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Echoes of Latifundism? Electoral Constituencies of Successor Parties in Post-Communist Countries

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Abstract

This article examines patterns of elector support for successor parties in Hungary, Poland, East Germany, and Russia. After consideration of competing hypotheses purporting to explain variance in successor vote, the author proposes a new hypothesis—that regions dominated by latifundism in pre-communist times, and where masses of agricultural proletarians and impoverished peasants experienced the communist period as an era of unprecedented social advancement, show an above-average level of elector support for successor parties. This hypothesis is tested on a regional level in the four country-cases and found to be valid and a more powerful determinate of regional variance in patterns of successor vote than socio-economic status of regions in the post-communist era.

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Geographic distributions of economic activity and regional patterns of socioeconomic well-being have changed within the German Democratic Republic during the postwar era, but the changes have not radically altered the regional economic structure of the nation and have not resulted in a substantial reduction of all regional inequalities. The historic concentration of industry in the South and regional inequalities, particularly in the availability of quality consumer goods and housing, persist in the G.D.R. despite the desire of the government to industrialize the North and promote regional equity. National planners have been faced with problems resulting from the conflict of regional planning goals with the goals of national economic planning. Spatially concentrated economic growth has been promoted in order to conserve scarce capital and to utilize domestic natural resources. Industrial location, labor force, and settlement policies have supported the achievement of national economic goals, often at the expense of regional equity.
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FOLLOWING THE 1989-90 SYSTEMIC TRANSFORMATION in Central and Eastern Europe, 'second-generation' elections have now been held in most post-communist stateswith varying results. In Lithuania and Poland politicians with their roots in the former communist parties regained power in 1993. In Hungary the first democratic coalition government was relatively stable, completing its constitutional mandate for 1990-94, but significant political fermentation became increasingly visible. The 1994 elections replaced the ruling coalition with a socialist majority in a landslide with potentially far-reaching regional consequences. The objective of the present study is the analysis of the Hungarian second-generation elections and the assessment of the projected future trajectory of the new political constellation. The genealogy of post-communist pluralism Hungary has led the process of transformation in the communist commonwealth since the 1956 revolution. The 1968 economic reforms, unique in scope at that time, and the gradual liberalisation in the 1970s exposed Hungary to the risk of Soviet pressure for greater conformity. However, Janos Kadair's political acumen made it possible for the regime to go to the potential limits, yet avoid major danger. Amidst the growing political restlessness of Central and Eastern Europe in the early 1980s, the 1985 Hungarian elections represented a qualitative change: voters were able to nominate/ elect candidates of their own choosing, something without precedent in marxist-leninist states.' The new parliament, whose membership remained predominantly communist, exhibited independence from the beginning, gradually evolving into a legislature which became a willing partner in the opposition's struggle to bring about a systemic change.2 With the removal of the Kadair entourage from power in 1988, the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (HSWP)3 moved-partly under pressure from the nascent opposition groups-to surrender monolithic power and accept a pluralist system-a historic first in Eastern Europe. Subsequently the opposition groups and the ruling party concluded a compromise legalising parties: Parliament passed the new electoral law in autumn 1989, and scheduled national elections for March 1990.4 These elections, with the exception of the special East German case, were the first pluralist elections in Central and Eastern Europe. This resulted in the ascendancy of the centre-right political forces and the formation of a coalition government led by the
Article
The political re-emergence of post-communist successor parties in several nations of East-Central Europe raises the theoretical question of their role in the ongoing democratization process. This paper examines the electoral revival of successor parties in Poland, Hungary, and eastern Germany, in contrast first to the failure of the new competing social democratic parties in these nations, and then to the failure of the successor parties in the Czech and Slovak republics. Through an analysis of the reasons for successful adaptation, the successor parties are found to fulfill several positive roles in democratization under stressful circumstances.
Germany's PDS " ; Mitchell Orenstein A Genealogy of Communist Successor Parties in East-Central Europe and the Determinants of Their Success
  • Olsen
