More than thirty years after the collapse of authoritarian regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, scholarship on the region’s left still concentrates disproportionately on former ruling parties and their successors. Yet today’s left is far more heterogeneous - organisationally, programmatically, and ideologically - despite its often diminished electoral strength. This paper systematically maps this diversity by identifying the configurations of ideological features that shape contemporary left‑wing party competition. Using data from the Chapel Hill Expert Surveys and applying Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), it assesses these parties’ positions on the economic left–right dimension, the socio‑cultural GAL/TAN axis, and region‑specific divides related to foreign policy and anti‑corruption salience. The analysis demonstrates that left‑wing parties in Central and Eastern Europe cannot be reduced to a single post‑authoritarian legacy narrative. Instead, distinct ideological constellations define the region’s left today, challenging dominant media framings and offering a more analytically grounded account of their place within contemporary party systems.
