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This scholarly volume explores the most successful group of new political parties in Central and Eastern Europe: centrist anti-establishment parties (CAPs). Sarah Engler asks how these parties survive when newness is their only selling point and focuses on CAPs' electoral strategies after their first elections.
List of contents
- Abbreviations
- Party acronyms
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Grasping the Nature of CAPs: Protest, Anti-corruption Claims and Programmatic Diversity
- 3: A Theoretical Framework of Survival: When Protest Alone Is Not Enough
- 4: The Trajectories of CAPs after Their Initial Breakthrough
- 5: Three Strategies of Survival: Critical Junctures, Rationales and Challenges
- 6: The Constraining Effects of Party Bases: The Role of Voters' Ideology
- 7: Conclusion
- Appendix
- References
About the author
Sarah Engler is Professor in Comparative Politics at the Leuphana University Lüneburg. Previously, she held a position as senior researcher at the Department of Political Science and the Center for Democracy Studies at the University of Zurich. Her research focuses on party competition, democratic institutions, and social inequality in Europe. Her work has been published in Democratization, European Political Science Review, the Journal of European Public Policy, and West European Politics.
Summary
This scholarly volume explores the most successful group of new political parties in Central and Eastern Europe: centrist anti-establishment parties (CAPs). Sarah Engler asks how these parties survive when newness is their only selling point and focuses on CAPs' electoral strategies after their first elections.
Additional text
The book proposes a theoretical framework that explains the evolution of these parties, their initial breakthrough and subsequent trajectory, three strategies of survival (grounded in critical junctures, rationale, and challenges), the constraining effects of their party bases, and the many lessons learned, which are relevant for Central and Eastern Europe and beyond. With great attention to detail and a wealth of cases drawn from all countries in the region, including the Baltic republics, this volume stands out for its analytical rigor. Graduate students, faculty members, and even practitioners will find this work informative and compelling. Highly recommended.
