The Last Ex-Communist Party Still Undefeated

This paper is seeking to provide evidence of the last post-communist country in the Europe that have never experienced electoral change of government - Montenegro. Why voters continue to vote for ex-communist party (DPS) even after over 25 years of pluralism can be explained by several factors. However, here we focus on a very specific phenomenon - image of invincibility. Namely, even though DPS could probably win without “direct hindrances to political participation” such are fraud, buying votes, physical violence or intimidation on a large scale we would like to show that it pays off to invest in such activities in order to preserve the image of a party that can never lose. The very notion that the party will no matter what still win makes people choose to be either between losers or winners. This is how corruption in this case not only does not discourage voters to vote for DPS, but it affects its support in a positive way. Montenegro is most certainly an extreme case, but demonstrates some very interesting features that can help understand why and how post-transitional states become captured. It is on one side a “positive” example of a country that is currently a “leader” in European integration process in the region, a country that has just received NATO invitation and is being externally praised for its success. On the other side, it is a deeply divided country with over quarter of century long incumbency of one party – ex communist party. The continuity of managing public resources enabled this party to create strong clientelistic networks that in the situation of society being so divided almost guarantee electoral victory. It is also very important to discuss the role of the international community in this situation. Even though EU fosters the reforms and stimulates change at the end of the day by being forced to choose a partner it helps legitimizing the current situation.