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This paper provides theoretical justification and empirical evidence linking the mode of privatization of state assets in banks and industries to the quality of institutions of legal and financial governance that underpin financial development. The evidence from twenty-five states of Eastern Europe suggests that allowing foreigners to assume the role of strategic investors in banks and industries via direct sale methods of divestiture of state assets contributes to legal and institutional development, particularly a stronger and more impartial legal system, better quality of bureaucratic governance, and stronger legal protection of creditors, while insider privatization schemes, such as voucher privatization or management–employee buyouts, do not fulfill the same role. The empirical results are robust to instrumental variable analysis and to the inclusion of numerous economic and political controls for alternative explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democratic backsliding, a term commonly used to describe the recent changes in politics in Central and Eastern Europe, is most profoundly related to the emergence and electoral success of populist political actors in the region. While the established literature has been focused almost exclusively on Hungary and Poland, which are the most visible examples of recent illiberal turns in Central and Eastern Europe driven by national-conservative populists, the main aim of this paper is to focus on the populism of ANO in the Czech Republic. Based on a mixed-method content analysis, the main argument of the paper is that the rise of centrist technocratic populism (perhaps less radical at first glance) ends the era of the Czech Republic's exceptionalism in Central Europe in terms of its resistance to populist illiberal challenges. In other words, the analysis shows that populism combined with technocracy (and not necessarily with more radical ideologies such as nativism) presents a vision of a regime alternative to the dominant liberal democratic paradigm. This alternative is based on a denial of political pluralism, anti-partyism, resistance to constitutionalism, and the embrace of majoritarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All of the East-Central European countries have been diverging from the European Union (EU) mainstream in recent years, but Hungary most of all. This paper offers a country study of Hungary, focusing on both internal and external political transformations and on the “de-democratization” and “de-Europeanization” process as a serious divergence from mainstream EU developments due to the socio-economic and political crises of the past quarter-century. Hungary has become a “defective” or “Potemkin” democracy: since the 2010 elections the formal institutions of democracy have been nothing more than a façade for nondemocratic, authoritarian rule. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Political parties provide cues that influence how people vote in referendums. We know little about how this works against the attitudes held by voters before campaigns. This article analyzes under what circumstances voters in referendums consider their choice to be the result of party cues or of their opinions prior to a campaign. It focuses on seven referendums organized in Eastern Europe between 2015 and 2019. The results show that party cues may shape voting behavior when political parties are trusted, cues are clear, and citizens are media users. Political activity, information and interest in politics make pre-campaign attitudes important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting with the third decade of post-communism, the emergence of many anti-establishment parties in Central and Eastern Europe reshaped the political landscape. Political parties remain key actors through their functions of representation, but it is unclear how they are responding and adapting to recent challenges and developments. At the same time, the behavior of voters in such agitated times remains a puzzle. This special issue aims to outline several theoretical models of party and voter adaptation to political realities, and to identify and explain various ways in which anti-establishment parties promote their discourse and how voters respond to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public resources are often allocated neither effectively nor equitably, and they serve as a tool for securing re-election. Despite compelling evidence for pork-barrel politics, little is known about voters' perceptions of this practice. Moreover, limited findings from Western countries are also contradictory – voters perceive such a strategy both positively and negatively. To contribute with findings from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), we conducted two survey experiments – in Czechia and Slovakia – which randomized people's exposure to fairness of the distribution and profit for the respondent's country. Our results suggest that once voters realize their profit from pork-barrel politics, they are less critical of unfair distributions of resources and the responsible decision-maker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) has positioned itself as a global climate leader. The EU's engagement with external climate governance is most visible in the six post-Soviet states of Eastern Europe. This article asks what drives the EU's engagement with climate governance in the region. To answer this question, I distinguish between three logics of external climate action: self-interest, functional, and civilizing. By analyzing climate cooperation between the EU and the six states, I demonstrate that a combination of all three logics explains the EU's engagement in external climate governance, but that the functional logic is slightly more prominent than the other two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing literature on populist radical-right parties (PRRP), the relationship between turnout and populist voting remains understudied, especially for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In this article, we analyze the individual-level factors that differentiate between those choosing voice (voting for PRRP) and exit (abstention) in the 2019 European Parliament elections. We estimate pooled logistic regression models for twelve PRRP from six CEE countries. Our findings show that anti-immigration and Euroskeptic attitudes—but also, unlike in Western Europe, trust in the national elites and satisfaction with democracy—increase the odds of PRRP voting instead of abstaining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the transition into a market economy in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Reform efforts under Mikhail Gorbachev; Requirements of a transition to a market economy; Transition policies from 1992-1995; Social and economic cost of transition; Budget constraint and restructuring; Need for self-sufficient enterprises.

