The New Democracies in Eastern Europe, Party Systems and Political Cleavages. Studies of Communism in Transition. Eds. Sten Berglund and Jan Åke Dellenbrant. Brookfield: Edward Elgar, 1991. xii, 237 pp. Indexes. Tables. Figures. $55.95, hard bound.

Slavic Review ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzystof Jasiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Edward Elgar

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.

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.

The Puzzle of Populism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul D. Kenny
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Party Systems

This chapter sets out the puzzle at the center of the book: what explains the success of populist campaigners in India, Asia, and beyond? It summarizes the existing literature on populist success both in Latin America and Western Europe and argues that these explanations do a poor job of explaining Indian and Asian cases in particular. Populists win elections when the institutionalized ties between non-populist parties and voters decay. However, because different kinds of party systems experience distinct stresses and strains, we need different models of populist success based on the prevailing party­–voter linkage system in place in any given country. The chapter then sets out the rationale for concentrating on explaining populist success in patronage-based party systems, which are common not only to Asia, but also to Latin America and Eastern Europe.

scholarly journals Political Parties and Party Systems in Regime Transformation: Inner Transition in the New Democracies of Central Europe

1994 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 619-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Olson
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Collapse Of Communism

The collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union and Central Europe has provided the basis for new democracies. Competitively elected parliaments, accountable executives, independent judiciaries, enforceable civil liberties and a free press have rapidly emerged through a relatively short transitional period. The formation of political parties and interest groups, however, is taking much longer, and has proven a much more complex process than the change of the political system.

Coalition Governance in Western Europe

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Torbjörn Bergman ◽  
Bäck Hanna ◽  
Hellström Johan
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Formation Process ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Final Phase ◽  
Central Eastern Europe ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Central Eastern ◽  
Western European

This chapter describes the ambitions of the volume. First, we build on the lessons from earlier studies of governments in Western and Central Eastern Europe to deepen our understanding of the coalition life cycle, covering the three stages of a government’s ‘life’, beginning with the formation process, then turning to the governance stage, and lastly turning to the final phase when governments eventually terminate. Second, we seek to capture how recent changes in the Western European party systems, which are also described here, influence the various stages of the coalition life cycle. Third, we are in particular interested in how coalition partners cooperate and make policy once a government has formed, aiming to contribute to the growing literature on the topic of coalition governance. The chapter ends with a description of the content of the volume.

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