What Comes After the Earthquake? How Do New Political Parties Approach Party Patronage Appointments Once in Government

A defining feature of many Central and Eastern European countries’ political systems is the significant volatility of their political party ecosystem, which is characterised by the frequent creation of new party structures and the dismantlement of old ones (Haughton and Deegan-Krause 2015). A particularly common phenomenon in the region is the emergence of so called anti-establishment reform parties (AERPs) (Hanley and Sikk 2014). Alongside broadly liberal or centrist positions on socio-economic issues, such parties’ platform is typically defined by an anti-establishment rhetoric and a demand for large-scale political reformsaimed at strengthening democratic institutions. Despite their limited political experience AERPs are often able to capture significant electoral gains and even win a place in government. This naturally begs the question how does the ascent of such political parties impact the administrative state in their respective countries? This paper seeks to address precisely this overarching research question by focusing particularly on patronage appointments in the top executive. This will be informative as scholarship on (party) patronage traditionally at least implicitly assumes the presence of a relatively developedpartisan identity and infrastructure (Spirova, Kopecký and Mair 2012). Moldova represents a paradigmatic case of a wholesale change in the political landscape as a result of an AERP’s rise to power. Following a snap election in June 2021, the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) was able to capture absolute majority in Parliament thus managing to form a single-party government. This feat was repeated again in the 2025 parliamentary election, where the party once again received over 50% of the vote. PAS came to power on a platform promising far-reaching reforms and a transformation of the state, which had previously been captured by entrenched oligarchic interests. The aim of this paper is therefore to examine the party’s impact on the nature of executive government 5 years after its ascent to power. This is done through a focus on the top executive leadership in the country. Specifically, the study will analyse the career profiles and tenure of top executive appointees in the country between 2021-2025, drawing on recruitment and dismissal data as well as on detailed biographical data on appointees. The underlying logic of this approach is that the career profiles of top government officials can provide an insight into the evolving relationship between party politics, administration and the state (Bach 2020). The study will aim to establish how top executive appointments are distributed by PAS, a relatively inexperienced political party with limited cadre pool at the onset of its time in government, and how, if at all, this has evolved as the party has acquired some political experience and seniority. Answering this question would offer an insight into the interplay of processes of executive patronage and party consolidation in a largely unstudied context.