DoDo mentions that the Lithuanians voted for neo-libs, just wondering - what was the alternative? In Poland they did the same, with the other option being the twins. In the first match up the Kaczynskis won by campaigning against Tusk's neoliberalism, after two years swing voters decided that while they may not like the PO's economic ideology, they really hate the twins on everything else. And surprisingly enough, the PO has been a lot less neo-lib than predicted or promised, though that's not saying much since they used to sound like a Grover Norquist wet dream.
Well - Lithuanians really had a wide spectrum of choice, even if many not too redible... *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Just a note relevant to your comment on the Polish post-communist victory in 1993, and DoDo's comment about the large percentage of votes going to parties that didn't get into parliament:
In 1993 the postcommunists got 20% of the vote but 37% of the seats. The various right wing parties got 35% of the vote but 8% of the seats, since most of them didn't make it in, and the electoral system was a sort of proportional one with 5%/7% threshold and heavy favouring of those that got more votes. The remaining votes were a non-communist genuinely leftwing party (8%), soon to be coopted and destroyed by the postcommunists, the peasant party - a direct heir to the old puppet party of the communist era, well on its way to turning itself into a patronage/single interest group got 15/29, and the left-liberal branch of the post-solidarity camp with 11%. The left, the peasants, and much of the right ran against shock therapy. In power the post-communists in alliance with the peasants continued them with increased corruption and cronyism.
I only highlighted it in the data, it was askod who noted it. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
