Parties and Elections in New European Democracies

The abrupt transformation of one-party Communist regimes into political systems holding competitive elections challenges theories of democracy by evolution. Part One develops an inter-active model of how the supply of parties by political elites shapes the responses of inexperienced electors, and what this means for the institutionalization of party systems and party identification. The model is them applied to elections since 1990 in ten Central and East European democracies that are now members of the European Union. Part Two provides a definitive and up to date text of election results and the formation and disappearance of parties it these ten countries. In addition, there is a lengthy chapter on elections in Russia.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Professor Richard Rose has published six books on post-Communist countries, most recently Understanding Post-Communist Transformation: a Bottom Up Approach. At Aberdeen University he is Director of the Centre for the Study of Public Policy.