In a letter responding to a recent Guardian editorial on the collapse of social democratic parties amid the rise of rightwing nationalism, Dr Sean Hanley, associate professor at UCL's School of Slavonic and East European Studies, offers a nuanced perspective. The editorial, published on 28 April, accurately highlights the decline of many traditional centre-left parties in Central Europe, but Dr Hanley argues that the explanation provided is incomplete and oddly exceptionalist.
Common European Trends
Dr Hanley points out that much of what the editorial describes—the erosion of social democratic parties following market liberalisation, the political aftershocks of the financial crisis, migration-driven cultural conflict, and the drift of older and less metropolitan voters towards various forms of populism—is visible across much of Western Europe. These phenomena are not uniquely eastern pathologies but rather widespread challenges facing European democracies.
Distinctive Factors in Central Europe
What was distinctive in Central Europe, however, was that many post-communist left parties were additionally weakened by corruption and clientelism, as well as weaker party roots. Voters often abandoned them not simply because they embraced liberal economic orthodoxies, but because they appeared self-serving and exhausted.
A Laboratory for Political Trends
Dr Hanley emphasises that Central Europe is not just a 'breeding ground' for Orbán-style populism. More often, it has been an early and particularly stark laboratory for political trends visible across Europe as a whole. This perspective challenges the notion that Central Europe is an outlier, instead positioning it as a precursor to broader European developments.
Dr Sean Hanley is an associate professor at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL.
