ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the rightwing shift of each country. In Czechoslovakia it is clear that the overwhelming majority of the population wanted change. In both the Czech Republics and Slovakia, the problem was that workers participated in the 1989 revolution on a mass scale, but since they were not organized around their own interests. As in Czechoslovakia and East Germany, public opinion was extremely critical of the communist-led regime, but at the same time favorable to "socialist" reforms. Again, the election results to not necessarily indicate that the Hungarians wanted "rightwing" policies, rather it shows that they wanted to rid the government of communist control. Later political developments also show that the Hungarian populace largely has refused market liberalism. Poland provides another example of how the elites moved to the right against the wishes of the population. Once the Solidarnosc government moved in a market-liberal direction, it immediately lost popularity.
