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

complex project for transition under high insecurity. After some time the leadership became moretransactional, but still the political decisions were taken without any close contact to the voters andparty members. As far as the CEEC’s are concerned “agency of leadership” and “political crafting”played an important role in the first stage of post-communism. Opposite, institutional structures aremore important moving to more “settled times” and more “ordinary politics” (Innes, 2001:112).It is difficult to say, which of the above mentioned elite groups that became winners and loosers inthe new post-communist system. So much can be said that the old, but at the same time modern partof the nomenklatura all together has done well. The former communists belong to the fourth groupin Ágh’s classification and the first group in Bozóki’s. Before 1989 many former communists hadgained a considerable political experience, and after 1989 they were brought in the defensive. The“moral politicians” lost influence after the political come-back of the post-communists, but somecame back after the political pendulum agains moved to the right. However, moral politicians andnationalistic minded intellectuals had to give way to pragmatists. The new pragmatists and postcommunisttechnocrats were recruited from the second rank, i.e. outside the old nomenklatura, butalso outside the dissident circles. Only rarely the former dissidents belonged to the transitionwinners.Some have regretted, others with satisfation observed the “moralisers’” loss of influence in politics.In all the countries involved intellectuals have played an important, an even “mythical” role, asregards the Czech Republic people like Palacký, Jungmann, Masaryk and Havel. On the conferenceheld in Budapest in 1996 on “Intellectuals between moral and politics”, the mayor of Budapest, theliberal Gabór Demszky said, that in Hungary several former dissidents and nationalistic mindedintellectuals had left politics, for the new Hungary was no longer in need of “educators” and“parents”. Adam Michnik shared that view and criticised former dissidents for not being able toadapt themselves to the new times 24 . “Our heroes fighted for freedom, but they did not learn to loveit”.The peaceful “revolutions” were governed by releatively small counter elites and intellectuals. LikeBalcerowicz in Poland and Klaus in the Czech Republic some had been economists and technocrats.In Slovakia under Meciar and Bulgaria under socialist rule clientelistic structures played asignificant role, binding together the economic and political spehere. Thus, two things the new noncommunistleaders had in common: the possession of political power and a extensively lack ofpolitical experience and professionalism. In the words of Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski, the new leaderswere the alert of “elite conspiracy” that might threaten the new won political power, that be fromrepresentatives of the old system or people inside their own political camp 25 . The first generationnon-communist leaders were mostly ideocratically united, and personal networks and new-oldcoalitions played a big role. As said, people like Vaclav Klaus and Leszek Balcerowicz were ableon own hand to leave their stamps on the polical agenda and the policy, in other words to act like“political entrepreneurs”.Before 1989 many among the new leaders many had been dissidents and been long away from “reallife”. They had not been elected democratically, but “appointed” due to the extraordinary situation,and because of that they obtained a considerable political support from the West. The room of24 Demszkys and Michniks views are mentioned in Tismaneanu in Antohi and Tismaneanu, 1999:153-154.25 Gerd Meyer (Tübingen), “Towards a Political Sociology of Postcommunism: The political Cultures of East CentralEurope on the Way to Democracy”, in: Andrzej W. Jablonski, Gerd Meyer (eds), 19996:22-25. The subject is alsomentioned by Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski in an interwiew in the weekly Wprost 7 February 1999 (“Dolina Lez”):19-20.34