This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Rose, R. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Mobilizing Demobilized Voters in Post-Communist Societies

A stable party system requires people to trust institutions, including parties, but in post-communist countries people have lived nearly all their lives in a political system that created distrust in reaction to aggressive attempts to mobilize support for the party-state. Comparative survey data from 10 post-communist countries show that the majority of electors are demobilized - that is, they distrust parties, do not identify with a party, the modal group is a don't know when asked to express a party preference, and committed partisans are only a quarter of the electorate. The result is that electoral support for parties is extremely volatile in comparison with election results in earlier waves of democratization. This does not immediately threaten the regime, however, for even though most people do not believe that they can influence government, even more importantly they feel greater freedom from the state, which cannot influence them as in the days of the communist party-state.

Key Words: democratization • electoral volatility • mobilization • parties

Party Politics, Vol. 1, No. 4, 549-563 (1995)
DOI: 10.1177/1354068895001004007


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. A. Karp and S. A. Banducci Party Mobilization and Political Participation in New and Old Democracies Party Politics, March 1, 2007; 13(2): 217 - 234. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. K. Birnir Public Venture Capital and Party Institutionalization Comparative Political Studies, October 1, 2005; 38(8): 915 - 938. [Abstract] [PDF]

				P. G. Lewis The `Third Wave' of Democracy in Eastern Europe: Comparative Perspectives on Party Roles and Political Development Party Politics, September 1, 2001; 7(5): 543 - 565. [Abstract] [PDF]

				G. SHABAD and K. M. SLOMCZYNSKI Political Identities in the Initial Phase of Systemic Transformation in Poland: A Test of the Tabula Rasa Hypothesis Comparative Political Studies, September 1, 1999; 32(6): 690 - 723. [Abstract] [PDF]