Origin, ideology and transformation of political parties : East-Central and Western Europe compared / by Vít Hloušek and Lubomír Kopeček.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Types of Political Parties and Party Families -- 2. Social Democrats and Socialists: Long Way of Adaptation and Peculiarities of Origins of East-Central European Parties -- 3. The Far Left: Family Diversity and Traditionalist Nostalgia in East-Central Europe -- 4. The Greens: Success in the West, "Fooling Around" in the East -- 5. The Agrarian Parties: Remembrance of Things Past -- 6. The Liberals; Or, the Curse of the Political Center -- 7. The Christian Democrats: Between Adaptation and a Struggle for Survival -- 8. The Conservatives: Between Tradition and Change -- 9. The Far Right: Between Tradition and Post-modernity -- 10. Ethnic and Regional Parties: Rise in the West, Remnants in the East -- 11. Party Families in East-Central and Western Europe at the Beginning of the 21st Century: Similarities and Divergences.

"Two decades have now passed since the transition to democracy began in Eastern Europe, transforming dictatorships into democracies. Today the West and East-Central European countries share a common political space - the European Union. This offers a fascinating perspective for analysis of the similarities and differences, and a search for their roots." "In this book, Vit Hlousek and Lubomir Kopecek critically apply the party-families approach to political parties in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. With chapters devoted to social democrats, greens, the far right and left amongst many others, the book charts the party's origins, ideologies, and international ties alongside their Western European counterparts. By examining the political relevance of different party families, Hlousek and Kopecek are able to assess the validity of this typology in the analysis of the transformation of political parties in this region." "Detailed analysis coupled with an innovative application of the party families approach, makes this book an essential read for students and scholars of party politics."--BOOK JACKET.