Elections, Parties and Representation in Post-Communist Europe

Elections, Parties and Representation in Post-Communist Europe PDF Author: F. Millard
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 023000086X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Elections, Parties and Representation in Post-Communist Europe 1990-2002 stresses the ways in which the development of political parties affected the quality of democracy, the nature of political representation, and political accountability in the early stages of post-communist politics. It also analyzes the nature and consequences of the corpus of parliamentary candidates and deputies for the representation of social classes, women and minorities. In contrast with the wide social profile of communist parliaments, politics largely became the playground of new highly educated male elites.

Elections, Parties and Representation in Post-Communist Europe

Elections, Parties and Representation in Post-Communist Europe PDF Author: F. Millard
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 023000086X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Get Book

Book Description
Elections, Parties and Representation in Post-Communist Europe 1990-2002 stresses the ways in which the development of political parties affected the quality of democracy, the nature of political representation, and political accountability in the early stages of post-communist politics. It also analyzes the nature and consequences of the corpus of parliamentary candidates and deputies for the representation of social classes, women and minorities. In contrast with the wide social profile of communist parliaments, politics largely became the playground of new highly educated male elites.

Electoral Systems and Political Transformation in Post-Communist Europe

Electoral Systems and Political Transformation in Post-Communist Europe PDF Author: S. Birch
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1403938768
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Electoral Systems and Political Transformation in Post-Communist Europe assesses the influence of electoral systems on political change in 20 post-communist European states. The main finding is that electoral institutions have systematic effects on the formation of representative structures. 'Party-enabling' aspects of electoral laws such as list proportional representation tend to foster popular inclusion in politics and institutionalized party systems, whereas 'politician-enabling' rules such as single-member districts and ballots that allow voters to select individuals often favour the development of weakly structured systems and high levels of popular exclusion from the representative process.

Women's Access to Political Power in Post-Communist Europe

Women's Access to Political Power in Post-Communist Europe PDF Author: Richard E. Matland
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191529923
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
This book considers women's access to formal positions of powers in the newly formed democracies of post communist Europe. While acknowledging the relevance of recent history, this book takes an important step away from the communist legacy and explicitly argues for a framework based on causal variables identified in the existing literatures from industrialized democracies on women and politics and legislative recruitment After a brief introduction, the second chapter sets forth a general theoretical framework, which posits that the level of female legislative representation in a given country is a function of the relative supply of and demand for female candidates. After a chapter considering a broad overview of public opinion on women and politics in Eastern Europe, thirteen country chapters, spanning the spectrum of Eastern European democracies, address and test hypotheses about the key variables affecting the supply and demand sides of the equation in individual countries. Relevant aspects of the communist cultural and developmental legacy are addressed, but authors give particular attention to political factors, such as electoral rules and the characteristics of the emerging party systems, that vary within the Eastern European countries. The new democracies of Eastern Europe provide a novel context in which to test and extend our theories about the consequences of political institutions for the quality of democracy. Since institutional arrangements are more malleable than developmental or cultural characteristics, those variables also offer the greatest promise to scholars and practitioners wondering what can be done to improve women's access to formal arenas of political power? How can we build democracies that are stable, lasting and representative? A careful analysis of the post-communist context can help us to address issues concerning institutional design and development that has relevance well beyond the Eastern European context.

Political Parties and the State in Post-Communist Europe

Political Parties and the State in Post-Communist Europe PDF Author: Petr Kopecky
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136766928
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
It is not possible to understand the nature and functioning of post-communist political parties without understanding their relationship with the state. On the one hand, few parties in the region would be able to survive and perform without state resources as they lack strong roots within the wider society. On the other hand, the relatively weak st

Post-Communist Party Systems

Post-Communist Party Systems PDF Author: Herbert Kitschelt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521658904
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
Examines democratic party competition in four post-communist polities in the 1990s. The work illustrates developments regarding different voter appeal of parties, patterns of voter representation, and dispositions to join other parties in alliances. Wider groups of countries are also compared.

Political Parties in Post-Communist Eastern Europe

Political Parties in Post-Communist Eastern Europe PDF Author: Paul Lewis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134634382
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
Political Parties in Post-Communist Eastern Europe is the first textbook to survey the course of party developments in eastern Europe as a whole in the post-Communist period. This book relates the specifics of the post-communist situation to the broader picture of the early stages of party development in western Europe and also to contemporary models of party organisation in established democracies. The book includes: · a brief historical introduction to the context of post-communist change · the process of competitive party formation and democratic elections · the development of independent parties; their ideologies, and electoral volatility · the structure and level of organisation developed by new parties · an analysis of stable party systems which have emerged in eastern Europe and the contribution they make to emerging democracies in the region Party Politics in Post-Communist Eastern Europe will be a comprehensive and invaluable resource, accessible to undergraduates of politics and European studies, as well as the non-specialist reader.

Embodying Democracy

Embodying Democracy PDF Author: S. Birch
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1403914249
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
Embodying Democracy analyzes the politics of electoral reform in eight post-communist states including Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia and Ukraine. By exploring the multiple factors that shaped the design of electoral institutions during the first ten years of post-communist transition, it accounts for an important element of the post-communist reform process and illuminates general features of institutional design in post-transition states.

Post-communist EU Member States

Post-communist EU Member States PDF Author: Susanne Jungerstam-Mulders
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 9780754647126
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Providing insights into the parties and party systems of post-communist EU member states within the framework of each country's specific conditions and developments, this volume examines the cases of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia. It is suitable for courses on party systems and EU politics.

The Strain of Representation

The Strain of Representation PDF Author: Robert Rohrschneider
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191612316
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The Strain of Representation assesses and explains the extent to which political parties across Europe as a whole have succeeded in representing diverse voters. The authors note two important features of the European political landscape that complicate the task of assessing party representation and that require its reassessment: First, the emergence of new democracies in post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe point to the possibility that representation is not only differentially achieved in West and East but may also be attained by different mechanisms. Second, parties in both West and East must now seek to represent voters that are increasingly diverse, specifically between partisan and independent supporters. The book refers to the challenges of representation of diverse voters as 'the strain of representation'. The evidential basis for the empirical analysis are expert surveys conducted in 24 European countries on party positions that have been merged with other available data on voters, party characteristics, and country conditions. The results point to both the representational capacities of parties in West and East and to the strain that parties face in representing diverse voters.

Post-Communist Democracies and Party Organization

Post-Communist Democracies and Party Organization PDF Author: Margit Tavits
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107276802
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
Scholars of post-communist politics often argue that parties in new democracies lack strong organizations - sizable membership, local presence, and professional management - because they do not need them to win elections and they may hinder a party's flexibility and efficiency in office. Post-Communist Democracies and Party Organization explains why some political parties are better able than others to establish themselves in new democracies and why some excel at staying unified in parliament, whereas others remain dominated by individuals. Focusing on the democratic transitions in post-communist Europe from 1990 to 2010, Margit Tavits demonstrates that the successful establishment of a political party in a new democracy crucially depends on the strength of its organization. Yet not all parties invest in organization development. This book uses data from ten post-communist democracies, including detailed analysis of parties in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, and Poland.