From private organizations to democratic infrastructure: Political parties and the state in Estonia

Estonia, one of the first former Soviet republics to regain independence, had to start the processes of party and state development from scratch, beginning with the development of a legal framework for political parties, establishing a regime of public party financing, and training and deploying elites in party and state administrations. In the case of the last element, a variety of career patterns has emerged as individuals have moved between political and administrative roles. The question of the neutrality of county governors and administrative department secretaries-general has been particularly contentious in what has become a close and strengthening relationship between parties and the state. This is visible in the legal status of parties, their growing reliance on public subsidies, and the substantial circulation of people between administrative and political echelons. This can partly be explained by patronage and the particular legacies of communism and state-building, but the small size of the country may have had an independent effect

Newness as a winning formula for new political Parties

Previous studies on new political parties have assumed that they either represent new or ignored cleavages or issues, or emerge in order to cleanse an ideology deficiently represented by an existing party. Four highly successful parties analysed in this article manifestly fail to comply with these assumptions. The article proposes a parsimonious two-dimensional typology of new parties refining the one suggested by Lucardie (2000), incorporating a new type of parties based on the project of newness. We show that the four parties analysed fall into the latter category as they fought on the ideological territory of existing parties yet did not attempt to purify an ideology. It is argued that newness has been an appealing project for new and rejuvenating parties everywhere and the experiences from new democracies should be taken seriously also by those working on established democracies

How unstable? Volatility and the genuinely new parties in Eastern Europe

Measuring of party system stability in Eastern Europe during the first decade of democratic elections presents problems. The traditional quantitative measure - volatility - does not distinguish between the dynamics among incumbent parties and the rise of genuinely new ones. I propose a new additional measure - success of genuinely new parties - and compare it to volatility. The subsequent performance of initially successful genuinely new parties is analysed. While volatility has been remarkably high in East European countries, the genuinely new parties have, in general, not been very successful. Instability of party systems in the region stems rather from the inner dynamics of incumbent actors than from the rise of new contenders

Parties and Populism

Populism remains a fashionable concept in comparative politics even though its ambiguity and strong normative connotations are widely recognized. The term is also used with considerably different meanings in academic jargon and in the mass media. Many new political parties have been dubbed populist aided by the fuzziness of the definition and the absence of clear operational criteria. That has resulted in the grouping together parties of vastly different nature and varying degree of democratic credentials. Many new parties in Central and Eastern Europe have appeared in niches already occupied by old parties – the paper discusses three such cases in the Baltic states. The key factor to their success has been the project of newness that naturally incorporates a degree of anti-incumbency. The appropriateness of using a loaded term like populism can be questioned if the level of political corruption among the incumbents is objectively one of the most important problems in a country. Drawing a line between conscientious anti-corruption stance and opportunistic anti-establishment rhetoric poses problems. Equating a critical style with populism risks not only overstretching the already overstretched concept but may to a serious normative bias in favour of status quo – whatever it may mean in a given country

Populist Parties and Other Creatures: Towards a Typology of 'Populism' in Central and Eastern Europe

The recent upsurge in populist politics has been complemented by significant conceptual advances in the study of the topic. Still, vague applications of the term “populism” live on as commentators bring up terms like “centrist”, “liberal” and even “anti-populist” populism with reference to Emmanuel Macron, Ciudadanos, and various East European parties – all of which have only limited populist features but defy any other easy classification. If we want to understand populism, a narrower focus on unambiguous cases and clear operationalization are needed. At the same time, successful new parties are an important phenomenon on the march that deserves scholarly attention on its own right, without the unnecessary epithet of “populism”