Electoral Volatility and Stability of Party Systems in Post-Communist Countries of Central and Eastern Europe

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The article examines the dynamics of electoral volatility in the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe at the beginning of the XXI century as a factor which influences the stability of party systems. The author emphasizes that unstable party and group links impede the process of the institutionalization of political parties, excessively increase political uncertainty, reduce the level of the responsibility of ruling elites. All these things as a whole make the consolidation of “new democracy” regimes more difficult. The author noted that the lowered confidence in political parties being the characteristic of the political culture in post-communist societies is mostly the result of a weakly expressed historic socio-political cleavage which comes out as the legacy of the totalitarian age. In the post-communist states of CEE, the unsteady party identification of citizens is expressed in considerable mobility of the electorate. However, the high level of electoral volatility accounts for using electoral systems that, for the most significant part are based on the principle of proportionality. The author concluded that presently the consolidation of post-communist democracies in countries of CEE is possible on condition that the stability of public authorities is provided at the expense of restraining their representation to a certain extent. Consequently, political parties which potentially gain using majoritarian systems will strive for the realization of a reform of the electoral law that is currently in force.