Party Competition and Strategy in Central Europe since 1989

Context

Collapse of communism in 1989
Four Central European States - Unexpected Party System Stability
Two-bloc competition with a relatively stable centre-left and consolidated right in Hungary and Czech R
Exception in Poland and Slovakia (populist parties)
Hungary is the most stable case. Stability in terms of party organizatons.
Czech Republic, four of the five parliamentary parties were estbalished by 1991, two smaller parties cooperating in the Coalition occupy the centre-right.
Slovakia is the least stable of the four systems: 1. Party fissions and a steady flow of new populist parties. The old regime party has failed to acquire a central role in the party system. Recent electoral results suggest a stabilization  of two-bloc competition.

Why?

Post-communist society was not an atomized and decapitated mass of ex-clients of state socialism
Development of party systemd did not start from scratch
Electoral systems regulate party competition and help restrict the size of the party systems
Interaction between the parties, a stable party system also include stable patterns of interaction
This include interaction between government and oposition


What parties?

Successor of communist parties
Emerged form the opposition movements
Revived historical parties
New party organisations

Party and Party System Stability in Central Europe

Stability in temrs of the number of parliamentary parties was achieved in all Central European countries around the second or third election.
Stability achieve in Hungary and Czech Republic in the latter half of the 1990s.
Electoral volatility is a red herring as far as party system stability is concerned
The clues to the differences within Central Europe are found in the strategic choices made by key parties during the firs decade of multiparty competition.

Institutions

Early institutional compromsies as well as later changes reflect the balance of power between the main parties at the time. Once in place, institutions helps shape subsequent poltiical contests.
Thresholds restrict competition, force elites and voters to concentrate on parties that are large enough to win seats, declining electoral fragmentation and a lower share of wasted votes suggest it works.
D'Hondt method helped stabilize the number of parties (Poland)

Post-Communist Parties and the New Centre-Left
Their degree of success has depended on a combination of reform and electoral appeal combined with organizational strenght and elite skills, as well as coalitiong strategies.
In Poland SLD and in Hungary MSzP, they repersent the clearest cases of successful transformation to modern catch-all social democrats. The Czech communist party was the only communist party to retain an orthodox platform and survive as a politically relevant.

The 'Right' parties
The competition to characterize who represent the right still be present in Poland.  In Czech, the ODS is the leading centre-right force. In Hungary, there is a stabilization of a two-bloc party system, with the former liberal parties divided into the centre-left and centre-right.
In mid-1990s, in msot of the countries the contests was conclusively stabilized.
The pre-1989 opposition in Slovakia was more fragmented than the Czech (social and ideological composition was different), after the independence, the Slovak party system was unipolar (HZDS); the breakpoint is the 2002 election and the founding of SDKU in 2000. The key to the differences between Czech and the Slovak case is the composition of the opposition forces in combination with the cleavage structure and party strategies.
Slovakia did not have a stable ex-communist anchoring party on the left (Unlike Poland and Hungary).

'Third' and Protest parties

These parties played a limited role in the development of Central European party system stability.
They have generally aligned along the left-right dimension.
Instability of populist parties in POland and Slovakia is inherent in their nature as ideologically diffuse parties, based on populist appeal, often associated with a single individual, and lacking a firm organizational structure.
The PiS in Poland has become a permanent feature of the party system.

Conclusion

Comparative analysis revelas that these different patters of stabilization have been driven largely by strategic choices made by parties, in terms of what their goals are and how these are best pursued.
The hugher number of parties in Poland and Slovakia at an early state prompted more proportional electoral system = reinforces fragmentation.
ODS and Fidesz established as the anchors of one side of the party system. They got strong leaders that are capable of taking advantage of their non-socialist competitors.
Party strategy matters, it shapes the trajectories of variations in and degrees of party system stabilization

Patterns of Stability: Party Competition and Strategy in Central Europe since 1989
Elisabeth Bakke and Nick Sitter

Party Politics 2005 11:243

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