Changing Patterns of Political Competition in Post-Communist Democracies: From Cleavages to Performance Evaluation

Recently, party systems in CEE countries have been experiencing significant changes, mainly seen in increased volatility and the emergence of a number of new parties. While contemporary party systems in the region mostly evolved on the basis of distinct historical and symbolic foundations of political identities, recently in most cases completely new political identities emerged, often without clear ideological characteristics, leading to the formation of new parties and resulting in an increased volatility over a previous decade. Principal objectives of this paper in described context are to understand: (a) what determines party choice in contemporary CEE party systems; (b) what is the relative importance of cleavages, issues and performance evaluation across party systems within the region; (c) how (if) party systems vary over the time. The main focus of the paper will be given to the analysis of the change in partisan alternatives, where we presume that support for new parties is correlated with voters’ focus on valence issues, negative performance evaluation and dissatisfaction with democracy. The paper aims to answer these questions through a longitudinal analysis of voting behaviour divisions in CEE countries using survey data. More specifically, the paper will focus on patterns of political polarization over time, and will assess the extent of their stability in the face of changing partisan alternatives. Finally, the paper will compare the relative importance of established political identities against valence issues and satisfaction with political system and its performance.