Political parties and ideological spaces in East Central Europe (original) (raw)
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Searching for the Right Organization: Ideology and Party Structure in East-Central Europe
Party Politics, 2008
ABSTRACT The article examines four centre-right parties in East-Central Europe in order to assess the impact of ideology on party organization and revisit the thesis of organizational weakness in the region. The data collected indicate that, together with electoral success, inherited resources and national context, ideology does indeed shape the style of organization. Centre-right parties, as opposed to leftist parties, tend to be less bureau-cratized, have fewer staff members, a simpler structure, more individualized leadership and the 'party-in-public-office' tends also to have a more elevated role. Parties that have more individualistic ideologies tends also to have 'lighter' organization and weaker embeddedness, while parties subscribing to a more collectivist and corporatist type of conservatism have developed more complex party organization and rely more heavily on affiliate organizations. Analysis of temporal changes uncovers a degree of organizational vitality that is surprising given that the literature on both centre-right and on post-communist politics points towards organizational weakness.
Akta Fakulty filozofické Západočeské univerzity v Plzni, 2009
The paper analyses the common one-dimensional simplifi cation of the complex socio-political reality conventionally recognised as the left-right continuum in Central and Eastern European post-communist countries. Due to the intense European integrating processes of this post-communist region the investigation of the potentially distinct general understanding of one of the most universally applied tools for distinguishing political actors holds even greater importance. According to Kitschelt's fi ve-dimensional theoretical framework of the post-communist context and by employing data mining techniques, the paper examines core standpoints that defi ne one's position on the left-right axis in the investigated region. The paper lends additional weight to the intuitive initial assumption of our research that has been frequently discussed in the relevant literature and somewhat confi rms a person's attitude to the previous regime as the most important divide in the political space of Central and Eastern European post-communist countries. ) The term denotes intensive integration processes and eventual membership of most investigated countries in the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and various other international organisations (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Council of Europe, etc.).
The paper analyses the common one-dimensional simplification of complex sociopolitical reality conventionally known as the left-right continuum in the territory of Central and Eastern European countries. Due to the intense European integrating processes (here, the term denotes accession processes and membership in the European Union, membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and membership or co-operation in various other international organisations, i.e., Western European Union, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Council of Europe etc.) of post-communist region, the investigation of the potentially distinct features in the general comprehension of a common analytical tool for distinguishing political actors attracts even greater importance. Taking on board Kitschelts (1995) theoretical framework presumptions on party cleavages in transitional democracies and by acknowledging the Rokkanian political theory on social cleavages, by employing data mining to...
Comparing organizational structures of political parties in Central and Eastern European countries
2016
Democratic political parties have developed in the emerging democracies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) since the beginning of the 1990s, when political parties in well-established democracies were undergoing organizational transformation. The latter weakened their ties with society and strengthened their relations with the state using its resources. This influenced the development of parties in CEE countries, as they followed Western patterns to a certain degree. But whereas parties in developed democracies were usually well-rooted in society, represent ed social cleavages, had mass membership, were financed by membership fees, and changed only subsequently; parties in CEE did not manage to create strong relations with society before they took part in elections. There was a lack of clear social cleavages, and parties were created by political elites rather than social groups or movements, thus they often became a part of the state institutions even before they tried to establish roots in society. 1 While in Western Europe mass po litical mobilization preceded the building of party structures and participation in Post-communist parties can be regarded as exceptional in this matter.
Developing party structures in Central and Eastern Europe
2016
Although the activity of political parties is a popular and widely studied issue, the nature of their organizational structures receive relatively less attention. While most research is focused on Western Europe, since the countries of Central and Eastern Europe experienced the process of democratization, there appeared a number of studies concerning also parties in this part of Europe. Paul G. Lewis was among the first authors to take an interest in this field. In 1996 he edited Party Structure and Organization in East-Central Europe, which contained several case studies regarding party formation and organizational structures of: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, and even former East Germany. Even though writ ten in the early phases of the democratic transition, reflections concerning the organizational aspects of party formation still prove valuable. Several years later P. G. Lewis authored Political Parties in Post-Communist Eastern Europe (2000). Chapter 4 of this book is devoted to organizational aspects of political parties in the region, and includes author s analysis of party structures, finances, factionalism and relationships between models of party organization in CEE and in established democracies. Also relevant to the study of party organizational structures in CEE coun tries are works by Ingrid van Biezen (2003) and Maria Spirova (2007). Van Biezen discusses the formation of political parties amidst democratic transition, with particular emphasis on their organization. Her research is based on examples
2007
This paper attempts to explain varying patterns of centre-right success in post-communist states, in terms of the ability of its ability to construct broad and durable parties. Macro-institutional explanations that focus on executive structures and electoral system design have limited explanatory power and it is often difficult to separate out analytically the processes of cause and effect. Although historical-structural explanations that focus on regime legacies can explain the ideological positioning of different centre-right formations in our three cases, they do little to explain the relative success. The application of a path dependent/critical junctures framework that stresses the role of political crafting focusing on the choices made in the immediate post-transition period and the aftermath of defeat by communist successor parties in the Hungarian and Polish cases adds some insight, but there is some doubt as to whether the success in founding broad centre-right party-type f...
