Coalition Politics in Central Eastern Europe

This insightful book brings the study of coalitions and coalition governance in Central and Eastern European democracies up to date, with an analytical focus framed by difficult economic and social periods, such as the end of the economic crisis and the Coronavirus pandemic. The volume posits insights from a plethora of experts on party politics and coalition studies from their respective countries, with chapters on Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Embellished with illustrative tables and extensive datasets throughout, each chapter maps the developments of party system change, covering the coalition life cycle from the early 1990s until the end of 2021, and explores whether there has been transformation of the coalition, governance and dissolutions patterns due to heightened pressures. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of coalition politics, representative democracy, governance, political parties, European Union politics, East and Central European politics, and comparative politics. Chapter 4 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

Torbjörn Bergman is Professor at the Department of Political Science, Umeå University, Sweden. Gabriella Ilonszki is a Professor Emerita at the Department of Political Science, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary. Johan Hellström is Docent at the Department of Political Science, Umeå University, Sweden.

1. Coalitions in Times of Crisis. 2. Concepts and Measurements. 3. Fragility of Coalition Governance in Bulgaria. 4. Regularity and Instability: Coalition Governments in Czechia 2008-2022. 5. Estonia: The Breakdown of the Exclusionary Logic in Coalition Formation 6. Hungary: Party Alliances and Personal Coalitions. 7. Latvia: Populist Wind of Change. 8. Lithuania: Ministerial Government and the EU Factor. 9. Poland: Resilience to the External Crisis, Permanent Coalition Patterns, and Weakening of the Position of the Prime Minister. 10. Live Fast, Die Young: Romanian Coalitions in Time of Crisis. 11. Slovakia: Gradual Settlement of Rules in an Unstable Environment. 12. Slovenia: Newcomers as Prime Ministers. A New Mode of Coalition Governance? 13. New Patterns of Coalition Politics in Central and Eastern Europe?