Post-communist Democracies Research Articles

Substantiating EU citizenship: an unintended route to anti-establishment support

ABSTRACT This study explores the relationship between European Union citizenship and support for anti-establishment parties across the EU’s older and newer, post-communist democracies. By conceptually linking EU support to substantive EU citizenship, this study identifies the contingent nature of EU citizenship’s effect on support for anti-establishment parties. We conduct a multilevel regression analysis across 22 EU member-states, using data generated by a Eurobarometer survey conducted in 2018. This survey counts on support for EU coordinated foreign policy, in addition to conventional EU support measures, enabling an analysis at different levels of EU politics. Findings show that citizens’ support at these different levels depresses their support for anti-establishment parties across old democracies, yet increases it across new democracies. Hence, the effect of EU citizenship emerges as being contingent on whether citizens are in an old or a new, post-communist democracy of the EU, and on where the borders of the EU are drawn. This contingency has potential to be an instrument of deepening the emerging transnational cleavage between liberal, cosmopolitan and traditional, authoritarian values for old democracies and of manipulation by inward looking parochial, populist politics for new democracies. This will affect the nature of European politics and the future of integration.

Achieving Democracy through Interest Representation?

The article discusses a link between interest representation and its importance for democracy. After looking at the pluralist, corporatist and neo-pluralist approaches, the article focuses on the role of interest groups in associational, deliberative, and participatory democracies. I debate whether or not interest representation is a necessary element of democracy and whether the theoretical background can help us grasp it across all political systems. I address this question in the context of young, post-Communist democracies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). I argue that in the CEE countries when studying interest groups’ populations and organizational behaviour, we have to take into consideration a number of internal and external factors that impact perceptions and actual activity of interest groups when it comes to countries’ democratization.

Post-Communist Junctures, the Left, and Illiberalism: Theory with Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe

While many post-communist European party systems have experienced the rise of anti-establishment parties, not all have been equally vulnerable to challengers attacking both cultural and economic liberalism. This article borrows insights from scholarship on Latin American politics and develops a critical juncture approach to understanding the linkages between economic liberalization and political illiberalism in 15 post-communist democracies during the 1990-2020 period. It argues that contingent political dynamics during post-communist junctures shaped ensuing legacies by conditioning the long-term programmatic positions and variable electoral performance of “traditional” leftist parties. This path-dependent process culminated in variable electoral viability of illiberal parties with incentives for ideological differentiation and organizational capacities to adopt those economic positions that were most likely to be electorally rewarded. By focusing on variable incentives, resources, and constraints, the article challenges previous scholarship and advances and tests a novel theoretical framework based on a probabilistic approach to critical juncture analysis.

“Sorosoids”: Dehumanization and open society in contemporary Bulgaria

This text elucidates some of the uses and connotations of the word “sorosoid,” which has recently permeated the public discourse in Bulgaria, used to refer to individuals and organizations affiliated with Soros’ Open Society Foundation. I am particularly interested in the inflection “-oid,” which seeks to echo the word “humanoid.” In other words, my specific concern is with strategies of dehumanization of neoliberals in Bulgaria, whereby the fundamental values of open society in this country are challenged. The paper provides a glimpse of some key ideological attitudes in one of Europe’s post-communist democracies.

Winning votes: the comparative importance of money and time on parliamentary candidates’ electoral performance in Estonia

ABSTRACT The literature on post-communist democracies has traditionally suggested that expensive media-based campaigns are key to electoral success. Using data from the 2011, 2015, and 2019 Estonian Candidate Study, this article provides an up-to-date evaluation of how important monetary and non-monetary campaign efforts are in shaping candidates' electoral performance in a post-communist democracy. It finds that, while campaign spending continues to influence candidates' electoral fortunes, candidates need to significantly outspend their rivals to enjoy a meaningful increase in their vote share. There is also emerging evidence that candidates are starting to electorally benefit from devoting more time to promoting their candidacy.

Post-Communist Democracies Instability: Some Sources and Explanations. Supplementary Materials for Understanding Prospects of Ukraine Post-War Development Papers

Post-Communist Democracies Instability: Some Sources and Explanations. Supplementary Materials for Understanding Prospects of Ukraine Post-War Development Papers

Exploring interest intermediation in Central and Eastern Europe: is higher education different?

Higher education interest groups remain somewhat understudied from a comparative theory-driven perspective. This is surprising because political decisions regarding higher education must increasingly be legitimized to students, taxpayers, the academic community and society. This article aims to advance our understanding of higher education stakeholders in post-communist Europe. In our view, the region deserves more attention, not least because students and academics were very instrumental in bringing down communism and institutionalizing democracy. First, we draw on Klemenčič’s (EJHE 2(1): 2–19, 2012; SHE 39(3):396–411, 2014) distinction between corporatist and pluralist as well as formalized and informal systems of representation in higher education. Looking at survey data from four countries—Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia—we examine to what extent post-communist democracies have established corporatist institutions to facilitate the formal participation of various crucial stakeholder organizations, e.g. students’ unions, academic unions, rectors’ conferences, etc. Then we address whether higher education organizations enjoy privileged access to policy-makers compared to those from other policy areas, while engaging with the argument that higher education is a particular case of “stakeholder democracy” in a region otherwise characterized by weak civic participation and corporatism. To wrap up, we discuss different “mutations of higher education corporatism” in each country.

