30 September 2004, School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SEES), University College, London, UK.

People

Tim Bale; Zsolt Enyedi; Brigid Fowler; Sean Hanley; Joanna Hanson; Tim Haughton; Dan Hough; Andre Krouwel; Paul Lewis; Karina Pedersen; Aleks Szczerbiak

Presentations

The Centre-Right in CEE: an overview
Dr Sean Hanley, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London

Existing published research on the centre-right in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is small and fragmentary. This contrasts with a voluminous and often sophisticated comparative literature on the left and the far right in the region. Careful analysis of centre-right formations in CEE suggest that they should be understood neither as an atavistic throwback to pre-communist right-wing authoritarian nationalism nor as a product of the straightforward transplantation of Western ideologies. Rather, they can be seen a diverse set of electorally broad, ideologically integrative groupings shaped principally by opposition politics under late communism, struggles over domestic reform after 1989 and processes of European integration. Despite their diversity, all gravitate towards West European party families and seek in different ways to combine elements of (neo-)liberalism with the preservation of older local and national identities and traditions. Although historical legacies can explain the ideological positioning of different centre-right formations in CEE, they do little to explain their relative success or cohesion. The application of a critical junctures framework, stressing the role of political crafting, adds some insight. Comparison of the consolidation of the centre-right in Poland (low), Czech Republic (medium) and Hungary (medium-high) suggests that both the immediate post-transition period (1989-91) and the aftermath of defeat by communist successor parties (1993-4) could be seen as windows of opportunity for party building. However, there is some doubt as to whether the success (or lack of success) in founding broad right-wing parties in these periods 'locks in' through self-reinforcing mechanisms and a logic of ' increasing returns'. Alternative and/or complementary explanations for centre-right cohesion in the three cases may include 1) the presence of cohesive leadership elites based on social networks dating back to late communism and 2) the ability of such elites to craft new right-wing ideologies relating post-communist transformation to earlier conservative, nationalist traditions.

Legacies, Context, Critical Junctures and Strategic Choices: Parties of the Centre-right in Croatia, Estonia, Slovakia and Slovenia
Dr Tim Haughton, Centre for Russian and East European Studies, European Research Institute, University of Birmingham

Despite the importance of parties of the centre-right to the contemporary politics of Central and Eastern Europe, they have been largely neglected by scholars who have tended to focus their attentions on the fortunes of the left or the extreme right. However, the recent work of Szczerbiak et al., and Hay and Jessop (on context and conduct), can offer us considerable insights into the nature and successes of the centre-right in four states which emerged from the communist-era multi-ethnic federations: Croatia, Estonia, Slovakia and Slovenia. A strategic-relational critical juncture analysis emphasizes that although legacies matter, they matter only insofar as they provide political actors with the context in which they make strategic choices. Critical junctures and the importance of political crafting can be identified in all four cases.  In two cases, Croatia and Slovakia, strategic political crafting on the part of two parties which emphasized the nation during this period did much to reduce the salience of economic-based left-right competition and shaped the contours of party competition for the following decade. Nonetheless, thanks to the defeat of these national movements in the late 1990s, a more traditional left-right competition has begun to emerge.

Why is there no Christian Democracy in Poland?
Dr Aleks Szczerbiak and Dr Tim Bale, Sussex European Institute, University of Sussex

Why has Christian democracy not really permeated Poland's main centre-right parties and why is no major party currently seeking to profile itself as Christian Democratic even though there are superficial reasons to think that such a strategy might be successful?  These include the following factors: a weak basis for class politics; a significant religious-secular divide; a strong civil society ally in Solidarity; a large rural-agricultural electorate; and an internationalist/European-inclined right. This potential notwithstanding, the Christian Democratic ideological matrix (conservative, religiously informed social values and a social market economy) does not appear to be attractive enough for Polish centre-right parties, which seem to prefer liberal-conservative, agrarian or Catholic nationalist ideological profiles. This may be because of the diminishing importance of the religious-secular divide for anything other than the left and right flanks of politics (with Catholic nationalists occupying the right flank). However, an alternative explanation for why attempts in Poland to develop a self consciously Christian Democratic party have come to nothing (witness the Solidarity Electoral Action Social Movement) may lie in poor political crafting.

Party Organisation on the Centre-Right in East Central Europe
Associate Professor Zsolt Enyedi, Central European University

It is too often taken for granted that there exists a direct link between the organizational makeup and the ideological position of the parties on the centre-right or elsewhere on the ideological spectrum. This attitude needs questioning - especially in East Central Europe where, in marked contrast to Western Europe, the right often emerged from social movements and the left from parliament and/or the state.  But we also need to examine the potential mechanisms that may create an association between these two elements. On most of these dimensions (eg ideologies that explicitly address decision-making techniques, the nature of the social groups represented, the origin of parties, the existence of sponsors, etc.) the centre-right does seem to occupy a very distinct position.

