Regional Economic Voting Russia, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, 1990–1999

This book examines the effect of economic conditions on election results in five post-communist countries - Russia, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic - in the first decade of post-communist elections. It is the first book length study of economic voting outside of established democracies, as well as one of the few comparative studies of voting in post-communist countries generally. The study relies on an original database composed of regional level economic, demographic, and electoral data. The analysis features comparative assessment of the findings and focused case study analyses.

This study demonstrates that in a time of massive change characterized by the emergence of entirely new political systems and a fundamental reorganization of economic life, systematic patterns of economic conditions affecting election results at the aggregate level can in fact be identified during the first decade of post-communist elections in five post-communist countries: Russia, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. A variety of theoretical arguments concerning the conditions in which these effects are more or less likely to be present are also proposed and tested. Analysis is conducted using an original data set of regional level economic, demographic, and electoral indicators, and features both broadly based comparative assessments of the findings across all twenty elections as well as more focused case study analyses of pairs of individual elections.

1. Introduction; 2. Economic conditions and election results; 3. Comparative cross-regional analysis; 4. Paired case studies; 5. The incumbency hypothesis; 6. The new regime hypothesis; 7. The old regime hypothesis; 8. Comparative analysis; 9. Economic voting and post-communist politics.

This book examines the effect of economic conditions on election results in five post-communist countries - Russia, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic - in the first decade of post-communist elections. It is the first book length study of economic voting outside of established democracies.

Joshua Tucker is an Assistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, and will hold Princeton's Ralph O. Glendinning University Preceptorship from 2005–2008. His work has also appeared in a variety of academic journals, including the American Journal of Political Science, the Annual Review of Political Science, Electoral Studies, Political Analysis, Perspectives on Politics, and Post-Soviet Affairs. His research has been supported by grants from the National Academy of Sciences, the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies. He was the recipient of Harvard University's 2001 Edward M. Chase Dissertation Prize and the Mid-West Political Science Association's 1999 Westview Press Award.