The Eastern European Context

This chapter provides an overview of the state of the Eastern European radical left, focussing on why this region remains such inhospitable terrain for the left. It argues that the most persuasive general explanation for the weakness of the radical left remains the legacy of ‘really existing socialism’. In most cases, radical left forces have struggled to extricate themselves ideologically and organisationally from perceptions that they are a discredited force. To a far greater degree than in Western Europe, the radical left has suffered stigma and ostracism. Inextricably linked with this is the ‘rightwards’ bias of the transition from socialism. The imperatives of democratisation and marketisation adopted across the region have placed a premium on dismantling and discrediting elements of the Soviet legacy and have generally tarred all forms of socialism with the ‘totalitarian’ brush. In many cases, this has resulted in a politics that has excluded the basic elements of left-wing discourse from political articulation, to lasting effect. The anti-totalitarian and post-communist ‘New Left’ is better positioned to confront these obstacles. Nevertheless, this dominant political framing, as well as the left’s own internal weaknesses, mean that the barriers remain formidable.