Dr Seán Hanley is Lecturer in East European Politics at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL. He has research interests in the politics and society of the Czech Republic, the formation and organisation of political parties (and alternatives to parties); comparative democratisation and the politics of the centre-right in Central and Eastern Europe. He has written extensively on these topics for both academic and other publications and recently completed a book entitled The New Right in the New Europe: Czech transformation and right-wing politics, 1989-2006 (RoutledgeCurzon, 2007).  He is currently beginning research on the political representation  of older people in Central and Eastern Europe and the relationship of Greens and the centre-right  in the Czech Republic and the wider region. He writes also writes an occasional blog on politics, Central and Eastern Europe and suburban life.