ABSTRACT
The poor performance of social-democratic parties in the first free elections in eastern and central European post-communist countries seems to be a general phenomenon. It appears also that this tendency cannot be changed in a short period. A number of plausible and general explanations directly related to these parties and their policies have been proposed. In our view, however, the causes are not so much party-specific, but lie in the systemic context of postcommunist societies and polities, in the very nature of political mobilization during the period of transition, and in the first - though by no means short - stage of system transformation. It is possible to go further, and to claim that not even the left-right polarity plays a dominant role. It is not interests, but 'cultural politics' that determines voting (and more generally political) attitudes.'
