wh y w e l o s t
6
This alternation, however, is not a blessing as such.
1
Rather, its import depends first on
what kind of actors are involved, and second, on the nature of the learning process they
go through when they hand power over to their opponents. For moderate, center-right
parties (and for the left, as well), it is crucially important to analyze and reflect upon fail-
ures, not only based on the ‘selfish’ interest of avoiding similar mistakes in future cycles
of incumbency, but also as a contribution to this learning process and thus to the better
functioning of democracy in their countries.
For this reason, IRI has commissioned this series of country studies to analyze the reasons
for the sometimes spectacular electoral setbacks suffered by center-right parties that fol-
lowed their equally spectacular triumphs four years earlier. Funded though the support of
the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the ambitions of the
project, rather than to produce far-reaching scholarship, are to produce a political over-
view that offers a space for reflection on the part of those who care about the fate of the
center right in Central and Eastern Europe. This does not mean that authors lack scientific
background and rigor; for all of them, the analysis of politics is their quotidian undertak-
ing. Each of them comes from a milieu that is sympathetic to, or at least interested, in
center-right politics in the country about which he has written. With one recent exception,
though, none of them is actively involved in party politics on the national level.
Although IRI is pleased to have gathered these case studies together, it is important to note
that the opinions expressed are those of the individual authors, not necessarily those of the
International Republican Institute or anyone else involved in the publication of this book.
In Search of the (Moderate) Right
How did we come to call some parties ‘right-of-center’ in Central and Eastern Europe after
1989? A simple recollection of the situation just after the regime changes in this fateful
year illustrates the development of changes in perception in this respect.
In the early 1990s, the label ‘right’ applied to parties which were anti-Communist, fa-
vored free-market economic reforms and championed Western integration, Atlanticism
and openness to the outside world. The term ‘conservatism’ was not often used, unless
to describe some Christian (usually, but not uniquely, Catholic) parties. Nowadays, even
though support for market-liberal reforms, Western orientation and hostility to Commu-
nism remains to a great extent at the heart of defining the moderate right in the region,
the picture is richer and more complex. Today, the former two characteristics cannot be
denied even to some parties on the left, and economic “reformers” are to be found left,
right, and center, while Communist successor parties are sometimes more Atlanticist than
their right-of-center counterparts.
Rather than inquiring into the state of the right in the region as a whole, our ‘govern-
ment-oriented’ study rather focuses on the
moderate
or
center-right
. The reasons for this
are manifold: almost exclusively, major and ruling center-right parties in the region are
1
Certainly, it would not be difficult to offer a plausible argument in favor of unchallenged perseverance in power
(over more than one term) of strong, coherent parties endowed with a capacity to implement their programs and
policies, assuming these contribute to an increase of wealth and the consolidation of democracy.
