From TV to Parliament: The Successful Birth and Progressive Death of a Personal Party
From TV to Parliament: The Successful Birth and Progressive Death of a Personal Party

The Case of the People’s Party Dan Diaconescu

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the single case study of Romanian People’s Party Dan Diaconescu. Using the concepts of a personal party and a business-firm-party, the authors analyze the emergence, electoral success and decline of this party. Main attention is paid to the personality of the leader as well as to organizational features of the party. Empirical evidence from the PPDD shows that personal/business-firm parties have major difficulties in outliving periods of electoral decline, particularly in cases where the party is fully dependent on the leaders’ private resources. As such, this single case analysis contributes to the general literature on new parties by gaining an in-depth understanding of the importance of the early stages of party development in predicting a party’s development over time.

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