Stephen Whitefield

The Politics and Economics of Democratic Commitment: Support for Democracy in Transition Societies

Explanations of cross-national variation in levels of popular support for democracy can be distinguished by the relative emphasis they place on the importance of economic and political factors. ‘First generation’ theorists emphasized economic variables, including levels of economic development and rising expectations. In contrast, ‘second generation’ writers have focused on the role of political factors, including the mode of the transition to democracy itself and the effectiveness of the institutions and electoral processes which emerge. This article uses national probability samples from Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia and Ukraine to examine potential influences on support for democratic processes in postcommunist Europe. These influences include evaluations of electoral and market performance, experience of economic well-being in the recent past and the near future, and indicators of the perceived responsiveness of the electoral system. Although both political and economic factors are found to be significant, multivariate analysis indicates that political experience is of greater weight than is economic. Moreover, when support for marketization is controlled for, there is very little link from economic experience to support for democracy.

Identifying the Bases of Party Competition in Eastern Europe

This article examines the emerging structure of party competition in the new democracies of Eastern Europe. It argues that the relationship between the social bases, issue dimensions and stability of party competition in countries in the region will vary depending on their differing experience of marketization, ethnic homogeneity and established statehood. In some countries, the predicted framework of party competition will derive from socio-economic divisions and will resemble that found in the West; in other countries, ethnicity and nation-building will provide the principal structuring factors; in yet other cases, where severe constraints exist on the emergence of any clear bases or dimensions, competition will centre on valence issues from which high voter volatility may be expected. Except where Western-type competition obtains, considerable doubts exist about the future stability of political systems in the region.

The strain of representation : how parties represent diverse voters in western and eastern Europe

Preface 1. Introduction 2. Theory: Representational Strain 3. Choices 4. Programs 5. Congruence 6. Party Organizations and Congruence 7. Social Base and Congruence 8. National Context and Congruence 9. Conclusion Bibliography Index

Understanding Cleavages in Party Systems: Issue Position and Issue Salience in 13 Post-Communist Democracies

There has been considerable debate about the characteristics of political cleavages underlying post-Communist Central and Eastern European party competition, with views ranging from no structure, to unidimensionality, to structured diversity, to entirely sui generis country-specific approaches. Much of the disagreement, the authors argue, results from the failure to take seriously the distinction between issue position and issue salience. Taking this into account, the authors present a model of party cleavages that synthesizes the various arguments into one comprehensive model. Empirical evidence for the argument is derived from an expert survey of 87 parties in 13 post-Communist democracies. Theoretically, this study provides a much more positive picture of the character of party cleavages and of democratic responsiveness in post-Communist states than is generally accepted.

The Russian Election of 1993: Public Opinion and the Transition Experience

Two British specialists on Russia report the results of a nationwide survey of 2,030 Russian adults, randomly chosen from each of 50 provinces of the Russian Federation. A survey instrument containing 300 questions was administered in face-to-face interviews during summer 1993, and explored attitudes toward the market, privatization, social order, minority rights, and nationalism. Testing three alternative explanations for the results of the December 1993 Russian elections, the authors present a nuanced argument that the Russian public has been drawing negative lessons about market democracy from the transition itself, as experienced since January 1992. A higher voter turnout, they find, would have augmented the strength of anti-government parties and candidates. Journal of Economic literature, Classification Numbers: H19, P29

Political Parties, Public Opinion and European Integration in Post-Communist Countries

The accession of post-Communist states to the European Union has important implications for EU governance and for our understanding of the political dynamics of integration processes. Existing literature, we argue, may be inadequate, primarily because it has assumed basic value consensus at mass and elite levels over market structures and the predominance of instrumental reasoning about integration. Neither of these assumptions, however, is tenable for post-Communist states. We seek, therefore, to develop an alternative theoretical framework for understanding the integration of post-Communist societies and point to promising avenues for future empirical research.

Political Culture Versus Rational Choice: Explaining Responses to Transition in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

There has been considerable disagreement among political scientists over the relative merits of political culture versus rational choice explanations of democratic and liberal norms and commitments. However, empirical tests of their relative explanatory power using quantitative evidence have been in short supply. This article employs national probability sample surveys conducted in 1994 to assess differences between Czechs and Slovaks in the expression of democratic norms and liberal attitudes with respect to economic, political, social and ethnic issues. The applicability of an explanation focusing on long-standing cultural differences between the two countries is compared with a rational choice explanation based on national differences in their recent experiences of political and economic transition. It is shown that differences in the expression of support for marketization and democracy in the two countries can be explained relatively parsimoniously in rational choice terms. The explanatory contribution of political culture appears to relate only to a narrow range of attitudes and values.

Representation in New Democracies: Party Stances on European Integration in Post-Communist Eastern Europe

The preponderance of scholarly literature has suggested that East European party systems remain fairly unstructured. As a consequence, the process of party representation does not appear to work adequately yet in these new democracies. In this paper, we systematically examine how well the party representation process works by analyzing party stances towards European economic and political integration. This is an important topic in its own right. But it also provides an opportunity to examine how well parties meet three requirements of the process of party representation in an issue area that is salient in all countries in the region: to supply policy alternatives, to provide coherent policy packages, and to offer programs that are congruent with voter preferences. We draw on a new data set from an expert survey of party stances in 10 post-communist accession states. Our results indicate that East European parties do a remarkably good job in meeting three minimal criteria. In theoretical terms, our study suggests that the party representation model can work even when the context is less favorable than in mature democracies.

Support for Foreign Ownership and Integration in Eastern Europe Economic Interests, Ideological Commitments, and Democratic Context

Western models of popular support for economic integration usually stress costs and benefits. This article suggests that one cannot ignore the predominance of socialist-economic values in East-Central Europe. Consequently, it is argued and supported that (a) individual-level support for foreign ownership is best explained by ideological commitments to market ideals; (b) publics in more economically liberal countries more strongly support the idea of foreign ownership; and (c) citizens who reside in democratic countries, which experience greater controversy over foreign ownership, are less likely to accept the idea of foreign ownership just as they have a more negative image of the European Union. Theoretically, the study documents the limited applicability to Eastern Europe of Western-based models. Practically, it helps explain opposition to foreign ownership and, more generally, increasing controversy over the EU in first-wave accession states.

Economic Ideology and Political Success Communist-Successor Parties in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary Compared

The communist-successor parties in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia have experienced divergent electoral fortunes since 1990. The Hungarian Socialist Party is in government, the Slovak Party of the Democratic Left has a stable vote of around 15 percent, while the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia is in decline. This report seeks to explain this difference in performance using data derived from surveys of the population of each country in the spring of 1994. Consideration is given to the merits of two explanatory factors: the ideological extremeness of the parties, particularly in relation to the question of economic transformation; or, alternatively, national differences in the experience of economic transition. It is shown that in respect of economic issues, the positions of successor-party supporters are similar across the three countries, but that perceptions of the ideological position of those supporters vary considerably, from being extremist in the case of the Czech party, to centrist in the case of the Hungarian party. These differing perceptions themselves reflect national variations in economic preferences between the three countries, which are in turn shown to result from differing economic experiences. Support is thus offered for an account which stresses variations in experience of the economic transition rather than differences in the strategies adopted by the successor parties.