When and Why Post-Communist Parties Become More Liberal

Abstract

All of the Central and Eastern European countries making the transition to a market democracy have developed liberal constituencies and parties, albeit of various sizes and influence. Notably in some important cases it is the former Communist parties that have become both electorally successful and relatively more liberal. This paper uses a macro-level comparison of the policies and electoral experiences of the post-Communist parties in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Russia and a micro-level analysis of the 1997 parliamentary election in Poland to address the question of why and when post-Communist parties are likely to become both more economically liberal and more electorally successful. Our proposed answer is that the economic success pushes the distribution of mass preferences in a liberal direction. When this occurs, pragmatic post-Communist parties will adopt more liberal platforms and are likely to receive increased electoral support. This outcome contrasts with ideological post-Communist parties in economically successful countries that are likely to continue to receive a relatively small proportion of the vote. In unsuccessful transitional countries, such as Russia, post-transition Communist parties can both maintain their ideological positions and attract a large share of the vote.