Political Institutions and Electoral Behavior in Central and Eastern Europe

Models of Political Changes in the Region of Central and Eastern Europe The article discusses the issues of transformation processes in Central and Eastern Europe. The analysis took many factors into account: geographical, historical, political, political, social and economic. Internal and external premises decided about the course of political and political changes initiated at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. Classical political theories about the Transition to democracy were included. A research hypothesis was put forward that the traditions of democratic political institutions have a positive impact on the pace and extent of consolidation of the democratic system.

Download Full-text

Arrived in Power, and Yet Still Disgruntled? How Government Inclusion Moderates ‘Protest Voting’ for Far-Right Populist Parties in Europe

Government and Opposition ◽

10.1017/gov.2021.46 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-30

Author(s):

Jasper Muis ◽

Tobias Brils ◽

Teodora Gaidytė

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Political Institutions ◽

Western Europe ◽

Central And Eastern Europe ◽

Important Determinant ◽

European Social Survey ◽

Far Right ◽

Social Survey ◽

Electoral Support ◽

Political Dissatisfaction

Abstract While debates about far-right populism often concentrate on Central and Eastern Europe, research on these parties predominantly focuses on Western countries. Addressing this remarkable gap, this article revisits the ‘protest voting’ explanation for electoral support for the far right. Using European Social Survey data (2002–16) from 22 countries, we show that political dissatisfaction is a stronger explanatory factor when far-right parties are in opposition, but is a less important determinant of electoral support when they are in government. Previous findings based on Western Europe – which similarly showed that the anti-elite hypothesis is less relevant when far-right parties join government coalitions – travel well to post-communist European countries. In Hungary and Poland, we even find that far-right voters have become less distrustful of national political institutions than the rest of the electorate. Our conclusion implies that anti-elite populism is context-dependent and has limited use for understanding successes of leaders such as Wilders, Salvini and Orbán.

Download Full-text

Post-communism Elections as a Theoretical Challenge

The Tocqueville Review/La revue Tocqueville ◽

10.3138/ttr.22.1.173 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 173-188

Author(s):

Antoine Roger

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

General Framework ◽

Central And Eastern Europe ◽

Electoral Behavior ◽

Western Countries ◽

Post Communism

The specialists of electoral behavior find a new and stimulating field in post-communist democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. They could be tempted to use the models which were built for interpreting the vote in western countries but they must be cautious as a simple transposition is not possible. Several adaptations have been tried during the last decade. Because specialists have not bothered setting up a general framework, the results have been disappointing. It is time to cast a retrospective look on them so as to set down some landmarks.

Download Full-text

Developing attachments to new political institutions: a multi-level model of attitude formation in post-Communist Europe

European Political Science Review ◽

10.1017/s1755773910000202 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 475-494 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Gerhard Loewenberg ◽

William Mishler ◽

Howard Sanborn

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Political Institutions ◽

Western Europe ◽

Central And Eastern Europe ◽

Communist Regime ◽

Democratic Regimes ◽

Institutional Structures ◽

Level Model ◽

Multi Level

In America and Western Europe, legislatures preceded democratization and contributed to the establishment and maintenance of democratic regimes in the late 18th and the 19th centuries. In Central and Eastern Europe in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, legislatures and democratic regimes appeared simultaneously. In the first 15 years of post-Communist transitions in 12 countries, attachments to the new regimes have been influenced by their institutional structures, their economic performance, and their records in protecting human freedom, while attachment to the new parliaments have been predominantly influenced by cultural factors related to early life socialization including education, age, gender, social status, and attitudes toward the former communist regime. Attachment to parliament was a product more than a cause of attachment to the new regimes, but the parliamentary system of government created a context that contributed to citizens’ attachment to their new political institutions. In that respect, attitudes toward parliaments in Central and Eastern Europe played a role similar to the role that these attitudes played in an earlier stage of democratization in Europe and North America, the role of attaching citizens to new political institutions.

Download Full-text

Political institutions and economic reforms in Central and Eastern Europe: a snowball effect

Economic Systems ◽

10.1016/j.ecosys.2003.03.002 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 289-311 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Elise S Brezis ◽

Thierry Verdier

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Political Institutions ◽

Central And Eastern Europe ◽

Economic Reforms ◽

Snowball Effect

Download Full-text

Transition to a market economy: A retrospective comparison of China with countries of the former Soviet block

Acta Oeconomica ◽

10.1556/032.2020.00024 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 70 (S) ◽

pp. 15-45

Author(s):

Marek Dabrowski

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Low Income ◽

Political Institutions ◽

Central And Eastern Europe ◽

Initial Conditions ◽

Rural China ◽

Soviet Bloc ◽

Science Literature ◽

Economic Management ◽

Transition Strategies

AbstractIn the 1990s and early 2000s, comparison of transition strategies of China versus those in Central and Eastern Europe raised controversies in the economic and political science literature. However, differences between China and the countries of the former Soviet bloc in their transition strategies resulted not necessarily from a deliberate political choice but from different initial conditions. Low-income and largely rural China, after its first radical step (de-collectivisation of agriculture in 1978), could move more gradually due to its under-industrialisation and retaining administrative control over the economy. The over-industrialised Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and former Soviet Union (FSU) countries where the previous command system of economic management spontaneously collapsed at the end of 1980s, did not have such an option. They had to conduct market-oriented reforms as quickly as they could, with all the associated economic and social pain. Regardless of speed and strategy of transition, almost all previously centrally-planned economies, including China, completed building basic foundations of a market system by the early 2000s although the quality of economic and political institutions and policies differ between the sub-regional groups and individual countries.

Download Full-text