wh y w e l o s t
134
I. Introduction: Stability
as a Matter of Strategy
E
xplaining the center right’s defeats in Central and Eastern Europe in the first several
yeas of the 21
st
Century is inconceivable without assessing the way these parties
came to exist and consolidated themselves in their respective countries. As with
any political grouping, these parties had to struggle with political opponents to claim their
place within each nation’s party spectrum. In some cases, particularly in the early 1990s,
they were also involved in mutual struggles to define the right side of these spectra. How
they fared in these trials very much shaped the premises of their electoral victories and
had an impact on the way they behaved in office. This analysis of these factors includes
inquiry into political outcomes that lead to the establishment and consolidation of parties
on the center right. It also includes examination of the importance of party strategy, in
contrast to other approaches which find social structures or historic legacies decisive.
A notable body of recent research prefers restoring the focus to the question of strat-
egy rather than assuming structural determination. According to Aleks Szczerbiak and
Seán Hanley, historical and structural explanations of the emergence, strength and suc-
cess of the right in the region provide many interesting insights. What probably matters
most, however, is strategy. Thus, “the re-emergence of the center-right in post-communist
Central and Eastern Europe can be more fully understood only by considering a range
of ‘political’ factors marginalized or reduced to structural variables in existing compara-
tive analysis (
See
Szczerbiak, Aleks and Seán Hanley, “Introduction: Understanding the
Politics of the Right in Contemporary East-Central Europe,”
Journal of Communist Studies
and Transition Politics
20:3, pages 1-8.)
Similarly, Hanley suggests that
“rather than a stress on regime legacies and state–society relations, it appears that
a renewed focus on the political strategies during late Communism and the early
transition period may be necessary in order to explain the varied success of the
Center Right in the region.” (Hanley, Seán, “Getting the Right Right: Redefining
the Centre-Right in Post-Communist Europe.”
Journal of Communist Studies and
Transition Politics
20:3, page 23)
According to Nick Sitter, “party strategy emerges as the key variable in explaining pat-
terns of party system stability and change” (
See
Sitter, Nick, “Cleavages, Party Strategy
and Party System Change in Europe, East and West,”
Perspectives on European Politics
and Society
3:3, page 425.) The reason is that when compared to early stages of West-
ern competitive democratic politics in early 20
th
century when “sociological determin-
ism” was notable
1
, it was much weaker in post-Communist Europe. Not being forced
to base their organization or program on the representation of class or group interests,
1
By “sociological determinism,” we mean alignment between parties and voters and between parties and groups
or classes within society, where the legitimacy of this relationship is based on representation of group interests
by parties within the state vis-à-vis other groups.
