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PARTISAN REVIEW
was a sort of process without a subject. Eventually, pre-war formations
of peasants and middle classes began to emerge.
The lines between modernism and traditionalism were no longer
clear, and the classical oppositions between right and left even less so. In
Hungary, for instance, the first coalition of the right was much less able
to modernize and industrialize than the later coalition of the left under
the communists. Yet in Poland in
1992,
the left-leaning government put
the brakes on privatization politics without fully stopping them.
Nationalistic and chauvinistic tendencies, underpinned by anti-Semitic
and anti-Gypsy feelings, quickly emerged. Events in Poland pointed to
an immature party system, with low party membership, low voter
turnout, and much volatility among both voters and their representa–
tives: parties often split up, and voters changed parties or created new
ones.
This heterogeneous political class consisted of inexperienced, idealis–
tic newcomers and old cadres to whom democracy was foreign, all of
whom were expected to solve problems-such as setting up the legal
and administrative structures of a democratic state and reforming the
economy-while never losing sight of all the social questions: the polit–
ical scientists Jon Elster, Claus Offe, and Ulrich K. Preiss called this
complicated, often chaotic process "The Rebuilding of the Ship at Sea."
Nevertheless, democratic structures were quickly established and insti–
tutional changes ensued. (In the Czech and Slovak republics this hap–
pened later, due to the separation of that state.) All the constitutions
encompassed Western-type rights of freedom and ownership. There
were also positive formulations of rights difficult to guarantee in a lib–
eral state, such as the right to work, or to receive equal pay for equal
work.
The radical break with the past existed in everyday political life as
well. The open political discourse and disagreements in parliament and
the press shocked some people and often led to refusal and withdrawal.
But soon the citizens demonstrated their beliefs in the voting booth–
by toppling their governments. In Poland the first right-liberal govern–
ment was replaced by a postcommunist one, and then a right one; in
Hungary the government also went from right to left to right; in the
Czech republic it went right, right, left. In Slovakia the left-national
Vladimir Meciar managed to seize power, but was then replaced by a
right-left coalition. Ultimately, the majority, despite many counter-argu–
ments and trends, and a certain nostalgia for communism, essentially
opted for the new democratic systems. Adam
M
ichnik, a former Polish
dissident and now the editor of the daily
Cazeta Wiborcza,
maintained
