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E x p l a i n i ng C e n t e r - R i gh t D e f e at s
conduct-related component of its image seems to be doomed to remain gravely damaged.
It remains to be seen whether Slovakia may be heading towards another exceptionalism
by electing a non-right government in 2006, when most of the countries in this analysis
(with exception of Bulgaria and Lithuania) may well be ruled by newly elected, center-
right governments.
Marek Matraszek in the beginning of the Polish chapter introduces his criteria for the
modern center-right – preference for the free market, a limited, but strong state in defense
and crime and a pro-Western and pro-US foreign policy. Based on these standards, he
doubts whether any government so far in Poland has deserved this label. He suggests that
the currently reinvented right of PiS and PO has a chance finally to do so and claims these
parties have been so far successful in presenting themselves as a moral alternative to both
left (SLD) and the failed right (AWS) by means of defying corruption and nepotism and
applying clear ethical standards of political conduct to their membership. They also pay
proper attention to ideology through its clear presentation to the public. This may prove
to be the essence of their success with a Polish electorate traditionally suspect of the es-
tablishment.
Although Matraszek’s conjecture still has to go through the test of government, these char-
acteristics offer a realistic and decent ideal and a possible and achievable target for the
ambitions of center-right political parties in Central and Eastern Europe. Perhaps the les-
sons gathered in this study will contribute to the ability of the newly elected Polish right
and its center-right counterparts around the region to avoid mistakes made in the past and
deliver stable, accountable, reform governments for the people that elect them.
LITERATURE:
Bakke, Elisabeth and Nick Sitter (2005) “Patterns of Stability. Party Competition and
Strategy in Central Europe since 1989,”
Party Politics
11:1, pp. 243-263.
Hanley, Seán (2004) “Getting the Right Right: Redefining the Centre-Right in Post-Com-
munist Europe.”
Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics
20:3, pp. 9-27.
Sitter, Nick (2002) “Cleavages, Party Strategy and Party System Change in Europe, East
and West.”
Perspectives on European Politics and Society
3:3, pp. 425-451.
Szczerbiak, Aleks and Seán Hanley (2004) “Introduction: Understanding the Politics of
the Right in Contemporary East-Central Europe,”
Journal of Communist Studies and Tran-
sition Politics
20:3, pp.1-8.
Vachudová, Anna M (2002) “Integration, Security and Immigration. The European Agen-
das of Eastern Europe’s Right Wing Parties.” Paper presented at the Conference of Europe-
anists, The Council for European Studies, Chicago, 14-16 March 2002.
