THE POWER OF THE WEAK: POLITICAL PARTIES IN HUNGARY

Autori analiziraju razvoj i snagu političkih stranaka kao aktera u procesima demokratske tranzicije i konsolidacije u Mađarskoj. Pri tome polaze od teze da su političke stranke u postkomunističkim zemljama suočene s istim konkurentima u političkoj areni kao i stranke na Zapadu – od snažnih interesnih grupa, preko sve jače tržišne borbe i nadnacionalnih medija, do državne administracije. Autori zaključuju da su stranke u Mađarskoj, premda ne tako stabilne i bez razvijene stranačke organizacije i članstva, ipak u dominantnom položaju u oblikovanju i kontroli političkih procesa. Razlog za to vide ponajprije u činjenici da stranački sustav sustavno proizvodi izrazito kompetitivne izbore, s jasno izraženim vladinim alternativama, te snažnom vezom među rezultatima izbora i sastavom vlade. Kako su u položaju da oblikuju trenutni politički i društveni preobražaj svojih zemalja, političke stranke imaju izvanrednu mogućnost da sui generis uspostavljaju stranački poredak u društvu, zaključuju autori.The authors analyse the evolution and the strength of the political parties as actors in the processes of democratic transition and consolidation in Hungary. Their starting point is that the political parties in transitional countries are faced with the same rivals in the political arena as the parties in the West: powerful interest groups, the increasing market competition, the supranational media, and the state administration. The authors conclude that the parties in Hungary, though not as stable and as developed, are nevertheless dominant in shaping and controlling the political processes in that country. The reason for that primarily lies in the fact that the party system systematically generates very competitive elections, clear alternations of the parties in power, and a strong link between the electoral outcomes and the government composition. Being in the position to shape the contemporary political and social transformation of their countries, these political parties find themselves in an excellent position to sui generis set up party systems in their societies

Strany a volby ve střední a východní Evropě

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Can voters be equal? A cross-national analysis, Part 1

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Expressive vs. Instrumental Motivation of Turnout, Partisanship and Political Learning

This article examines if intrinsic rewards of expected political benefits have a greater motivational force for turnout, political learning and the development of political preferences. Using comparative survey data from several dozen contemporary democracies, the article demonstrates that the intrinsic rewards (or consumption value) of party choice dominates the expected political benefits in the determination of political preferences and turnout, while political learning – exactly because it is an even more costly acivity for the individual citizen – has a fundamentally instrumental motivation. The theoretical discussion explains that the roots of this phenomenon lay in the most general characteristics of electoral democracy, and the empirical evidene shows that the relevant findings do indeed fail to vary by types of democratic institutional settings

Parties and electoral choices in East Central Europe

Paper presented at the Conference of the Centre for Mediterranean Studies, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK, 17-19 September 1993Submitted manuscrip

Do some party systems make equal votes unequal? A comparison of old and new democracies

Paper presented at the Conference on Re-Thinking Democracy in the New Millennium, organized by the University of Houston, Texas, 16-19 February 2000http://www.uh.edu/democracy/tokap.pdfSubmitted manuscrip