From Protest to Party the Transformation of Anti-Communist Opposition Movements in East-Central Europe

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From Protest to Party the Transformation of Anti-Communist Opposition Movements in East-Central Europe From Protest to Party The Transformation of Anti-Communist Opposition Movements in East-Central Europe by Victor Gomez A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science Department of Political Science University of Toronto © Copyright by Victor Gomez 2014 ii From Protest to Party: The Transformation of Anti- Communist Opposition Movements in East-Central Europe Victor Gomez Doctor of Philosophy Department of Political Science University of Toronto 2014 Abstract Viable and stable political parties are a key element for the establishment of healthy democracies in post-authoritarian countries. In that sense, the study of why some countries have greater difficulties than others in this regard is an important gauge of the quality of democracy in various polities. My paper is based on a comparison of these issues in Poland and Hungary. Why did some of the anti-communist opposition movements spend years going through repeated rounds of fragmentation producing weak parties, while others were able to produce relatively stable parties early on in the transition to party-based competition? While the literature tends to attribute such differences to electoral systems or social cleavages, this paper argues that the historical regime divide between the former communist party and the former anti-communist opposition as well as the extent to which the ex-communist party was able to compete in the new system had a crucial impact on this question. The deeper the regime divide, the more difficult it proved for the anti-communist opposition movements to produce stable parties if the communist party was able to become an effective player in the new democratic system. The effect of the regime divide is also dependent to a iii certain extent on the competitive dynamics of the post-communist party systems. The impact of the regime divide on party stability is reduced if the former communists are unable to become major challengers for power in the new system. iv Acknowledgments It is often said that no endeavour of this kind would be possible without the advice and support of numerous people. That saying could not be truer in the case of this dissertation. In the following, I offer thanks to a number of people. There are many more people I met and spoke with over the long years of my work on this project. They may not be named below, but they also played a part in carrying it through to completion. And, of course, any errors or oversights in this dissertation are mine. First, I would like to thank my supervisor, Jeffrey Kopstein. Only he knows how many hours of conversations and email exchanges we engaged in as I struggled to pull together my ideas on this project. I’d also like to offer a special thank you to Susan Solomon for her never-flagging support and advice. I also extend acknowledgements and appreciation to the other members of my defense committee, Ed Schatz, Joseph Wong and Michael Bernhard. Many others have provided comments and advice at various stages of this process, including Anna Grzymala-Busse, Richard Simeon, Cas Mudde, Mitchell Orenstein, Tim Haughton, Milada Anna Vachudova, Kieran Williams, Abby Innes, Gábor Toka, István Rév, Renan Levine, Carol Skalnik Leff, Henry Farrell, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Neil Nevitte, Peter Solomon, Jane Curry, Benjamin Nyblade, Quentin Reed, Marek Matraszek and Jiří Pehe. Thanks also to my translators Wojciech Kość, Gábor Szegedi and Veronika Táncos, without whom I would have been lost. No PhD dissertation would be possible without the companionship of fellow graduate students and other close friends. There are too many to name, but the list certainly should include the following people wirth whom I went through various high and lows over the years: Steve White, Jenn Wallner, Luc Turgeon, Reuven Shlozberg, Paul Brykczynski, Bill Flanick, Sebastian Baglioni, Jim Farney, Mike Painter-Main, Chris Cochrane, Steve Trott, Josh Hjartarson, Jan Erk, Amar Athwal, Vincent Pouliot, Erick Lachapelle, Elinor Bray-Collins, Anil Varughese, Crystal Cordell, Seb Dallaire, Martin Papillon, Anthony Matthew, Ruben Zaiotti, Petr Kafka, Essyn Emurla, Deb Thompson, Olga Kesarchuk, Leah Soroko, Wendy Hicks, Wayne Chu, Fred Sheppard, Latch, Nick Ruderman, Jeremy Druker, Justin Stefanik, Monica Masciantonio, Nick Quinton, Andrew Chornenky, Peter Feniak and Corinne Baumgarten. I owe my abiding interest in history and politics to my parents, Eva and Angelo, and received constant support from my two brothers, Boris and Martin, and their families as well as from my aunt Helena. Finally, I thank Barbora and Anna-Karolina for going through all of this with me over the years and putting up with the long hours I had to devote to it. v Table of Contents Chapter 1 -- Introduction ...................................................................................................1 Regime divide: The impact of history ..............................................................................6 Assumptions of the model ................................................................................................9 Contributions to the literature .........................................................................................11 The cases.. ......................................................................................................................14 Lay-out of the dissertation ..............................................................................................17 Chapter 2 – The origins of the regime divide ..................................................................19 The Polish regime in the 1970s and 1980s .....................................................................25 The Polish opposition in the 1970s and 1980s ...............................................................28 The Hungarian regime in the 1970s and 1980s ..............................................................35 The Hungarian opposition in the 1970s and 1980s ........................................................38 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................43 Chapter 3 – Staking out positions ....................................................................................45 Poland 1989-1991 ..........................................................................................................50 The fight for office .........................................................................................................50 Lines of division .............................................................................................................54 Economic-distributive dimension ...............................................................................54 Decommunization dimension .....................................................................................58 Socio-cultural dimension ............................................................................................60 Regime divide .............................................................................................................63 Party switching 1989-1991 .........................................................................................64 Poland 1991-1993 ..........................................................................................................66 Suchocka government ................................................................................................74 Other explanations ..........................................................................................................82 Post-Solidarity conservative camp .................................................................................86 Christian National Union (ZChN) ..............................................................................86 Centre Accord (PC) ....................................................................................................87 Polish Peasant Party-Peasant Accord (PSL-PL) .........................................................89 Post-Solidarity liberal camp ...........................................................................................90 Liberal Democratic Congress (KLD) .........................................................................90 Democratic Union (UD) .............................................................................................91 Labour Union (UP) .....................................................................................................94 Party switching 1991-1993 .............................................................................................94 Hungary 1990-1994 ......................................................................................................100 The fight for office .......................................................................................................100 Socio-cultural dimension ..........................................................................................106 Decommunization dimension ...................................................................................112 Economic-distributive dimension .............................................................................118 Regime divide ...........................................................................................................122 Party switching 1990-1994 .......................................................................................123 Conclusions
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