Parties between thresholds: state subsidies and party behaviour in post-communist democracies

Much has been written about what makes political parties form, persist, change and die. One factor often brought into this discussion is the availability of resources in general and of state financing of political parties in particular. However, an empirical link at the aggregate level is difficult...

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Main Authors: Casal Bertoa, Fernando, Spirova, Maria
Format: Article
Published: SAGE 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44500/
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author Casal Bertoa, Fernando
Spirova, Maria
author_facet Casal Bertoa, Fernando
Spirova, Maria
author_sort Casal Bertoa, Fernando
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Much has been written about what makes political parties form, persist, change and die. One factor often brought into this discussion is the availability of resources in general and of state financing of political parties in particular. However, an empirical link at the aggregate level is difficult to establish because of various issues of conceptualization, operationalization and measurement. Working at the party level and taking into consideration that state funding provides important resources that make running in elections and achieving a party’s electoral target more likely; this article provides empirical support to the claim that parties who (anticipate to be or) are being funded by the state have a higher chance of forming and surviving in an independent format in the party system. Based on a comparison of 14 post-communist party systems, the main conclusion of the article is that the survival rate for such parties exceeds the survival rate for the non-publicly funded ones in almost all cases. A second, novel and more particular, finding is that parties who find themselves outside parliament, but above the payout threshold, display higher survival rates than parties who are below it.
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spelling nottingham-445002020-05-04T18:49:53Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44500/ Parties between thresholds: state subsidies and party behaviour in post-communist democracies Casal Bertoa, Fernando Spirova, Maria Much has been written about what makes political parties form, persist, change and die. One factor often brought into this discussion is the availability of resources in general and of state financing of political parties in particular. However, an empirical link at the aggregate level is difficult to establish because of various issues of conceptualization, operationalization and measurement. Working at the party level and taking into consideration that state funding provides important resources that make running in elections and achieving a party’s electoral target more likely; this article provides empirical support to the claim that parties who (anticipate to be or) are being funded by the state have a higher chance of forming and surviving in an independent format in the party system. Based on a comparison of 14 post-communist party systems, the main conclusion of the article is that the survival rate for such parties exceeds the survival rate for the non-publicly funded ones in almost all cases. A second, novel and more particular, finding is that parties who find themselves outside parliament, but above the payout threshold, display higher survival rates than parties who are below it. SAGE 2017-06-15 Article PeerReviewed Casal Bertoa, Fernando and Spirova, Maria (2017) Parties between thresholds: state subsidies and party behaviour in post-communist democracies. Party Politics . ISSN 1460-3683 party funding payout thresholds political parties post-communist Europe survival http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1354068817710221 doi:10.1177/1354068817710221 doi:10.1177/1354068817710221
spellingShingle party funding
payout thresholds
political parties
post-communist Europe
survival
Casal Bertoa, Fernando
Spirova, Maria
Parties between thresholds: state subsidies and party behaviour in post-communist democracies
title Parties between thresholds: state subsidies and party behaviour in post-communist democracies
title_full Parties between thresholds: state subsidies and party behaviour in post-communist democracies
title_fullStr Parties between thresholds: state subsidies and party behaviour in post-communist democracies
title_full_unstemmed Parties between thresholds: state subsidies and party behaviour in post-communist democracies
title_short Parties between thresholds: state subsidies and party behaviour in post-communist democracies
title_sort parties between thresholds: state subsidies and party behaviour in post-communist democracies
topic party funding
payout thresholds
political parties
post-communist Europe
survival
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44500/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44500/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44500/