Parties and voters : On electoral victory of Hungarian socialists

Two lectures on the electoral victory of the Hungarian socialists : Part I.The outcome of the Hungarian election obviously continues the surprising trend taking place since the fall of Communism. It is important to stress that the party system in Hungary has the absence of tradition as its main characteristic. Thus, the newly formed traditional parties, like the Small Holders and the Social Democratic parties, were unable to attain solid support. The important parties after 1989 were new parties, created by different elite groups formed during the late Kadarist period. In the period of party formation, a stratum with many common roots, with many similar social-demographic, stratificational and mobility characteristics, was differentiated into different parties. This fact has strengthened the strong need to develop party identities which was already present due to the absence of traditions. But it also explains why generational experience has become a central dimension of party development and party choice and elite groups orient themselves in fundamentally different directions. It is for this reason that old cultural conflicts and polarities, like the conflict between populist and urbanist intellectuals, has reemerged so strongly, and that symbolic questions concerning the coat of arms, holidays, historical events and personages play such a huge role in political debates.