"Return to Europe" - democracy-building has been a success, say Czechs, Poles and Slovaks. Hungarians rate it as a failure.

The opinions of citizens of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland diverge in their assessment of the changes that have taken place since 1989, according to a new survey in the four Visegrad countries conducted by PASOS (Policy Association for an Open Society), a network of 40 independent think-tanks in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. While three in five Poles, Slovaks and Czechs regard the establishment of lasting democracy as a success, two in three Hungarians think the opposite – that it has been a failure.

Moreover, two out of three Hungarians – in contrast to citizens of the other three Visegrad countries – take the view that there are more disadvantages to life today than there were under the dictatorial regime before 1989. In contrast, seven out of ten Czechs, six out of ten Poles, and 53 per cent of Slovaks think that there are more advantages to life under democratic rule in 2009.

The survey shows that a majority of citizens of Poland (62 per cent) and the Czech Republic (54 per cent) hold the view that the democratisation process has been driven by domestic forces rather than by external support. This view is not shared in Slovakia and Hungary, however. In Slovakia, respondents assessed external support and domestic forces as equally important, while in Hungary a majority considered external support to have been more decisive.

The populace of the Visegrad countries also differ on assessments of the change in the political and economic system since 1989. While in the Czech Republic and Poland a majority of people think that fundamental economic and political changes were necessary, this view is shared by less than half of respondents in Slovakia and Hungary.

“Young people take a favourable view of the changes today, while the most critical positions are taken by the older generation. At the same time, the youngest respondents included those whose positions were based on a lack of knowledge of the substantive issues,” according to Olga Gyarfášová, senior research fellow of the Institute of Public Affairs (IVO), Slovakia.

According to Agnes Batory, Research Fellow at the Center for Policy Studies at Central European University, Hungary, “the results from Hungary in part reflect a deep sense of disillusionment that is characteristic of part of the population, particularly the elderly and those living in the countryside who were particularly strongly hit by the relative loss or weakening of a state-sponsored social safety net in the wake of the democratic transition. However, a significant proportion of respondents may well have projected their negative evaluation of the current political and economic situation on to their notions of democracy as such.”

The study was the first such poll of public attitudes on the theme of the role of the Visegrad countries themselves in supporting democracy around the world. One in two Czechs think that the Czech government should support democracy-building in other countries, a position shared by even more Poles – two out of every three – and Slovaks – three out of every five. A majority of Hungarians take the opposite view. According to Jeff Lovitt, Executive Director of PASOS, “it is difficult to quantify the scale of support from the USA and western Europe in bringing about the end of the dictatorial regimes of Central and Eastern Europe two decades ago, and their subsequent support, but the memories of that support have inspired the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary to take up the mantle of championing democratisation in other countries. The experience of life under a dictatorship contributes to the significant levels of support for such policies in three of the Visegrad countries.”

About the project:
The public opinion polling and accompanying focus groups conducted with young people were carried out during October 2009 in the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia in the framework of the PASOS project, Return to Europe, with the support of the Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency of the European Union and of the International Visegrad Fund. The project partners are the following PASOS members: the Center For Policy Studies – Central European University, Hungary, the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO), Slovakia, and the Institute of Public Affairs (ISP), Poland. A detailed study, with additional interviews and analysis with experts, political actors and government officials will be published at “Return to Europe”, a conference to be held by PASOS in Prague on 10 December 2009.

Media contact: Eva Rybková, PASOS, tel: +420 2223 14833, mobile: +420 731 801 003, fax: +420 2223 13644

[1] In each Visegrad country, 1,000 respondents over the age of 18 were surveyed. In parallel, focus groups of young people who were in elementary school in 1989 (27-28 years old today) were conducted.