Parties and Democracy in the Post-Soviet Republics

This pioneering study focuses on the relationship between party-building and democracy-building in the European successor states of the former Soviet Union. It covers the three Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which have a history of sovereignty between the wars, and the three states of Moldova, Belarus and Ukraine, with virtually no previous history of independence. The central question is: 'How important are parties to the successful completion of the...
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This pioneering study focuses on the relationship between party-building and democracy-building in the European successor states of the former Soviet Union. It covers the three Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which have a history of sovereignty between the wars, and the three states of Moldova, Belarus and Ukraine, with virtually no previous history of independence. The central question is: 'How important are parties to the successful completion of the democratisation process in the post-soviet republics'? If a plethora of proto-parties may be regarded as a sine qua non of the transition to pluralist democracy, what role will the reduced number of amalgamated parties play in the democratic consolidation phase and, in particular the emergence of a democratic political culture? The original empirical analysis, based on extensive elite interviews, concentrates on Estonia. At the time of the 1992 general election, Estonia is regarded as an 'anti-party system' in which parties were viewed with suspicion and not generally regarded as legitimate or at least efficient instruments of popular representation. The genealogy of the parties is traced and, following the 1995 general election, the anti-party system model revisited. The conclusion speculates on a possible convergence between the party systems of Eastern and Western Europe.