Elections, Parties and Representation in Post-Communist Europe by Frances s> Millard (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS I55 changes in the electorate and at the level of party elites. The book focuses more on the electorate, distinguishingbetween electoral volatility, measured here with regard to switches between parties contesting two consecutive elections, andpartyreplacement,measuredas theproportionof the electorate attracted by new formations. Though 'novelty' is sometimes difficult to establish, given the frequent splits and mergers of political parties, volatility and replacement are conceptually very useful categories. Party replacement scores are shown to be considerablyhigherin the formerSoviet Union, a fact explained by a more patrimonial legacy transformedinto personalisticlinks between voters and politicians. As a consequence, some parties serve as personal vehicles of individualcandidates, contributingto a higher incidence of partysysteminstabilityand reduced organizationalcontinuity. The lack of evidence for a 'cartelization thesis', i.e. the fact that the success of the newcomers is not related to state financing of establishedparties and other partyfinancevariables,is anotherimportantfindingof the book. SarahBirch has written an accessibleyet empiricallyrich and theoretically informed book that is a must for anyone interestedin electoralprocessesand partypolitics (not only)in EasternEurope. Department ofPolitical Science MAREK RYBAR Comenius University, Bratislava Millard, Frances. Elections, PartiesandRepresentation in Post-Communist Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke and New York, 2004. xxiii + 350 pp. Listof partyacronyms.Tables. Notes. Bibliography.Index. ?55.??. ELECTIONS, parties and representationhave been central themes of research examining the politics of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) over the past decade and a half. Such accounts, however, have tended to focus on one of these three components of the now not-quite-so-young democracies of the region.In contrast,in Elections, Parties andRepresentation inPost-Communist Europe, Frances Millard examines not only what types of political parties have emerged, how they have developed and why these parties have proved successful or unsuccessful at the ballot box, but she also explores the interactionbetween voters and the electoralmechanism, andwhy some social groupsarebetterrepresentedthan othersin the parliamentsof the region. There ismuch to applaudin Millard'smonograph. Her accountisfurnished with detailed empirical evidence of both the qualitative and quantitative variety. Unlike some other political science accounts of CEE, she only uses number crunchingwhere appropriateand necessary,ensuringthat the details of the individual cases are brought into the analysis to provide a full and roundedexplanation of politicaloutcomes. Surveyingpartypoliticsin the pastfifteenyears, she notes that those parties which have been successfulat the ballot box over a number of elections, such as Liberal Democracy in Slovenia, the Civic Democratic Partyin the Czech Republic and the Hungarian Socialists, have 'based their appeal to the electorateon ideological-programmaticgrounds'(p. III), which accordswith van Beyme's observations of Western Europe. Nonetheless, the region has 156 SEER, 83, I, 2005 witnessed the emergence of a multitude of new parties over the last decade and a half, with Latvian voters in particular proving to be 'particularly receptive to new parties' (p. i I6). As Millard notes, '[i]nstead of gradual evolutionary processes of routinization and stabilization' many of the new polities in CEE 'sawfluidity,uncertainty,and continuing change, even where apparentlystableinstitutionalframeworkshad emerged' (p. I27). Such an observationraisesinterestingquestionsfor thefuture.Now thatfor most of the statesof CEE the democratic transitionis over and EU entry has been achieved are we likely to see as much fluidity in the next fifteen years given the fact that these 'apparently stable institutional frameworks'are in place? Millard shows how new parties such as New Era in Latvia,ResPublica in Estonia and the Party of Civic Understanding in Slovakia were able to achieve electoral success in the past decade and a half thanks largely to resources, a favourablepolitical opportunity structureand astute leadership strategies. For a number of new parties entering government, however, the wheels soon began to come off the hastily constructed bandwagons as the realitiesof government acted like a seriesof potholes and obstacles.Although it is unlikelywe willwitnessagain the creationof ideologicallybroad umbrella groupings which characterized the i989-9o period, given the ability of politicians in CEE to disappoint their voters, the challenges accorded by EU membershipand the ease of creatingnew partiesin countriessuchas Slovakia, it seems plausible to suggest that party politics will remain fluid in the next fifteenyears. The only majorcriticismworth throwingat the book is, at times, the lackof engagement with the broader political science literature. Millard has researchedthe electoral and partypolitics of all the statesin the region, she has...