Post-Communist Party Systems: Competition, Representation, and Inter-Party Cooperation

by Herbert Kitschelt , Zdenka Mansfeldova , Radoslaw Markowski , Gabor Toka

• ISBN13: 9780521658904
• ISBN10: 052165890X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-08-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Post-Communist Party Systems examines democratic party competition in four post-communist polities in the mid-1990s, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. Legacies of pre-communist rule turn out to play as much a role in accounting for differences as the institutional differences incorporated in the new democratic rules of the game. The book demonstrates various developments within the four countries with regard to different voter appeal of parties, patterns of voter representation, and dispositions to join other parties in legislative or executive alliances. The authors also present interesting avenues of comparison for broader sets of countries.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	ix
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction: Democracy and Party Competition	1	(18)
Part I Theory: Party Systems and the Procedural Quality of Post-Communist Democracy
Historical Legacies and Strategies of Democratization: Pathways toward Post-Communist Polities	19	(24)
The Quality of Post-Communist Democracy: Patterns of Party Competition, Representation, and Inter-Party Collaboration	43	(52)
Part II Setting and Research Strategy
From Communist Rule to Democracy: Four Central and East European Countries	95	(38)
Empirical Research Strategy	133	(24)
Part III The Structuring of Party Competition
Programmatic Citizen-Elite Linkage Strategies across Post-Communist Polities	157	(38)
Linkage Strategies within Party Systems: Diversity among Parties	195	(28)
Part IV Political Alignments and Dimensions of Competition
Political Divides and Alignments: The Politicians' Perspective	223	(39)
Electoral Constituency Alignments: Emerging Political Cleavages?	262	(47)
Part V Political Representation and the Quality of Democratic Governance
Political Representation	309	(36)
The Governability of Post-Communist Democracies: Coalition Politics between Passions and Policy Interests	345	(38)
Conclusion
The Diversity of Post-Communist Democratic Governance	383	(26)
Appendix I: List of Political Parties and Electoral Alliances	409	(3)
Appendix II: Questionnaire for the Elite Study	412	(11)
Appendix III: Population Survey Questions (Policy Opinions)	423	(2)
Bibliography	425	(24)
Index	449