Organisational Continuity and Electoral Endurance: The Communist Party of Cyprus

Abstract

This article makes a contribution to the understanding of party organisation by examining one of the most successful West European communist parties, the Communist Party of Cyprus (AKEL). Defying the downward trend of its counterparts and the external shock of Soviet collapse, the AKEL has managed to sustain the support of nearly a third of the electorate. Using original archival evidence and interview data, the article attributes the electoral endurance of the AKEL to organisational continuity. Since its founding, the party has built a robust mass party structure, with an extensive network of auxiliary organisations and strong centralising mechanisms. During the crisis of the late 1980s, the party kept the basic features of this organisational model intact refusing to dismantle its Leninist organisational infrastructure. Organisational continuity has helped the AKEL sustain its electoral strength by signalling its ideological consistency. Organisational continuity might also account for the relative persistence of other communist parties in Western Europe.