Electoral Systems and Political Transformation in Post-Communist Europe by Sarah s> Birch (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 153 lie. They are criticalof the failureof the United Statesto do more to promote democracy and economic reform, particularly in I99I-92. The fact that acrimony over such issuesas NATO enlargement or Kosovo did not resultin a return to the Cold War is taken to show that 'historyhas vindicated those Wilsonians in all three U.S. administrations who believed that Russian transformationwas a U.S. securityinterest'(p. 365). 'Realists' might respond that Moscow's acquiescent attitude reflected consciousness of its weakness. The authors themselves remark on the 'breathtakingspeed' of Russia's decline as a major power (p. 359); where Khrushchev once dreamt of overtakingthe West, Putin now aspiresto catch up with Portugal.As ispointed out, therewas a lag inWashington'sperception of this, and in his firstterm Clinton had no higherforeignpolicy prioritythan the support of El'tsin. But later in the decade Russia received much less attention, and lessconsiderationwas given to thewishesof itsleaders.In other respects,too, the storytold here seems to vindicate a 'realist'perspective.The valuable statistics(and tables) on aid not only show how small the American effortwas in comparisonto that of Europe (especiallyGermany)but also how much more aid was provided for securitypurposes (thedismantlingof Soviet nuclear and chemical weapons) than for economic assistance or democracy promotion. This reflected the prioritiesof Congress, which of course has to appropriatethe funds. Whatever latitude of choice the United States enjoys with respect to its external environment, there are significant internal constraintson policymakers'ability to chart the nation's course. In this case, the influence of domestic lobbies is apparent over NATO enlargement, the distribution of aid between Russia and the Newly Independent States (especiallyUkraine)and the amount thatwent in the form of food. Finally, there is the question of how much influence on Russian internal developments the United States could have had a subject on which the authors seem in two minds (p. 40). The dream that propaganda and foreign aid can produce an American-styledemocracyin Russiadatesbackat least to I9I7. The authors are evidently close to Russian reformerswho shared this aspiration,but historysuggeststhatin both countriesmost people have always had otherpriorities. StCatharine's College, Cambridge JOHN A. THOMPSON Birch, Sarah. ElectoralSystemsand Political Transformation in Post-Communist Europe. One Europe or Several? Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke and New York, 2003. xii + 2 I2 pp. Notes. Tables. Appendices. Bibliography. Index. ?45.00? THIS is an important and well-written contribution to the fast-growing literature on electoral systems and party politics in the new democracies of Eastern Europe. The main aim of the book is to explore the influence of electoral systemson the degree of inclusion of citizens into political processes and to establish the patterns of impact of electoral systems on party system institutionalization. Included in the study are lower house parliamentary elections between i990 and 2002 in twenty states of East-Central Europe 154 SEER, 83, I, 2005 (ECE);only Azerbaijan,Belarusand Yugoslaviabefore 2000 were left out on the basis of not being democratic enough by international standards. The book convincingly demonstrates its main hypothesis, namely that electoral systems have a systematic impact on how representativestructuresfunction even in the period shortly after regime change. The first part serves as an introductionto the generaldiscussionaboutthe originsof electoralinstitutions in ECE. In the second part the relationship between electoral rules and inclusion of voters into political processes is explored. The third part deals with questions of how electoral institutions influence the size and shape of partysystemsanditsoverallstabilityandchange. The analysisissupplemented with a summaryof electoralresultsin all countriesunderconsideration. Even though the relationshipbetween electoralsystemsand partycompetition is notoriously complex, the author argues that in establishing electoral institutions,politicians in ECE in many cases took a long-term view and did not necessarilychoose the electoral rulesthat would enhance theirindividual or party chances. Moreover, despite ratherfrequent tampering with various aspects of electoral systems (e.g. gradual increases in electoral thresholds), generallythe electoralinstitutionsshow considerablestabilityand persistence. Unlike the single member district (SMD) majority systems used in the Communistperiod, all new democraciesuse electoralsystemswith important (or only) proportional representation components. In addition, in many countrieselectoral systemsare specifiedin the constitutions,a practice rather unusualin WesternEurope. Because no countryin ECE adopted compulsoryvoting, variousaspectsof electoral institutions and other political variables (e.g. closeness of political competition or support for the left...