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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 states inherited from the communist period offer parties and elites opportunities for various forms of rent-seeking within state institutions. But how can we understand the relationship between parties and the state? How do the party-state links work i

The role of political parties in a democracy is often under scrutiny. Rhetoric crying for more effective, thoughtful, or representative democracy often lacks data to back up its claims. This book provides readers with a wealth of empirical detail: a refreshing and meticulous examination of political parties in ten democracies in Western Europe and East and Southeast Asia. This analysis aims to provide skeptics and supporters of political parties alike with a down-to-earth, empirical examination of the future of political parties and democracy in a century of globalization.

This article analyzes the structuring of party systems of four East Central European countries. At the outset an assumption is proposed that the region is by no means homogeneous (as is often treated) but exhibits different levels of ideological articulation and party formation. First, we concentrate on the left-right ideological identities and its' attitudinal-issue correlates as well as the social roots of left-right ideological orientations. The main part deals with socio-political attitudes as predictors of ideological orientations, both on mass and elite level. The results indicate different levels of ideological structuration and political divisions of the party systems in Eastern Europe, which are explained not only by socio-economic factors, but mainly by varying experiences of pre-communist rule, communist governance and pathways to democracy.

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