Examining political participation in Lithuania: The direct and mediated effects of social trust

This article investigates the effects of social trust, both direct and mediated – via internal and external efficacy – on different forms of political participation in post-communist Lithuania. The relationship between social trust and participation features prominently in the social capital and civic culture literature, but little empirical evidence exists that supports it, especially in post-communist democracies. We use the Lithuanian National Elections Study 2012 to test our hypotheses and replicate our analysis with the European Social Survey waves of 2014 and 2016. Our results show that social trust increases turnout, because it is related to a sense of external efficacy, which in turn enhances the likelihood that people vote. There is, however, no association between social trust and being involved in other institutionalised politics, namely, working for a political party. Interestingly, we find a positive indirect effect for non-institutionalised political participation: social trust increases external efficacy, which in turn enhances protest behaviour. Overall, however, social trust does not lead to more protesting, because the former is at the same time positively related to political trust, which seems to decrease, rather than increase non-institutionalised participation. In sum, our findings demonstrate that explanations for political participation based on the core element of social capital – social trust – work out differently for different forms of political participation.

The Long-Term Governmental Parties in Post-Communist Democracies

ABSTRACT Post-communist democracies have been notorious for their under-institutionalized party systems and unstable governments. However, two exceptional cases stand out in the region: Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (LDS) ruled the country for 12 years uninterrupted, and the Estonian Reform Party (RE) was in government for an unbroken 17 years. The article explores the factors that contributed to the success of both parties. The results show that long-term governmental parties may emerge under the conditions of proportional representation (PR) electoral systems and in fragmented and less-institutionalized party systems, if those parties use clever coalition strategies, introduce a politico-ideological hegemony, and rely on their own internal resources in which leadership or organizational capacities are crucial.

Party Responsiveness to Public Opinion in Young Democracies

Are political parties in young democracies responsive to the policy preferences of the public? Compared to extensive scholarship on party responsiveness in established democracies, research on party responsiveness in young democracies is limited. We argue that weaker programmatic party–voter linkages in post-communist democracies create incentives for parties to respond to their supporters rather than the more general electorate. Such responsiveness occurs in two ways. First, parties follow shifts in the mean position of their supporters. Second, drawing on the research on party–voter congruence, we argue that parties adjust their policy positions to eliminate previous incongruence between themselves and their supporters. Analyses based on a comprehensive dataset that uses expert surveys, parties’ manifestoes and election surveys to measure parties’ positions, and several cross-national and national surveys to measure voters’ preferences provide strong support for this argument.

Prime ministers and party governments in Central and Eastern Europe

ABSTRACT This article is the introduction to a special issue on Prime Ministers (PMs) and party governments in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It argues that the political survival of PMs in post-communist democracies depends on their interrelationships with other actors in three different arenas. The first arena encompasses the linkages between PMs and their parties. In this respect, being a party leader is a major power resource for PMs to retain their office even under critical circumstances. At the heart of the second arena is the PMs’ relationship to other parliamentary parties. In this regard, the high fragmentation and fluidity of many post-communist party systems pose enormous challenges for PMs to secure constant parliamentary support. In the third arena, PMs are confronted with state presidents. Relatively strong CEE presidents, especially in semi-presidential systems, may use their constitutional powers to interfere in the political domain of PMs and thus jeopardise the stability of party governments. For each of these interrelationships, the article provides systematic evidence for eleven CEE democracies from 1990 to 2019 and situates the findings of the volume’s contributions within a broader comparative perspective.

Post-Communist Institution-Building and Media Control

This study uses an interdisciplinary perspective to shed light on Ukraine’s continuous problems with media independence, which to date have not allowed Ukraine to become a country with a truly free media: since Ukraine’s independence in 1991 its media have consistently remained only “partly free.” The approach proposed in the paper combines theoretical tools of post-communist media studies with advancements in political science research in regime change and state-building to explore the continuities and changes in the institutional environment for the media in post-communist new democracies. The approach is applied to analyze two cases of post-communist media change, both problematic to explain within the framework of media studies alone: the case of incomplete media transformation in a hybrid regime (Ukraine) and the incident of backsliding in independent media in an advanced new democracy (Hungary). The paper is structured as follows: I first present the shortcomings in the way institutions, or more specifically the institutional environment for media freedom, were previously approached in post-communist media studies. I then propose a more advanced approach based on theories and concepts originating from comparative-politics studies of regime change and state and institution-building. I apply this approach to analyze the institutional environment for the media in Ukraine. Next, I explore the case of a radical reconstruction of media-related institutions in Hungary after Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party came to power in 2010.

