From Protest to Party: The Transformation of Anti-Communist Opposition Movements in East-Central Europe

AbstractViable and stable political parties are a key element for the establishment of healthy democracies in post-authoritarian countries. In that sense, the study of why some countries have greater difficulties than others in this regard is an important gauge of the quality of democracy in various polities. My paper is based on a comparison of these issues in Poland and Hungary. Why did some of the anti-communist opposition movements spend years going through repeated rounds of fragmentation producing weak parties, while others were able to produce relatively stable parties early on in the transition to party-based competition? While the literature tends to attribute such differences to electoral systems or social cleavages, this paper argues that the historical regime divide between the former communist party and the former anti-communist opposition as well as the extent to which the ex-communist party was able to compete in the new system had a crucial impact on this question. The deeper the regime divide, the more difficult it proved for the anti-communist opposition movements to produce stable parties if the communist party was able to become an effective player in the new democratic system. The effect of the regime divide is also dependent to a certain extent on the competitive dynamics of the post-communist party systems. The impact of the regime divide on party stability is reduced if the former communists are unable to become major challengers for power in the new system.Ph.D