Country Presidents and their Parties: Convergence and Divergence of Policy Preferences in Eastern Europe

Country presidents establish formal and informal relations with their parties. These relations range from performance in office and influence on government formation to involvement in the election campaign and decisions regarding the new party leader. However, we know little about the convergence of policy preferences between country presidents and their parties. This is important because it allows an understanding of the dynamic between political institutions and predicting future behaviors (e.g., policy adoption or change). To address this gap in the literature, our paper analyses the convergence in policy preferences between country presidents and their parties in Eastern Europe. It has two goals: to identify the degree of convergence in two broad policy areas (domestic institutional reform and foreign affairs) and to explain the variation in convergence. We select three East European countries to ensure diversity in terms of the co-habitation and party continuity in government: Bulgaria, Poland, and Romania. Our analysis covers the last decade (2012-2022) and uses process tracing of election manifestos and legislative speeches.