Murmurs of discontent are already audible
in Poland and Hungary.
Left and right are imported labels with little explanatory power or
relevance to central Europe. To fathom the political dynamics of this
region, one must realize that the core countries of central Europe (the
Czech Republic, Hungary and, to a lesser extent, Poland) experienced
industrial capitalism in the inter-war period. Thus, a political
taxonomy based on urbanization and industrialization may prove to be
more powerful than the classic left-right dichotomy.
THE RURAL versus THE URBAN
The enmity between the urban and the bucolic has deep historical roots.
When the teetering Roman Empire fell to the Barbarians (410-476 AD),
five centuries of existential insecurity and mayhem ensued. Vassals
pledged allegiance and subservience to local lords in return for
protection against nomads and marauders. Trading was confined to
fortified medieval cities.
Even as it petered out in the west, feudalism remained entrenched in
the prolix codices and patents of the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian empire
which encompassed central Europe and collapsed only in 1918.
Well into the twentieth century, the majority of the denizens of these
moribund swathes of the continent worked the land.
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