The Survival of Centrist Anti-Establishment Parties after their Initial Breakthrough: The Interplay of the Anti-Corruption/Anti-Establishment Discourse and Ideology Over Time

Established parties in Central and Eastern Europe lose a large amount of votes to new political parties that represent similar ideological positions, but introduce themselves as the better and less corrupt option. The electoral campaign of their first election has therefore two key elements: anti-establishment and anti-corruption claims. This paper tries to explain why some of these so-called new centrist anti-establishment parties establish themselves as important political players while others disappear very soon after their initial success. It argues that their strategy of using anti-corruption rhetoric framed within a broader anti-establishment discourse works only as long as the new party cannot be considered as a part of the establishment itself. Once in government, the party has to adapt its electoral strategy. A new expert survey on the anti-corruption and anti-establishment claims of political parties in 11 Eastern European countries and 38 national elections shows that there are three strategies the parties can adapt: (1) they can focus on the fight of corruption in a more genuine way by leaving the anti-establishment discourse aside, (2) they can keep the anti-establishment rhetoric but need to redefine who the establishment is, or (3) they adapt the electoral strategy of the mainstream parties and neither use the anti-corruption nor the anti-establishment discourse anymore. Selected case studies based on interviews and secondary literature complement the analysis and illustrate the differences in the parties’ electoral strategies. The examples also show that while the ideological position was not the crucial factor for the entry of the party into the political arena, it plays a more important part in the choice and success of the party’s future strategy. Section: S43 - Political Parties: Transformation or Decline? (Alternative Section: S12 - Changing Paradigms in the Study of Post-Communist Politics? The comparative Dimension of Central and Eastern Europe)