Aha I see, you're thinking of Central Europe. I was thinking of Russia and Ukraine, mainly. I mean, all the three main Ukrainian political blocs are populist, with what that populism means differing according to region in Ukraine. Populism in western Ukraine is pro-EU. (Not that it is likely that Ukraine will ever join the EU, but that's populism for you!) Populism in eastern Ukraine or in Russia is Communist. In Poland, it's anti-communist.
--- On Tue, 9/15/09, Somebody Somebody <philos_case at yahoo.com> wrote:
> From: Somebody Somebody <philos_case at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [lbo-talk] Conservativism
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2009, 3:16 AM
> I agree it's a simplification, and
> I'm sure you can point out in numerous exceptions, but I
> think broadly speaking it's a good description of Eastern
> European politics. Reactionary populist in these terms means
> things like being anti-EU, protectionist, McCarthyite in
> terms of advocating ex-communist purges, and so on. Poland
> is an extreme case, with a truly awful hardline Catholic
> right-wing. The point about these countries is that like in
> America, but unlike most of the older capitalist states of
> Europe, the reformist left is outside the mainstream. The
> electoral field boils down to Manchester liberalism versus
> traditional conservativism. I guess that's what happens when
> socialism is brought by bayonet.
>
>
>
>
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>