Government Formation and Party System Stabilization in East Central Europe

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7950461
AutoresJames Toole (autor de correspondencia)
Año2000
Volumen6
Número4
Páginas441-461
Fecha de publicación2000-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaParty Politics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1354-0688 • E-ISSN: 1460-3683
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1354068800006004003
OpenAlexW1966483985
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas39
Referencias citadas10

The stabilization of party systems in new democracies is commonly assumed to be a lengthy process. Applying Peter Mair's government-formation-based model of party system development to the three young East Central European democracies of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, the article shows that party systems can stabilize much more quickly than expected. In an analysis of emerging party system patterns, the Hungarian and Czech party systems are found to be far more stable than the Polish, and already nearly as stable as more mature party systems. Examining differences in the three cases, the article makes two primary conclusions about the process of stabilization in new party systems. First, it suggests that stabilization is the product of both electoral system design and consequent patterns of elite behavior. Second, it argues that stabilization not only occurs in spite of on-going volatility in party-voter alignments, but actually serves to reduce it

Central government · Czech · Democracy · East-Central Europe · Economic system · Economics · Electoral system · Elite · Government (linguistics · Local government · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Volatility (finance · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Public Administration