Comparative Party System Analysis in Central and Eastern Europe: the Case of the Baltic States
Studies of Transition States and Societies, 2011
The nature of the party systems in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has puzzled many scholars. High instability of the party systems and their specifi c evolution makes the application of theoretical models designed predominately for Western European party politics problematic. The paper puts forward the argument that we should further elaborate and specify the models for a small N comparative party system analysis in CEE countries and to incorporate some region specifi c components into the framework. The essential dimensions included into proposed comparative framework are as follows: (1) the stability of the party system, (2) party system fragmentation, (3) parties' penetration into society, (4) the ideology and origins of the major parties, (5) the dominant cleavage constellations framing the party competition (6) the strength of the party organizations. The above-mentioned dimensions are expected to capture the most important aspects that make the diff erence between the party systems in general, and each dimension is complemented with the specifi c additional variables suitable for party system analysis in CEE in particular. The framework will be tested on the Baltic States, which party systems are often regarded to be very similar to each other. However, the analysis will demonstrate that based on the above-mentioned framework, very signifi cant and noteworthy diff erences will be revealed.
The Sociological Approach in Party System Analysis: The Baltic Sates in the Central and Eastern European Context, PhD thesis, 2017
The paper was seeking explanation for several exceptional features that made the Latvian and Estonian party politics stand apart from the CEE mainstream. These peculiar features were: (1) the marginalized position or virtual absence of communist successor-parties; (2) weakness of the left-wing parties (social democrats and socialists) and ideologically unbalanced party competition, in which the right-wing parties have assumed a very dominant position; (3) the cleavage constellation in which ethnic cleavage is effectively merged with the communistanti-communist cleavage constituting a unique combination for CEE countries. It appeared that both the institutional and the party-system-centred approaches were insufficient to providing an adequate explanation to these peculiarities. Therefore the remaining part of the study was focused on the sociological approach, more precisely on cleavages. The author turned to an elaborated theory proposed by Herbert Kitschelt which concentrated on the cleavage formation in the postcommunist party systems while linking it with the impact of communist regime legacies. The regime legacies and the history seem to be highly relevant for the Baltic states, because their dramatic experiences with the Soviet rule and the profound demographic changes they witnessed at that time.
Party Politics, 2014
Since published their seminal work on the importance of social cleavages for the 'freezing' of party systems more than forty years ago, much has been written on the field demonstrating or discrediting the original hypothesis. In the current article, I examine how cleavage formation and development have influenced the different levels of institutionalization in four new post-communist party systems (i.e. Visegrad). Analysing distinct hypotheses, I arrive at the conclusion that neither the number nor the type nor the strength of a cleavage is associated with the degree of party system institutionalization in East Central Europe. On the contrary, the main conclusion is that party system institutionalization in these democracies has been determined by the way cleavages are structured. In particular, the process of party system institutionalization is found to be hindered when cleavages cross-cut, while fostered in cases where they cumulate (i.e. coincide).
Presented at the 23rd IPSA World Congress of Political Science, 20-24 July 2014, Montreal. Revised version published in: Minkenberg, Michael (Ed.) (2015): Transforming the Transformation? The East European Radical Right in the Political Process. London: Routledge, 105–136
co-authored with Oliver Kossack Democracies in Central Eastern Europe continuously struggle against the upsurge of radical right parties. Yet, scholarly research on this topic has hitherto largely omitted their influence on agenda-setting, policy making or the party system. Departing from empirical observations of party competition between radical right parties and their mainstream competitors along the socio-cultural cleavage, this contribution seeks to shed light on the influence of these parties on positional shifts – disseminated into spatial and narrative ones – within the party systems in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. First, an evaluation of expert survey data will be carried out to identify spatial shifts in the field of politics of collective identity. Second, qualitative observations of political competition shall reveal the mechanisms, timing, and extent of these shifts. We argue that a viable threat of a radical right party will lead to either an overall rightward shift in the party system or to increasing polarization between a left and a right camp. In contrast, the decline of radical right parties is accompanied by a convergence of the mainstream parties. In any case, the nearby competitors of the radical right always shifted towards the right, following a strategy of issue and frame co-optation.