In East Central Europe the right seems to be somewhat more personality-centred and more elitist than the left, and to be more successful in what may be termed the 'institutionalisation of charisma'.  Yet national differences among parties are often more considerable than ideological ones.   Interestingly, the organizational challenges faced by parties in general are answered in an innovative way by some of the centre-right parties of the region. The coordination problem is solved by complex forms of co-operation, including double membership. Meanwhile, the unpopularity of party membership is circumvented by mobilizing supporters through extra-party structures.  This technique also helps the elites to answer the challenge posed by accountability.

The Centre-Right in CEE: record and explanations
Professor Paul Lewis, Open University

Looking back to the analysis conducted in case studies on Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and surveying the range of explanations they identified for the development and success of centre-right parties, one major conclusion (and in fact the fundamental premise underlying the analysis of the centre-right in contemporary East-Central Europe) is that the influential historical-structural approach now seems to be less promising for explaining ongoing party developments. Recent analysis as a whole has assigned greater importance to micro-institutional factors, the role of agency and political leadership. Considering the range of institutional explanations, we need to direct our attention to the importance of electoral mechanisms, the relatively neglected role of the different requirements for party registration and the broader theoretical analysis of the institutional aspect developed by Panebianco.  We also need to highlight the importance of questions of party cohesion and the different solutions applied to the problems involved. Issues of government performance, too, are a relatively under-explored area of analysis. The context in which political choice is exercised appears to be crucial and needs to be linked to alternative historical accounts, thus emphasising the importance of a multi-factor approach to questions of centre-right development.

Points emerging 

1. There is still a long way to go before we are comfortable enough to analyse centre-right (or indeed any) politics on a truly pan-European basis.  This is partly because, until recently, the research communities on Western and Central and Eastern Europe have been largely self-contained.  But it is also because, in the latter context, applying labels (eg party families) developed by those who study Western Europe can be problematic.  Meanwhile, the fluidity and flux evident in the CEE region, set against a sometimes exaggeratedly 'solid' situation in the West, puts those who study the latter off making too many forays into the former.

2. Emerging scholarship on the centre-right in the CEE are currently attracted by truly historical explanations, often emphasizing agency and 'crafting', rather than by blanket legacy or political culture approaches.  This may make sense, but it may also make for analyses that are insufficiently generalizable to facilitate their crossover into a comparative field still dominated by specialists in West European politics.  One way to avoid this may be to adopt Pierson's path dependency/critical junctures approach - but only if this is done rigorously rather than simply allusively.  We also need to be careful that we don't overstate the importance of 'windows of opportunity' and in so doing understate longer term processes. 

3. Any moves toward a more pan-European approach should not allow us to forget that, for the some of parties themselves, much of the international examples and expertise they picked up on originated not on the European mainland but across the English Channel and (even more importantly) the Atlantic ocean! 

4. In both east and west, analyses of party success and failure need to pay more attention to the role of performance in government: being seen to deliver and do well in power may be just as or even more important than other variables that are more routinely stressed.  On the other hand, being able to cope with governing (and electoral) setbacks is an effective measure of a party's development and success. 

5. Relatedly, but equally generally, to explain success we need to look more often than we do at instances of failure.  Mistakes avoided are often as important as achievements chalked up.

6. What about liberalism?  Should we consider it - in both East and West - as some kind of 'third force' or as an integral part of the centre-right, ideologically and/or governmentally?  This throws up an even bigger 'ghost at the feast', namely the question of what exactly is (and is not) centre-right?  Fortunately, and quite properly, this is the overarching theme of the next seminar.

Pieces to read

Special issue of The Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics on 'Centre-Right Parties in Post-Communist East-Central Europe', Vol. 20, Issue 3, September 2004.  See http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/13523279.asp  This includes the following articles: 

'Introduction: understanding the politics of the right in contemporary East-Central Europe' by Aleks Szczerbiak and Seán Hanley   

'Getting the right right: redefining the centre-right in post-communist Europe' by Seán Hanley   

'Blue Velvet: the rise and decline of the new Czech right' by Seán Hanley   

'The Polish centre-right's (last?) best hope: the rise and fall of Solidarity Electoral Action' by  Aleks Szczerbiak   

'Concentrated orange: Fidesz and the remaking of the Hungarian centre-right, 1994-2002' by Brigid Fowler   

'All right now? Explaining the successes and failures of the Slovak centre-right' by Tim Haughton and Marek Rybáø  

'What is the right way in East-Central Europe? Concluding remarks' by  Paul G. Lewis