This book provides an in-depth analysis of the social democratic parties in the four member states of the so-called “Visegrád Group”- Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The timeline spans the last two decades, which saw the parties in question come to power, govern and collapse. The case studies of all four countries are structured in the same way, offering: explanation of the historical background (including electoral results), analyses of the context, structures, membership and voters; evaluation of the programmes and hypotheses for potential future trajectories. Given the European relevance of the topic, the fifth chapter provides a comparative analysis, with a handful of explanations as to why Visegrád Group countries have proved to be tough partners in European integration processes.

Ania Skrzypek is Director for Research and Training at the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), Belgium.

András Bíró-Nagy is Director of Policy Solutions and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary.