Emerging Party Systems in Post-Soviet Societies: How Developed Are They?

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Recent political science literature reflects a growing controversy regarding the formation of political parties and party systems in post-Soviet societies. The eventual outcome of the controversy holds implications for a basic understanding of how party systems form and the role parties play in developing democracies. The substantive debate is focused on the question of whether or not the political parties that have emerged in the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union exhibit the types of political characteristics that allow us to conclude that they constitute a competitive multi-party system. Two distinct camps have emerged on either side of this query. One set of scholars, drawing upon traditional theories of party formation, argues that the formation of institutionalized party systems in post- Communist states will be a long and arduous process because these societies lack previous multi-party socialization. They see the current post-Soviet parties as ephemeral, lacking a firm foundation in policy differences, thus reflecting nothing more substantial than a fan club for the party's leader. On the opposite side of the argument, research from the early to mid-90s reveals a rapid rise in the proportion of post-Soviet citizens who identify with a political party and who vote for the party with which they identify. Other work also shows the development of party factions within the parliaments of the newly independent states. Collectively this research supports theories of endogenous party formation which suggest that parties, partisan support and possibly even party systems can form relatively quickly in response to contemporary political events and issue or ideological polarization. The proposed study provides the first comparative data on Russia and Ukraine that incorporates directly comparable evidence on the level of institutionalization currently attained by party organizations, parties in the electorate and the parties in government. What this proposal seeks is funding for cleaning, documenting, analyzing and releasing four recently collected data sets that deal with political parties as organizations (based on surveys with party activists) and as parties in the electorate (based on comparable surveys with ordinary citizens). These data, once they are cleaned and documented, would provide the very first comprehensive examination of party organizations in post-Soviet societies. The data will provide a benchmark for any future studies of party development in these new democracies. In addition, when combined with the survey data on ordinary citizens and parliamentary members this study promises to provide the most defmitive answer to the party formation debate outlined above. Moreover, the study promises to shed new light on the question of whether or not political parties function in a manner that provides a link between ordinary citizens and their elected representatives. Many other substantive questions could also be addressed with these data when they are released to the general academic community for secondary analysis.