Link to the University of Pittsburgh
Link to the University Library SystemContact us link
AEI Banner

Party Competition in Post-Communist Europe: The Great Electoral Lottery. CES Central & Eastern Europe Working Paper, no. 54, 2001

Innes, Abby. (2001) Party Competition in Post-Communist Europe: The Great Electoral Lottery. CES Central & Eastern Europe Working Paper, no. 54, 2001. [Working Paper]

[img]
Preview
PDF
Download (252Kb) | Preview

    Abstract

    This article suggests that the academic emphasis on rational choice and political-sociological approaches to party development has led to a misleading impression of convergence with Western patterns of programmatic competition and growing partisan identification in the Central European party political scene. As an alternative thesis, the author argues that the very character of ‘transition’ politics in Eastern Europe and the necessarily self-referential nature of the parliamentary game has structured party systems in those countries, and that the differences between the party systems in this region are critically related to experiences under communism (–a political-historical explanation). The paper argues that, in order to cope with a practical lack of public policy options in major areas such as the economy, parties have had little choice but to compete over operating ‘styles,’ rather than over substantive (ideologically based) programmatic alternatives. The development of parties incumbent in government since 1989 may be compared to the development of catch-all parties in Western Europe in terms of the competitive logic of weakening/ avoiding ideological positions in order to embrace a large constituency. However, successful parties in Eastern Europe lack the ‘baggage’ of an ideological past and the history of mass membership and a class or denominational clientele – their defining characteristic is that they try to appeal to all of the people all of the time.

    Export/Citation:EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII (Chicago style) | HTML Citation | OpenURL
    Social Networking:
    Item Type: Working Paper
    Subjects for non-EU documents: EU policies and themes > Policies & related activities > public policy/public administration
    EU policies and themes > External relations > EU-Central and Eastern Europe
    EU policies and themes > Treaty reform > enlargement
    EU policies and themes > Policies & related activities > political affairs > political parties
    Subjects for EU documents: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Series and Periodicals: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Annual Reports: UNSPECIFIED
    Series: Series > Harvard University, Center for European Studies > Program on Central & Eastern Europe Working Papers Series
    Depositing User: Phil Wilkin
    Official EU Document: No
    Language: English
    Date Deposited: 19 Aug 2009
    Page Range: p. 31
    Last Modified: 15 Feb 2011 18:00
    URI: http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9279

    Actions (login required)

    View Item

    Document Downloads