Rise of populist and right-wing tendencies in Eastern Europe has been linked to people's increasing dissatisfaction with the economy and growing inequality. Using Life in Transition Survey, we examine East Europeans' attitudes on these economic issues. In contrast to views that the 2008 economic crisis prompted dissatisfaction, we find that even before the crisis, East Europeans were not convinced that their economic situation was better at that point than in 1989. Our findings suggest that economic discontent in Eastern Europe has been increasing over decades, and is especially pronounced among the poor and minorities, indicating their increasing social exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue brings together scholars of media, sociology, and political science to examine the discursive opportunities for radical-right populist politics across Eastern Europe. The articles concentrate on such soft factors as the role of media, the radicalization of public discourse, and the communication repertoires of radical-right populist actors across the region. The contributions employ both established and innovative methodological approaches to examine favorable or disadvantageous discursive conditions for radical-right populist politics—including thematic social media analysis; framing analysis; qualitative content analysis; mixed-methods; and social network analysis. They map out these developments across the region, focusing on Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Romania, as well as Estonia and Slovenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite strong political party unity found in new democracies, many of the party systems in post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe are ‘quasi-institutionalized’ at best. If political parties are comparatively weak, what labels or identities bind legislators together, and to what extent do these strengthen or undermine party loyalty? Using semi-structured interviews with Polish politicians, the East European Parliamentarian and Candidate Data (EAST PaC), the novel Members of Parliament Affiliations Data (MPAD) for Poland, and roll-call votes (1997–2007), I show that loyalty among MPs sharing nonpartisan group identities or characteristics is important to the foundation of party labels, and has a significant impact on party loyalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concentrated ownership of media by industrial oligarchs dependent on political favor is a significant obstacle to securing freedom of the press in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the collapse of communist and authoritarian regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and how the 1989 revolutions can influence the study of U.S. foreign policy and political science. The article offers an explanation for why social science scholars failed to predict the collapse of communism which includes the ideas that transformative events such as regime change rarely occur and that durability is a safe assumption even among weak regimes. The question of vulnerability in dictatorships and the transition to democracy in the 1990s are mentioned.

The article discusses the results of an economic survey in 2007 which was conducted in ten countries in Eastern and Central Europe. The direct survey, Special Eurobarometer No. 284, found that one-in-five workers are part of the hidden or second economy and receive their wages in under-the-table payments. The countries are Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Romania. The research methodology, the distinction between undeclared jobs and under-declared jobs, and the statistics for the nine industrial sectors, workers' gender, occupation, and age are mentioned.

Reports on information-access laws in Eastern and Central Europe. Focus on ten post-communist countries in the region; Possible explanations for the advanced state of freedom of information in Eastern and Central Europe; Incorporation of a right to access information in the post-communist constitutions; Uniform adoption of information-access laws in the post-communist countries.

Demonstrates that the pattern of evolution of the successor parties in Poland and Hungary differed qualitatively from that in Russia in several respects. Success of democratization by way of a two-stage transition process; Processes that led to the collapse of the party-state and the subsequent social-democratization of the successor parties in post-Communist Poland and Hungary.

Analyzes the conditions in the four former communist countries of eastern Europe which could help determine why the events of 1989 did not happen as predicted in democratization theory. Discussion on the proclivities of the leaders in four former communist countries; How democratization begins; Survey on the arguments advanced by several authors on the subject; Differences among the theories advanced by scholars to account for the events in 1989.

Explores the changes in the international relations and foreign policies which affect the future of security in Eastern Europe. Disappearance of alliances and patrons; Weak new alliances; Diffidence of existing alliances; Search for identity; Role of nationalism; Foreign penetration of domestic economies; New concept of security; Old and new threats to security.

Focuses on the approach of Soros foundations, a philanthropic creation of George Soros and a network of national foundations in 21 countries of the region and in South Africa and Haiti, in aiding Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Aim to promote societies that are open both internally and to the world; Localism as a guiding principle of foreign aid; Important aspects of Soros's in-country Romania operation.