The Europeanization of Social Democracy in East Central Europe

Abstract

'The Europeanization of social democratic parties in the new member states has reached a turning point with accession, especially in relation to the upcoming elections to the European Parliament (EP) in June 2004. At the same time, domestically the social construction of democracy is high on the agenda in East Central Europe (ECE) after a long decade of political and economic transformation which has brought the region to the stage of democratic consolidation. The ECE countries have arrived at a crossroads: in parallel with EU accession they must decide what kind of public sector they will create, almost from scratch, and how a new democratic state will be built. This paper focuses on the present situation of social democracy in ECE, particularly in respect of the connection between social interests and political parties in the Europeanization process. It tries to combine a bottom-up and a top-down approach, presenting the attempts of leftist party elites to solve social problems and represent societal interests on the one hand, and describing the forms and intensity of popular pressure from below on the other. The formation of political parties in ECE, indeed, has been to a great extent an elite-dominated process and the party elites have used several forms of political marketing to attract voter support without a meaningful social response. It is equally true that the ECE parties - at least in their rhetoric and mostly before elections - have tried to satisfy their constituencies' demands, so to some extent they have had to pursue social interest-driven politics. However, the main influence on ECE party formation has been the example of the Western European party system: only those have survived that could fit into the pre-existing party-types with an 'EU license', that is, have received an 'accreditation' from the West. This paper focuses on the changes in the external role and internal structure of left-wing parties in ECE, contrasting between external and internal Europeanization, also in respect of the painful road from politics to policy, that is, from ideologically-driven political battles to concrete policy-making processes. Our conclusion is that despite particular efforts to solve the problems of those who have lost out from systemic change and EU accession, the challenges they have faced have brought hard times for the Left everywhere in ECE, indicating a difficult start for social democracy in the westernmost part of the 'East,' namely Central Europe.' (extract)Die Europaeisierung der sozialdemokratischen Parteien in den neuen Mitgliedsstaaten hat mit dem Beitritt und besonders den Wahlen zum Europaeischen Parlament einen Wendepunkt erreicht. Gleichzeitig steht auf nationaler Ebene der soziale Aufbau der Demokratie nach einer langen Zeit politischer und oekonomischer Transformation an der Spitze der Tagesordnung in Mittel- und Osteuropa (ECE). Die ECE-Laender muessen sich mit dem Beitritt zur EU entscheiden, wie der oeffentliche Sektor ausgestaltet sein soll und wie ein neuer demokratischer Staat aufgebaut werden kann. Der vorliegende Beitrag konzentriert sich auf die Sozialdemokratie in den ECE-Laendern unter besonderer Beruecksichtigung der Beziehungen zwischen sozialen Interessen und politischen Parteien waehrend des Europaeisierungsprozesses. Der Autor verbindet dabei die Positionen der Parteielite und der Parteibasis. (ICDUebers)German title: Die Europaeisierung der Sozialdemokratie in OstmitteleuropaAvailable from Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V. Abt. Internationale Politikanalyse, Bonn (DE) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman