1st Edition

The Communist Successor Parties of Central and Eastern Europe

By Andras Bozoki, John T. Ishiyama Copyright 2003

    What has become of the Communist parties that once held monopoly power in the east bloc? A decade ago, it was assumed that they would dissolve, but many of them have enjoyed electoral success. This book systematically examines how they have evolved. In the opening section, Herbert Kitschet and Ivan Szelenyi respectively consider post-communist party strategies and social democratic prospects in the transitional societies. Part II presents nine case studies of the major communist and communist successor parties of the region, and Part III is devoted to seven comparative studies. Appendices provide comparable electoral and party membership data.

    List of Tables and Figures About the Editors and Contributors -- Part I: Approaches -- 1. Introduction and Theoretical Framework /Andras Bozoki and John T. Ishiyama -- 2. Constraints and Opportunities in the Strategic Conduct of Post-Communist Successor Parties Regime Legacies as Causal Argument /Herbert Kitschelt -- 3. Prospects and Limits of New Social Democracy in the Transitional Societies of Central Europe /Janos Ladanyi and Ivan Szelenyi -- Part II: Case Studies -- 4. The Polish SLD in the 1990s -- From Opposition to Incumbents and Back /Radoslaw Markowski -- 5. The Hungarian Socialists -- Technocratic Modemizationism or New Social Democracy? /Andras Bozoki -- 6. The Troubled Evolution of Slovakia’s Ex-Communists /Sharon Fisher -- 7. The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia after 1989 -- “Subcultural Party” to Neocommunist Force? /Sean Hanle -- 8. The PDS -- Regional Party or a Second Social-Democratic Party in Germany? /Dieter Segert -- 9. The Romanian Postcommunist Parties -- A Story of Success /Alina Mungiu-Pippidi -- 10. The Yugoslav “Left” Parties -- Continuities of Communist Tradition in the Milosevic Era /Srbobran Brankovic -- 11. The Metamorphosis of the Communist Party of Lithuania /Diana Janusauskiene -- 12. The Russian KPRF -- The Powerlessness of the Powerful /Richard Sakwa -- Part III: Theoretical and Comparative Considerations -- 13. A Topology of Communist Successor Parties -- An Overview /John T. Ishiyama -- 14. Doomed to be Radicals? -- Organization, Ideology, and the Communist Successor Parties in East Central Europe /Daniel F. Ziblatt and Nick Biziouras -- 15. The Return of the Left and Democratic Consolidation in Poland and Hungary /Valerie Bunce -- 16. The Effects of Communist Party Transformation on the Institutionalization of Party Systems /Anna Grzymala-Busse -- 17. Changing Cleavage Structure and the Communist Successor Parties of the Visegrad Countries /Michael Bauer -- 18. Mainstreaming Extremism -- The Romanian PDSR and the Bulgarian Socialists in Comparative Perspective /Jeffrey Stevenson Murer -- 19. Organizational Strength Divorced from Power -- Comparing the Communist Parties of the Russian Federation and Ukraine /Barbara Ann Chotiner -- 20. An Unfinished Story -- Toward Explaining the Transformation of the Communist Successor Parties /John T. Ishiyama and Andras Bozoki -- Bibliography -- Appendix 1 -- Appendix 2 -- Index.

    Biography

    Andras Bozoki is associate professor of political science at Central European University, Budapest, Hungary. His main fields of research are comparative politics, democratization, political ideas, and political and cultural elites. His publications include three books in Hungarian, and Post Communist Transition: Emerging Pluralism in Hungary (1992) (co-editor); Lawful Revolution in Hungary, 1989-94 (1995) (co-editor); Intellectuals and Politics in Central Europe (1999) (editor); and The Roundtable Talks of 1989: The Genesis of Hungarian Democracy (2002) (editor). John T. lshiyama is associate professor of political science at Truman State University, Kirksville, MO. His main fields of research are post-communist party politics, institutional development, and ethnic politics in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. His recent books include Ethnopolitics in the New Europe (1998) (co-author) and Communist Successor Parties in Post Communist Politics (1999) (editor). He has also published numerous journal articles on post-communist politics.