Party Formation Process and the 1998 Elections in Hungary: Defeat as Promoter of Change for the HSP
Party Formation Process and the 1998 Elections in Hungary: Defeat as Promoter of Change for the HSP

Summary/Abstract: Parties have not developed in East Central Europe (ECE) in an evolutionary way. Instead, many elections have been critical elections, they have rearranged the basic party structures and forced the parties to make radical changes. For most parties electoral defeat has served as a means of natural selection, and they have disappeared. For the major parties, however, which have had a stable measure of public support, electoral defeat has been the best promoter of change. Victory, in contrast, has too often been conducive to ossification: it has become an obstacle to intraparty reforms and adaptation. [...]

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