CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2007
| Author | Ibenskas, Raimondas |
|---|---|
| Title | The impact of the form of government on party system institutionalization in post-communist Europe |
| Summary | The present research explores the impact of the form of government (the regime type) on party system institutionalization in post-communist European democracies. The hypothesis raised in the research is that everything else being equal, the level of party system institutionalization should be lower in more presidential systems. Three party system institutionalization dimensions are considered: the pattern of party competition, the strength of party roots in society, and the legitimacy of parties and elections. The paper rejects the traditional dichotomy or trichotomy of the forms of government and operationalizes the impact of the regime type by four indicators: the vote share of non-partisan presidential candidates and the number of presidential candidates in direct presidential elections, presidential power and relationship between the presidency and parliament. Two methods are used to confirm the hypothesis: statistical analysis and the case study of Lithuania. The paper finds significant support to the hypothesis: direct presidential elections and powerful presidencies impede party system institutionalization on all three dimensions. However, the impact of constitutional arrangements is mediated by such factors as the number of presidential candidates, the personalization of presidential elections, and the relationship between the presidency and parliament. Therefore, to achieve a better understanding of the relationship between party system institutionalization and the form of government, the further research should asses what determines the different values of these three variables. |
| Supervisor | Bozóki, András |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2007/ibenskas_raimondas.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University