Stabilization and Concentration in the Political Party Systems of the Visegrád Countries
Stabilization and Concentration in the Political Party Systems of the Visegrád Countries

Author(s): Attila Horváth
Subject(s): EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: Kossuth Kiadó Zt.
Summary/Abstract: Democracies evolved from the East Central European political systemic change have almost completed their 20th year. It would not be stretching things to suggest that the past two decades mean enough time to sketch certain tendencies and draw consequences regarding the development of the constitutional and political system. I believe it to be true in the context of political party systems as well: the countries of the region have had at least five or rather more general elections; thus, the peculiarities of the stabilization of multiparty system (which differ even across countries) may be apprehended. This paper aims to display some characteristics of the development of the party systems of the so-called Visegrád countries – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. full analysis of each party system would exceed the range of this work; therefore, I narrowed the aspects of examination down to the party systems’ stabilization and concentration. The first part of the study is based on my empirical-quantitative investigations, during which I concentrated on the indicators showing the stability and concentration of party systems. My aim here is to demonstrate the different degrees of stabilization and concentration, and I also shortly refer to the possible spheres of interpretation, but the systematic explanation of the described tendencies remains outside the scope of this article.

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