Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, elections without choice have been replaced by free and fair elections in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Russia.
This reference provides all the basic information about elections in these new democracies. Part One systematically compares the operation of electoral systems, the formation of parties without civil society, and the behavior of voters without trust. It includes sophisticated multi-stage model of election outcomes.
In Part Two, each country has a chapter systematically reporting the votes and seats won by every party with at least one percent of the vote at one parliamentary election since 1990. Where the president is popularly elected, results are given too. The data comes from the definitive record, reports of national election commissions in eleven different languages.
Table of Contents
PART ONE: THE FRAMEWORK OF COMPETITION
- Elite Supply and Popular Demands: An Interactive Model
Democratization Backwards—and in a Hurry
Understanding Election Outcomes
- Electoral Systems Compared
Electing Representatives
Choosing a President
Effects of Electoral Systems
- Parties without Civil Society
A Big Supply of Parties
A Variety of Party Appeals
Fragmented, Multi-Dimensional Party Systems
- Voters without Trust
A Legacy of Distrust
Political Values without Parties
Clear-cut and Fuzzy-Focus Outlooks
- Competition without Institutionalization
Institutionalization in Theory
Stable Election Laws
Floating System of Parties
An Indefinite Disequilibrium
REFERENCES
PART TWO: NATIONAL ELECTION RESULTS
Conventions in Reporting Results
- Bulgaria
- Czechoslovakia
- Czech Republic
- Slovakia
- Estonia
- Hungary
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Poland
- Romania
- Russia
- Slovenia
Testimonials
"An essential reference work covering elections in Central and Eastern Europe, Rose and Munro provide an invaluable volume. Packed with detail and hard-to-find facts, the work is authoritative, clear, and timely."
- Pippa Norris, Harvard University "Richard Rose and Neil Munro have produced an essential reference work
for election experts: a definitive text covering election laws, parties,
and election results in 11 post-Communist democracies. As a bonus, they
offer an innovative model relating the supply of election laws and
parties by political elites to the demands of voters. Applying the
model in Eastern Europe shows that the institutionalization of free
elections leaves democracy incomplete as long as there is a floating
system of parties and voters without trust."
- Arend Lijphart, University of California, San Diego
Bio(s)
Richard Rose, University of Strathclyde
Richard Rose is the author of many election books and scholarly papers. He is editor of International Encyclopedia of Elections, published by CQ Press. Rose is the director of the Center for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, where Neil Munro is a fellow scholar.
Neil Munro, University of Strathclyde
