Does Left-Right Congruence Explain New Party Entry and Success?

New party entry and electoral success is a common phenomenon in Central and Eastern European democracies. Existing research mostly stresses voter dissatisfaction with economic performance and corruption and institutional variables as key explanations for the continued importance of new parties. In contrast, there is less cross-national research on the extent to which the representation of voters’ interests on salient policy issues by established parties influences new party entry and success. This is surprising given that an important research body shows a substantial degree of policy competition in Central and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, the literature on new parties in Western Europe suggests party system polarisation as an important explanation for the electoral support of new parties. Drawing on this research, the present study examines whether the incongruence between existing parties and the electorates on the left-right dimension increases the number of new parties and their electoral support in 10 EU member states of the European Union. Political parties’ positions are derived from the Chapel Hill expert survey, party manifestoes and voter surveys. They are combined with the measures of voter policy positions from election surveys and European Social Study to operationalise party-voter (in)congruence. Empirical analyses test the implications of the theoretical argument at the level of party system and individual parties. The study makes an important contribution to understanding party competition and new party entry and success in young democracies.