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

well established party culture may reinforce cohesiveness and foster a more lively and democraticparty debate.The party culture shall be seen as a part of the culture in society in general. In case of the CzechRepublic some observers have called attention to the lack of ability to organise, the low solidarity insociety and the widespread opportunism. Furthermore, the low political participation and thetradition of antipolitics had a negative impact on membership of political parties and the internalparty life.The experiences from the dissident period, i.e. the working “underground” created a certain style ofpolitical action. Some new parties, e.g. Solidarity in Poland was in posession of a strong liberationmyth. Opposite, in Poland the liberation myth was less striking in the Czech Republic, in whichcase the break through was very short. Before 1989 the opposition had been weakly organized, butthe anti-political attitudes were strongly represented.after 1989 thereby fostering elite parties withweak linkages to the civil societies. Like the civil societies in the broad sense the internal party lifewas not assigned an important role.In the case of Hungary the party culture was to a minor extent linked to the fight against the oldregime, as the former regime had been rather liberal and national accomodative and the marketeconomy already partly tested. The Czech peoples perception of democracy and democratic valueswas rather individualistic 36 and the programmatic and institutional shortcomings tended to makepolitics almost “issueless” (Thomas, 1999:9). In Poland the political culture has been morecollectivistic than in the Czech Republic, inspired by the tenets from the Catholic church. Thehistoric memories have been a significant ressource, especially at the beginning and in the case ofSolidarity.The feelings of solidarity in the fight against the state socialist regime have been strong, going backto uprising in 1956 and Solidarity in 1980-1981. Being member of Solidarity you became a part of abigger community (“Us” oppsosite “Them”). The many different party rituals reflected a deeplyrooted party culture, e.g. by group participation in services in churches and to carry party emblems.After the state of emergency in December 1981 many carried the “pornik”, the opposition badge.The 3 of May, the anniversary of the 1791 constitution and the anniversaries of the uprisings in1830, 1863 and 1944 (the Warsaw uprising) and the murder on the priest Popiluski have also beenmarked. The colours of the Polish flag was also the colours of the Solidarity banner. Thus patrioticand religious rituals were linked to the memories about the fight against communist suppression andbecame therefore re-activized during election campaigns 37 . Or to conclude, Solidarity was strong onthe symbolic level, but unfortunately too weak and divided organizatorically and institutionally.For the (ex)communist parties the years working underground before and under the second worldwar had a special meaning, also the first years after the World War II when taking political power.In the Stalin years the political activities were focusing on the fight against “contrarevolutionary”activities inside as weel as outside the ruling communist parties. The friendship with the SovietUnion, the showdown between the communist leaders and the class enemies andcontrarevolutionaries fostered an internal solidarity and cohesion, but also a considerable fear andinsecurity. Todays friends might become the enemies of tomorrow. Also special festive days and36 See e.g. interview with Jiri Musil in Gazeta Srodkowoeuropejska, in Gazeta Wyborcza 19 February, 1995:13.37 Wlodzimierz Modzelewski (1989), “Symbolika “Solidarnosci””, in “Studia nad ruchami spolecznymi tom. II”,Uniwersistet Warszawski, Institut Socjologii, Warszawa.42