismhad discredited socialism in all its variants, that be as a discourse, as an utopia, as a revolution or as24