Institutions and the stabilization of party systems in the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 307-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josephine T. Andrews ◽  
Richard L. Bairett
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
New Democracies

New parties, information uncertainty, and government formation: evidence from Central and Eastern Europe

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 449-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Grotz ◽  
Till Weber
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Information Uncertainty ◽  
Government Formation ◽  
New Parties

Government formation in multi-party democracies is notoriously ridden with information uncertainty. Uncertainty is aggravated when new parties enter parliament, which generally suggests a ‘newcomer handicap’ in government formation. However, relegating newcomers to the opposition comes with uncertainty in its own right, which suggests immediate cabinet participation as new leaders seize the opportunity and established parties pursue containment. We explore elite responses to this strategic problem in the postcommunist democracies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) where new parties often gain parliamentary representation. Even in CEE, a newcomer handicap in government formation is apparent, controlling for other detrimental party attributes. However, this applies to small newcomers only. For larger parties the handicap turns into a bonus, an effect only qualified once the newcomer outnumbers its competitors. Either way, newness-induced uncertainty thus intensifies the strategic rationale of government formation. As party systems become more volatile, these findings are relevant beyond CEE.

The Legitimation Problems of New Democracies: Postcommunist Dilemmas in Czechoslovakia and Hungary

1995 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
E G Frankland ◽  
R H Cox
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
The West ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Crisis Theory ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Democratic Systems

After 1989 the countries of Eastern Europe embarked upon new directions away from central economies and one-party systems towards market economies and democratic systems. The courses of these political and economic transformations largely depended upon the ability of the emerging regimes to create legitimacy. In particular, those regimes which suffered from greater political divisiveness and significant economic problems were more likely to be confronted with a crisis of legitimacy. In this paper, the legitimation crisis theory is examined for post-communist Czechoslovakia and Hungary. It is found that the developments in Czechoslovakia and Hungary during this early transition period support the hypothesis, and, in addition, they hold implications for the survival of other transitional regimes as well as those in the West which have increasingly been confronted with questions of legitimacy.

Public Trust in the New Parliaments of Central and Eastern Europe

1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 570-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Hibbing ◽  
Samuel C. Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
Political Awareness ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys ◽  
The Government

After the collapse of the Soviet empire, democratic parliamentary elections were conducted in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and new parliaments convened, in the early 1990s. How much confidence did citizens in these new democracies have in their new parliament? Under what conditions is citizens' trust in parliament meagre or ample? Public opinion surveys conduced in 1990–1 in nine countries – Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and Ukraine – provide data for analysing citizens', trusting or distrusting orientations. Parliamentary trust is significantly influenced by perceptions of economic conditions, and by confidence in politicians and government generally but, surprisingly, not much affected by political awareness or involvement levels, political efficacy, or social class differentials. These findings indicate that public confidence in these parliaments will grow with economic prosperity and the demonstrated effectiveness of the government to govern.

Translating Social Cleavages into Party Systems: The Significance of New Democracies

2002 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub Zielinski
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Theoretic Model ◽  
Social Cleavages ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Game Theoretic ◽  
Social Cleavage

This article focuses on new democracies in Eastern Europe and addresses two questions about the translation of social cleavages into political oppositions. The first question concerns the translation of preexisting cleavages: does the evolution of new party systems influence the politicization of social conflicts? The second question concerns the translation of new social cleavages, that is, cleavages that emerge once a party system freezes: can a new social cleavage be politicized? To answer these questions, the article integrates a formalization of social cleavage theory with a game-theoretic model of a new party system. The first result is that translation of preexisting cleavages depends on which parties survive the early rounds of electoral competition. In fact, depending on which parties survive, the axis of political conflict can shift by 90 degrees. This implies that party systems in new democracies should be seen as important founding moments, during which political actors determine the long-term axes of political conflict. The second result is that once a party system freezes, the politicization of a new social cleavage is difficult. Indeed, it is possible that a new social cleavage will remain politically dormant. In the context of Eastern Europe, this result suggests that political salience of class conflict is likely to be low because competitive elections and political parties predate the entrenchment of propertyowning classes.

Populists in Power

2020 ◽  
pp. 581-598
Author(s):  
Zsolt Enyedi ◽  
Stephen Whitefield
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
Post Communism ◽  
Mainstream Party ◽  
Critical Citizens ◽  
Advanced Democracies

Much of the literature on populism, particularly in contemporary advanced democracies, focuses on its disruptive power to shake up mainstream party systems, to criticize the functioning of democratic institutions, and to mobilize critical citizens against elites. This chapter considers how populists construct regimes when they have established themselves in power, taking cases from post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe as examples. We identify specific governmental policies, ideological tenets, institutional designs, and discursive practices that enable populists to stabilize their rule and forge representational linkages with large blocks of the population. The chapter questions, however, whether the success of populists in power in these cases provides an indication of how populists might succeed in advanced democracies or whether it is a result of the peculiar political conditions of post-Communism, the absence of which suggests limiting conditions in other contexts.

The development of property taxation in the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe

1998 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. McCluskey ◽  
Richard Almey ◽  
Alena Rohlickova
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Property Taxation

scholarly journals Patterns of party change in Central and Eastern Europe, 1990–2015

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raimondas Ibenskas ◽  
Allan Sikk
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Systematic Research ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Party Change ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
Party Identity

While parties in many new democracies frequently split, merge, change labels, and make and break electoral alliances, comparative systematic research on how these changes are related to each other is limited. This study addresses this gap by conceptualizing change as a result of intra-party conflicts, conflicts in or consolidation of existing electoral alliances, and the formation of new alliances and mergers. We develop measures for each type of change using an original dataset that covers almost 800 party-electoral term dyads in 11 countries in Central and Eastern Europe in the period between 1990 and 2015. Our findings contradict the idea of party change as a uni-dimensional phenomenon. Instead we find that exits from existing electoral alliances, their consolidation through mergers, and the formation of new alliances and mergers are moderately related to each other, but not with intra-party splits. Our findings suggest that parties and their alliances structure political competition in Central and Eastern Europe relatively well. Moreover, negative consequences of party change on representation and accountability are limited, as under the relative absence of multiple and nearly simultaneous changes in party identity the electorate should be able to follow party evolution.

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