The regulation of post-Communist party politics / edited by Fernando Casal Bértoa and Ingrid van Biezen

Includes bibliographical references and index

Party regulation and the reshaping of party politics in Poland / Fernando Casal Bértoa and Marcin Walecki -- The three laws to rule them all: the consolidation of Slovakia's party regulation, 1990-2016 / Peter Ucen, Kevin Deegan-Krause and Fernando Casal Bértoa -- A few cracks in the cement regulatin and the development of party politics in the Czech Republic / Tim Haughton and Vlastimil Havlík -- The failure of early party regulation and a new beginning : the Hungarian case / Réka Várnagy and Gabriella Ilonszki -- How do rules matter?: regulatory changes and conditioning of small political parties in Bulgaria / Ekaterina R. Rashkova and Maria Spirova -- For things to remain the same, things will have to change: party regulation as a form to engineering party competition and political legitimacy in Romania / Marina Popescu and Sorina Soare -- Balancing between consolidation and cartel: the effects of party law in Estonia / Vello Pettai -- The not so powerful incumbents: the impact of party legislation in Latvia / Janis Ikstens -- Party regulation against the backdrop of anti-party sentiment: the case of Lithuania / Aine Ramonaite -- Evolution of party regulation in Slovenia and the party system: from some to marginal impact? / Alenka Krasŏvec -- Stability and permissiveness: party regulation and party competition in Croatia / Goran Cular

"The question of how political parties are, and ought to be, regulated has assumed an increased importance in recent years, both within the scholarly community and among policy-makers and politicians as the state assumes an increasingly active role in the management of, and control over, their behaviour and organisation This book concentrates on the regulation of political parties in the EU post-communist democracies, and on Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania, in particular. In analysing the various dimensions of party regulation, it builds on the main premises derived from the neo-institutionalist literature in political science, concerning the ways in which the (formal and informal) rules and procedures may influence, constrain or determine the behaviour of political actors. In doing so, it provides a comprehensive overview of the regulation of Eastern European political parties provided by leading experts in the field and casts theoretical and empirical light on the manner in which the constitutional and legal regulation of party organizations and finances have had an impact (or not) on the consolidation of party politics in post-communist Europe since 1989. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of Political Parties and Behaviour, East European and Post-Communist Politics and Comparative Politics"-- Provided by publisher