Olsen, " Germany's PDS " ; Mitchell Orenstein, " A Genealogy of Communist Successor Parties in East-Central Europe and the Determinants of Their Success, " East European Politics and Societies 12:3(Fall 1998): 489.
Political Geog-Echoes of Latifundism? 22
  • John O Loughlin
  • Michael Shin
John O'Loughlin, Michael Shin, and Paul Talbot, " Political Geog-Echoes of Latifundism? 22. See György Enyedi, Hungary: An Economic Geography (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1976);
Population Redistribution in the USSR
  • Robert Lewis
Robert Lewis and Richard Rowland, Population Redistribution in the USSR (New York: Praeger, 1979);
Regional Change in the German Democratic Republic Annals of the Association of Spatial Inequality in Poland 1945-1981 " (master's thesis
  • William Berentsen
William Berentsen, " Regional Change in the German Democratic Republic, " Annals of the Association of American Geographers 71:1(March 1981): 50-66; and Paul Burns, " Spatial Inequality in Poland 1945-1981 " (master's thesis, Kansas State University, 1985).
The New Germany Ewa Marczyn! ska-Witczak and Wojciech Michalski, Przestrzenne i czasowe zróz³ nicowanie warunków z³ ycia ludnosci w Polsce (ñód: Centralny UrzaÔ d Planowania, 1996); Bert Van Selm Economic Performance in Russia's Regions
  • See Alun
See Alun Jones, The New Germany (New York: John Wiley, 1994), Ewa Marczyn! ska-Witczak and Wojciech Michalski, Przestrzenne i czasowe zróz³ nicowanie warunków z³ ycia ludnosci w Polsce (ñód: Centralny UrzaÔ d Planowania, 1996); Bert Van Selm, " Economic Performance in Russia's Regions, " Europe-Asia Studies 50:4(1998): 603-18; and Klára Major and József Nemes Nagy, " Jövevelemegyen Lötkenségek, " Statisztiali Szemle 77:6( June 1999): 397-421.
see Figure 1) In pre-communist times, most of this region (with the exception of Szabolcs) was a zone of incipient industrial development, rural poverty, and left-wing labor militancy
  • Zemplén
  • Nógrád
  • Heves
Zemplén, Nógrád, Heves, and Szabolcs (see Figure 1). In pre-communist times, most of this region (with the exception of Szabolcs) was a zone of incipient industrial development, rural poverty, and left-wing labor militancy.
Politics of Socialist, 177-79; and Jarosz, Polityka wÂadz
  • See Korbon
See Korbon! ski, Politics of Socialist, 177-79; and Jarosz, Polityka wÂadz, 107-16.
Ideological Divisions and Party-Building Prospects in Post-Soviet Russia
  • William Reisinger
  • Arthur Miller
  • Vicky Hesli
and Cleavages in the Russian Parliamentary Elections," Post-Soviet Geography and Economics 37:6(1996): 355-85; and William Reisinger, Arthur Miller, and Vicky Hesli, "Ideological Divisions and Party-Building Prospects in Post-Soviet Russia," in Elections and Voter in Post-Communist Russia, ed. Matthew Wyman, Stephen White, and Sarah Oates (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 1998), 147-51.
Germany's Party of Democratic Socialism
  • See Wiesenthal
See Wiesenthal, "Post-Unification Dissatisfaction," 12-15, 21-27; and Patton, "Germany's Party of Democratic Socialism," 513.
Poland's Old Guard Lures Rural Voters
  • Anne See
  • Applebaum
See Anne Applebaum, "Poland's Old Guard Lures Rural Voters," Financial Times, 20 September 1993.
359-70, 406; Ioffe and Nefedova, Continuity and Change in Rural Russia
  • See Lewis
See Lewis and Rowland, Population Redistribution, 16, 72, 200, 225, 359-70, 406; Ioffe and Nefedova, Continuity and Change in Rural Russia, 201-2.
Ziblatt and Orenstein emphasize fundamental differences between Hungarian and Polish successor parties that refashioned their identities as "European" social democratic parties of "experts and pragmatists," as contrary to the PDS and the KPRF that pursued neo-Marxist strategies of
  • Mitchell Orenstein
and Mitchell Orenstein, "A Genealogy of Communist Successor Parties in East-Central Europe and the Determinants of Their Success," East European Politics and Societies 12:3(Fall 1998): 472-99. Ziblatt and Orenstein emphasize fundamental differences between Hungarian and Polish successor parties that refashioned their identities as "European" social democratic parties of "experts and pragmatists," as contrary to the PDS and the KPRF that pursued neo-Marxist strategies of "leftist retreat" or "patrioticnationalism," respectively.
Two Paths of Change," 99; and Orenstein
  • See Ziblatt
See Ziblatt, "Two Paths of Change," 99; and Orenstein, "A Genealogy," 496-99.
Russia's Communists at the Crossroads
  • Joan See
  • Valerii Urban
  • Solovei
See Joan Urban and Valerii Solovei, Russia's Communists at the Crossroads (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1997), 187.
Political Geographies"
  • Shin O'loughlin
  • Talbot Reisinger
O'Loughlin, Shin, and Talbot, "Political Geographies"; and Reisinger, Miller, and Hesli, "Ideological Divisions," 147-51.
Two Paths of Change? How Former Communist Parties Remade Themselves after Communism's Collapse
  • Daniel Ziblatt
See various articles, especially Daniel Ziblatt, "Two Paths of Change? How Former Communist Parties Remade Themselves after Communism's Collapse," in Communist Successor Parties in Post-Communist Politics, ed. John Ishiyama (Huntington, NY: Nova Science Publishing, 1999), 71-99;
RzaÔ dzi baÔ dzie lewica" in Rzeczpospolita
  • See Ziblatt
See Ziblatt, "Two Paths of Change," 99; and Orenstein, "A Genealogy," 496-99. 87. For 2001 Polish elections, see Kazimierz Groblewski, "RzaÔ dzi baÔ dzie lewica" in Rzeczpospolita, 24 September 2001, www.rzeczpospolita.pl/dodatki/wybory01. For Hun-