"Consolidation or collapse?: Impacts of EU involvement on party systems in Central Europe"

Lewis, Paul G. (2005) "Consolidation or collapse?: Impacts of EU involvement on party systems in Central Europe". In: UNSPECIFIED, Austin, Texas. (Unpublished)

	Plain Text Download (71Kb)
	Microsoft Word Download (119Kb)

Abstract

[From the Introduction]. At the beginning of the twenty-first century central Europe is therefore a region of renewed political change. The recent, and ongoing, eastward enlargement is a process that raises new questions about CE party politics and the overall impact of EU involvement as well as providing a new context for the analysis of European politics more generally. But it is only recently that political scientists have begun to focus on the more specific influence of EU involvement, and analyses of the Europeanisation of national parties did not appear until 2002. More recently, publications that focus more specifically on CE developments have begun to appear. This article will extend and develop this area of study in a number of ways. It reviews existing literature on the impact of the EU involvement on west European party systems and relates it to existing studies of CE party systems (2). Following this, the impact of EU integration on recent electoral politics will be examined and the outcome of the 2003 referendums is assessed (3). The special case of Poland is then investigated (4) and some general conclusions drawn about the impact of enlargement and EU involvement more generally on CE party systems (5).

Actions (login required)