When Left Is Right: Party Ideology and Policy in Post-Communist Europe

Tavits, Margit; Letki, Natalia

doi:10.1017/s0003055409990220

Cited by 234 publications

(139 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Within Western Europe, the left has historically been associated with social change and government efforts to promote greater political, social, and economic equality, while the right has opposed change and supported a more hierarchical social, political, and economic order (Lipset et al 1954). Such distinctions are either much weaker or have disappeared entirely in former Communist countries (Van Hiel andKossowska 2007, Tavits andLetki 2009). Indeed, the left in former Communist countries is not identified with social change and equality (Markowski 1997, Thorisdottir et al 2007, and the standard relationship between right-wing orientation and traditionalism and acceptance of inequality is significantly weaker in former Communist countries than it is in Western Europe (Thorisdottir et al 2007).…”

Section: The Eu Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political ideology and views about climate change in the European Union

McCright

Dunlap

Marquart-Pyatt

2015

Environmental Politics

452

262

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There is a strong political divide on climate change in the US general public, with Liberals and Democrats expressing greater belief in and concern about climate change than Conservatives and Republicans. Recent studies find a similar though less pronounced divide in other countries. Its leadership in international climate policy making warrants extending this line of research to the European Union (EU). The extent of a left-right ideological divide on climate change views is examined via Eurobarometer survey data on the publics of 25 EU countries before the 2008 global financial crisis, the 2009 'climategate' controversy and COP-15 in Copenhagen, and an increase in organized climate change denial campaigns. Citizens on the left consistently reported stronger belief in climate change and support for action to mitigate it than did citizens on the right in 14 Western European countries. There was no such ideological divide in 11 former Communist countries, likely due to the low political salience of climate change and the differing meaning of left-right identification in these countries.

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Section: The Eu Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political ideology and views about climate change in the European Union

McCright

Dunlap

Marquart-Pyatt

2015

Environmental Politics

452

262

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“…Governing coalitions, too, are frequently odd compromises between leftist and rightist parties (Druckman and Roberts 2007;Grzymala-Busse 2001). When in advanced democracies consistent behavior by parties may help clarify their positions, 7 party behavior in the nonelectoral arena-possibly motivated by alternative strategic considerations (Druckman and Roberts 2007;Grzymala-Busse 2001;Tavits and Letki 2009;Tzelgov 2011)-does not allow for such a possibility. For these reasons, several authors have pointed out that voters in new democracies are more likely to be confused about the ideological differences between parties than voters in advanced democracies (Grzymala-Busse 2006;Rose 1995) and that voter attachments to parties are weaker (Evans and Whitefield 1993;Ezrow, Tavits, and Homola, n.d.).…”

Section: Extremism Reduces Uncertainty In New Democraciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Extremism Pays: Policy Positions, Voter Certainty, and Party Support in Postcommunist Europe

Ezrow¹,

Homola²,

Tavits³

2014

The Journal of Politics

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We argue that extreme positioning benefits parties in new democracies, because-given the lack of other reliable cues such as party histories-the distinctiveness of their left-right policy positions increases voter certainty about parties' identities and intentions in office. Cross-sectional analyses provide evidence that, in the new democracies of postcommunist Europe, parties that are farther away from the mean voter position gain more popular support than those moderately positioned along a policy continuum. In established democracies, by contrast, policy moderation increases popular support. We also find empirical support for the proposed causal mechanism that links policy positions to popular support via voter certainty. These findings have implications for party strategies, spatial theories, and our understanding of political representation in new democracies.E xisting cross-national research suggests that parties gain votes by adopting positions close to the mean (or median) voter's position (Alvarez, Nagler, and Bowler 2000a;Alvarez, Nagler, and Willette 2000b;Dow 2001Dow , 2011Schofield 2004; see also Schofield, Sened, and Nixon 1998a;Schofield et al. 1998b). 1 In this article, we argue that this relationship is less likely to hold in new democracies, where parties are, instead, more likely to be rewarded for extremism than centrism. Our argument, which we detail in the next section, builds on three central premises derived from the existing literature. First, parties with less ambiguous positions (i.e., positions about which voters, on average, are more certain) attract more electoral support. Second, centrist positions generate more ambiguity and voter uncertainty than noncentrist positions. Third, noncentrist or extremist positions are particularly effective in reducing voter uncertainty when other cues about party identities and intentions are absent, as is the case in new democracies.In order to test our argument, we conduct a macrolevel analysis of party positioning and election outcomes across 31 countries from 1996 to 2007. 2 Our study produces the following findings. First, with respect to the established democracies, we corroborate the findings of the existing studies of multiparty competition that parties receive a statistically significant electoral benefit from locating near the mean voter position. Second, in line with our theoretical expectation, we find that in the context of new, postcommunist democracies, parties receive an

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“…7 In an interesting development, Tavits and Letki (2009) argued that the real problem for understanding left-right politics in the CEE region is not actually the placement of the parties on the left-right scale. Rather, what is uncommon and somewhat new is that the parties on the left pursue the traditional policies of the right (e.g.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Government formation and breakdown in Western and Central Eastern Europe

2013

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In this paper, we use a new dataset describing governments, political parties and institutions to make an explicit comparison between Western and Central Eastern Europe (CEE) in the investigation of three different topical issues found in the coalition literature, namely coalition formation (i.e. which factors affect who forms the winning coalitions), the number of cabinet members (i.e. what affects the number of ministers in a cabinet) and cabinet duration (i.e. which factors affect how long a new government lasts). Our findings indicate that, regardless of all the discussions about how Central Eastern Europe is different from Western Europe ¬¬because of the post-communist heritage or the volatility of voters in the CEE region, structural attributes such as the size and number of political parties are important determinants of coalition formation and cabinet duration patterns in both the West and the East. In fact, precisely because of the unsettled nature of CEE party politics, structural attributes tend to matter even more in the East.

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When Left Is Right: Party Ideology and Policy in Post-Communist Europe

Cited by 234 publications

References 61 publications

Political ideology and views about climate change in the European Union

Political ideology and views about climate change in the European Union

When Extremism Pays: Policy Positions, Voter Certainty, and Party Support in Postcommunist Europe

Government formation and breakdown in Western and Central Eastern Europe

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