The "Third revolution“ and the formation of cleavages in Central and Eastern Europe

The previous studies on cleavages in CEE have been mostly concentrated on the mapping of various types of cleavages and have been rather empirical case studies. Only few prominent studies have introduced some theoretical innovations, while focused on the formation of cleavages and their nature (e.g. Kitchelt et al. 1999). The proposed theoretical paper seeks to put forward some new ideas. It introduces the new concept: “Third revolution”. While in classical Lipset-Rokkan theory the cleavage formation in Western Europe has been based on two fundamental revolutions/processes (nation building, industrialization), the cleavage formation in CEE could be understood mostly by the transition process and its internal contradictions. The transition in 1989 was really a fundamental revolutionary shift for the region, came after the previous Lipset-Rokkan revolutions, but played more significant role in current cleavage formation. The cleavages formation could be described through the elegant model of “triple transition” (by Offe, 1991), in which each layer of transition challenges produced or re-vitalized specific cleavages (e.g. the democratization challenge led to communist-anti-communist cleavage, marketization to socio-economic cleavage and rural-urban cleavage, etc.). The specific features of the “Third revolution” help to explain why the nature of cleavages in CEE is different from the West. The paper point out several discrepancies between the Lipset-Rokkan revolutions and the “Third revolution”: prolonged process/contracted process; happens in industrial societies/happens in late industrial societies; society-driven/elite-driven; produces full cleavages / produces partial cleavages, etc. Finally, the author suggests that although we can talk about the partial cleavages in CEE, it would be useful to consider updating the Bartolini & Mair (1990) definition on cleavages, in order to make it more suitable for late industrial societies, which still frame the party politics in CEE. For example, one can consider to include some discursive elements how cleavages are manifested in media/campaign communication.