Dissecting Electoral Support for the Far Right: A Comparison between Mature and Post-Communist European Democracies

AbstractThis article investigates three explanations for electoral support for the far right – ‘cultural backlash’, ‘economic grievances’ and ‘protest voting’ – in a novel way. Our main contribution is that we contrast far-right voters with voters of centre-right parties, traditional left-wing parties and abstainers. Equally innovative is the comparison between mature and post-communist democracies. Using European Social Survey data (2014–16), we conclude that anti-immigration attitudes are most important in distinguishing far-right voters from all other groups. Yet, these differences are significantly smaller in Eastern Europe. Furthermore, far-right voters are not the so-called socioeconomic ‘losers of globalization’: this is only true when compared with centre-right voters. Concerning protest voting, distrust of supranational governance particularly enhances far-right voting. Overall, our study concludes that more fine-grained distinctions pay off and avoid misleading generalizations about ‘European far-right voters’ often presented in public debates.

Stepping out of the shadow of the past: how career attributes shape ministerial stability in post-communist democracies

ABSTRACT How do career attributes affect the survival of post-communist ministers? We theorise that career attributes determine “desirability” of ministers, and therefore the length of their tenure. While political career attributes provide superior expertise and incentives, bureaucratic career attributes fall short on both “desirability” markers. Utilizing a unique data set of individual ministers in four post-communist countries in the first two decades after transition, we provide support for our expectations. We then demonstrate that while career attributes acquired before transition remain relevant for the stability of post-communist ministers after transition, their value wanes over time as post-transition career attributes gain predominance.

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

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.

Democracy and Redistribution: The Role of Regime Revisited

This study challenges a well-supported institutionalist theory in comparative politics that links democracy with higher levels of redistribution as well as studies that link authoritarianism with welfare state liberalization. Using pooled cross-sectional data for ten post-communist countries spanning twenty-five years and a dynamic model specification, the study shows that, contrary to what the institutionalist theory predicts, post-communist democratic governments redistribute about 0.6 percent less of their GDP on social protection in the short term and 1.3 percent less in the long term than post-communist autocrats do. However, consistent with the cultural legacies hypothesis, there are no differences when it comes to redistribution of life chances through health care and education. I attribute the finding that post-communist autocracies redistribute more via social spending and are reluctant to liberalize their welfare states to their need to maintain popular legitimacy in a region where citizens are accustomed to high levels of redistribution and popular protests often lead to regime turnover. I argue that post-communist democracies have other available mechanisms to maintain their legitimacy, namely, free and fair elections, while post-communist autocratic governments have to rely on redistribution to do so. The findings have implications for our understanding of authoritarian resilience in the region.

Political parties and their members in Lithuania

ABSTRACTPrevious research expected political parties in post-communist democracies to avoid the ‘time consuming and arduous’ process of building and maintaining membership bases. By 2007, however, 5.2% of the Lithuanian public were members of a political party (Eurequal). This research uses surveys and interviews to investigate the functions of party members in two Lithuanian political parties, Homeland Union–Lithuanian Christian Democrats and the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. This article explores elites’ incentives for developing their parties as membership organizations. Members were valued for offering ‘legitimacy benefits’ and helping parties to communicate with voters, including by acting as ‘ambassadors in the community.’

Belonging and Political Participation: Evidence from the 2011 President Election in Kyrgyzstan

This study examines the effects of social embeddedness on interest in politics and electoral behaviour using data from a nationally representative survey conducted shortly after the 2011 presidential election in Kyrgyzstan. We find that interest in politics is positively associated with community trust, public sector employment and a sense of national belonging. Controlling for the effects of interest in politics, community trust and public sector employment are also positively associated with voting in this election, whereas evidence on ethno-cultural inclusion is mixed. These findings highlight the role of social embeddedness in political participation in young post-communist democracies.

Explaining legislative party switching in advanced and new democracies

The phenomenon of legislative party switching has attracted considerable attention among scholars. Studies show that parties are likely to experience defections if they are unable to offer their legislators electoral, office and policy benefits. While often deemed a symptom of a weakly institutionalized party system, switching may also be frequent in established democracies. Yet, surprisingly, we have no empirical evidence to help us understand whether party benefits that drive switchers are different in established democracies and new democracies. I argue that parties that fail to provide their members with re-election prospects or government access are likely to witness switching only in new democracies. In advanced democracies, switching is likely to be associated with ideological identity and policy motives. The statistical analysis of party switching across 25 European advanced and post-communist democracies confirms my expectations.

Are Parties Punished for Breaking Electoral Promises? Market Oriented Reforms and the Left in Post-Communist Countries

Do voters punish left-wing parties that pursue neo-liberal policies? We address the question in the context of post-communist countries, where the left implemented painful market-oriented reforms. For the left, owning these reforms means backing away from its policy platform and plausibly generates two electorally consequential outcomes: A “brand dilution” effect that weakens voters’ attachment to left parties and is magnified by the economic vulnerability of the left’s core constituency; And an “expectations effect” that increases demand for right wing politicians. Overall, the left should lose votes, particularly when voters can easily attribute policy responsibility. Our analysis uses updated data on the vote shares for all parties and elections in post-communist democracies from 1991 to 2010. We find support for the theory: Left-wing parties of the chief executive are punished at the ballot box for moving to the right on economic policy and this, likely, comes from a ‘brad dilution’ effect.