The Fall and Rise of the Communists: Guess Who's Running Central Europe?

Abstract

In the fall of 1993 and spring of 1994, Western politicians and journalists were caught off guard by a series of political changes in Central Europe. In Poland, parties led by former communists and their rural allies won a majority of parlia mentary seats; in Hungary, the former Communist Party won absolute parlia mentary power; in Slovakia, former com munists calling themselves Social Democrats replaced former communists calling themselves Nationalists. If the changes caused surprise in the West, they were greeted with shock by former dissidents and anticommunist intellectuals in Central Europe. In both West and East, observers had assumed that the former communist parties were thoroughly demoralized and defeated and would remain nothing more than a marginal political force. Most believed that the potential for trouble in Central Europe lay elsewhere?in the resurgence of i93os-style nationalist parties. After all, several Central European nations did have authoritarian or fascist governments before the Second World War, and it was feared that they might well bring such people to power again. Western, particularly American, diplomats in Central Europe went out of their way to encourage politicians whom they perceived as antinationalist and to discourage decommunization pro grams, which were often favored by politicians whom they perceived as nationalist. This was the case across the