Changing Parties and Party Systems

Abstract

This panel addresses various aspects of party and party system change in what we could broadly define as non-Western democracies. Two of the papers analyse the impact on Party Systems in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) of candidate turnover and of party instability as well as assessing the changes produced by these factors. This is done by contrasting the levels of candidate turnover to measures of volatility and by defining the dimensionality of party instability in selected countries in CEE as well as the relationship between party instability and the fragmentation, programmatic structuration and polarization of party systems. A third paper addresses similar issues with a specific focus on centre-left parties, with an aim to find empirical evidence of specific features of the centre-left in CEE, as opposed to the other main political blocks. The fourth paper in the panel focuses on the Turkish party system and in particular on the alleged moderating effect on Islamist movements of their inclusion in the political system. The paper, examines the Turkish Justice and Development Party and contends that, contrary to earlier works’ findings, it was the exclusion of the movement from the system by the military intervention that led the party to embrace a more moderate position.

Title	Details
Party Instability in Central and Eastern Europe	View Paper Details
Relative Exclusion and Organizational Moderation: Turkish Justice and Development Party’s Change of Platforms	View Paper Details
Candidate Turnover and Party System Change	View Paper Details
The Left and the Others in Central and Eastern Europe. Assessing Fragmentation, Volatility and Government Participation	View Paper Details