Elected Affinities: Democracy and Party Competition in Slovakia and the Czech Republic
Abstract
Nobody talks about the "Czech miracle" anymore except with irony, and no longer can anyone refer to Slovakia as "a hole in the map of Europe." Times have changed rapidly and explanation has lagged far behind. Elected Affinities is the first book-length project to account for the startling differences in the course of democratization in Slovakia and the Czech Republic during the 1990s. The book uses the natural experiment created by Czechoslovakia's dissolution to explore why some new democracies succeed and why some (nearly) fail. The comparison offers new insights into the inner workings of political parties and governments in postcommunist countries, and into the complex relationships among nationalism, economic reform, and political accountability in democracies, both new and old.
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The expert consensus is that Mečiar constituted a serious threat to undo democracy.
“The expert consensus is that Me č iar constituted a serious threat to undo democracy (Deegan-Krause and Haughton 2009; Deegan-Krause 2006; O ' Dwyer 2006, and Leff 1996).”
From Parties, Civil Society, and the Deterrence of Democratic Defection (2020) · cites this paper as Deegan-Krause 2006
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“Out of fear of losing its promarket and prodemocracy image, the party even avoided being lured into the authoritarian government of the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) in the mid-1990s (Deegan-Krause 2006).”
BackgroundUnderstanding the illiberal turn: democratic backsliding in the Czech Republic
Hanley, S., & Vachudová, M. A. (2018) · East European Politics · doi:10.1080/21599165.2018.1493457 · Cited by 359 · see citing works
“…conservative Civic Democrats (Občanská demokratická strana, ODS), Social Democrats, Communists and Christian Democrats – and structured by a unidimensional pattern of competition centred on distributional issues (Deegan-Krause 2006; Deegan-Krause and Haughton 2010; Havlík and Voda 2018).”
BackgroundDEEGAN‐KRAUSE, K., & HAUGHTON, T. (2009) · Politics & Policy · doi:10.1111/j.1747-1346.2009.00200.x · Cited by 183 · see citing works
Self-citationTavits, M. (2012) · The Journal of Politics · doi:10.1017/s0022381611001198 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
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“Despite attracting significant scholarly attention (Bútorová et al. 2011; Deegan-Krause 2006; Fisher 2006; Gyárfášová and Mesežnikov 2004; Haughton 2003; Haughton and Fisher 2008; Haughton and Rybář 2008; Henderson 2006; Kopeček 2007; Rybář 2004, 2006; 2011; Učeň 2003; Wolchik 1993), the existing literature on party p…”
BackgroundInfluentialParties, Civil Society, and the Deterrence of Democratic Defection
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“The security services were used to harass opponents via kidnapping, physical intimidation, and wiretapping (Bunce and Wolchik 2011, 62; Deegan-Krause 2006; Leff 1996).”
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“…and their potential interrelationship.6 As a result, Figure 2 departs from the ‘triangular’ (demographic–value– party) model of cleavage used in numerous studies (Bartolini and Mair 1990; Knutsen and Scarbrough 1995; as well as the authors themselves: see Enyedi 2005, Deegan-Krause 2006, 2007).”
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“What is striking, however, is how in context of a stable programmatic party system with a single dominant (socio-economic) issue dimension (Deegan-Krause 2006), the most successful new Czech parties are ‘purifiers’.”
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“…coalition with the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party (Slovenská národná strana, SNS), oversaw the introduction of a series of policies that restricted multiple aspects of democratic sovereignty in Slovakia, including minority protection and minority political inclusion (Deegan-Krause 2006).”
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“Competition among the economic programmes of the market–liberal Civic Democratic Party (Občanská demokratická strana—ODS) and Social Democratic Party (Česká strana sociálně demokratická—ČSSD) has defined Czech politics since the early 1990s (Deegan-Krause 2006; Hanley 2008).”
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“One way to achieve this goal is through the candidate selection for the legislative elections that often involves the central office in reaching decisions (Deegan–Krause, 2006; Linek and Outly, 2009; Millard, 2004; van Biezen, 2003).”
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“What has historically proved so valuable a tool for understanding political conflicts in established western democracies does not necessarily bare the same explanatory weight or meaning for post-communist societies (Deegan-Krause, 2006).”
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“Centralized candidate selection is measured by a dummy variable coded ‘1’ when the national level party leadership has the final say over candidate selection and ‘0’ otherwise.10 If the central party office is in charge of selecting candidates 10 Source: Deegan-Krause (2006), Enyedi (2008), Kangur (2004), Kowalczyk (2…”
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“This is known as a cleavage: a “compounded divide” based on interests, opinions or attitudes that gives collective identity to its members and a strong organizational base (Bartolini 2005; Deegan-Krause 2006, 2007).”
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“…had stable party systems with patterns of party competition centring on distributional conflicts, which are likely to facilitate and legitimise the development of economic interest groups, although the class nature of left–right divisions is more muted in Slovenia (Deegan-Krause 2006; Jou 2011).”
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- Authors
- Deegan-Krause, K.
- Venue
- Stanford University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Stanford University Press
- Published
- 2006-01-09
- OpenAlex
- W4206914449
- Cited by
- 68
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 1.82
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Stanford University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Eastern European Communism and Reforms
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Post-Communist Economic and Political Transition
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
- Keywords
- democratization, post-communist transition, Czech Republic, Slovakia, new democracies, political parties, nationalism, economic reform, political accountability, comparative politics
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