Post-Communist EU Member States Parties and Party Systems

Providing comprehensive 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 in particular the cases of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia. The book concentrates on three main themes: ideological cleavages between parties, party system competition, and party organization. Analytically competent and highly informative, it is suitable for courses on party systems and EU politics.

Contents: Foreword. Parties and party systems in post-Communist EU member states: comparative aspects, Susanne Jungerstam-Mulders; Patterns of party formation in Estonia: consolidation unaccomplished, Evald Mikkel; Political parties and the party system in Latvia, Artis Pabriks and Aiga Štokenberga; The development of the Lithuanian party system: from stability to perturbation, Aine Ramonaite; Power without love: patterns of party politics in post-1989 Poland, Aleks Szczerbiak; The rise of the power monopoly: political parties in the Czech Republic, Petr Kopecký; Old parties and new: changing patterns of party politics in Slovakia, Marek Rybár; The survival of the fittest: party system concentration in Hungary, Zsolt Enyedi; Slovenia: between bipolarity and broad coalition-building, Danica Fink-Hafner; Party system change in post-communist EU member states, Susanne Jungerstam-Mulders; Index.

Susanne Jungerstam-Mulders, PhD, was a researcher at the Centre for European Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland. She is currently Research Director at the Swedish Polytechnic, Finland.