DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION IN EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE

Transcription

1 DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION IN EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE

2 Democratic Consolidation in East-Central Europe Fritz Plasser Professor of Political Science University of lnnsbruck Peter A. Ulram Head, Social Research Department Fessel-GfK Austria and Harald Waldrauch Research Assistant Department of Political Science Institute for Advanced Studies Vienna

3 First published in Great Britain 1998 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / First published in the United States of America 1998 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y ISBN Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Plasser, Fritz, [Politischer Kulturwandel in Ost-Mitteleuropa. English] Democratic consolidation in East-Central Europe I Fritz Plasser, Peter A. Ulram and Harald Waldrauch. p. em. This book is a revised, updated and substantially expanded version of our study 'Politischer Kulturwandel in Ost-Mitteleuropa' published in German in Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN (cloth) 1. Political culture-europe, Eastern. 2. Political culture -Europe, Central. 3. Europe, Eastern-Politics and government Europe, Central-Politics and government I. Ulram, Peter A. (Peter Adolf), Waldrauch, Harald. III. Title. JN96.A91P '094' {!c CIP Fritz Plasser, Peter A. Ulram and Harald Waldrauch 1998 The work is a revised, updated and substantially expanded translation of Politischer Kulturwandel in Ost-Mitteleuropa, published in German by Leske+Budrich-Verlag, All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources

4 Contents Preface List of Tables and Figures ix xi 1. Introduction The Concept of Consolidation in Regime Change Research The Concept of Regime Democratic Regime Change: Transition and Consolidation The Concept of Democratic Consolidation Evolution or Direction in Consolidation Institutionalization and the Intersubjective Core of Consolidation.... Consolidation as a Goal-oriented Political Action Behavioral and Attitudinal Dimensions of Consolidation.... The Behavioral Dimension.... The Attitudinal Dimension: Legitimacy and Political Culture.... Elite and Mass Levels of Consolidation.... Consolidation of Democracy or its "Partial Regimes".... Summary and Conclusion: Mimimalist Versus Maximalist Conceptions of Consolidation Consolidation and Comparative Political Culture Research: Some Methodological Considerations Concepts and Research Designs Research Experience: The Project 'Politischer Kulturwandel in Ost-Mitteleuropa' ( ) Attitudes towards the Political System: Conceptions of Democracy and Images of Politics

5 vi 5. Attitudes towards the Political Regime: Satisfaction with Democracy Diffuse Support for Democracy Support for Democracy as a Form of Government Support for Pluralist Party Competition Support for the Parliamentary System Spread of Antidemocratic and/ or Antipluralist Orientations Concepts and Extent of Legitimacy in Comparison Typology of Democratic Orientations in International Comparison Trust in Institutions Evaluation of the Communist Regime Political Participation and Integration Patterns of Political Communication Getting Involved in the Political Process: Interest and Participation Political Efficacy and Civic Orientations Party Identification and Networks of Political Integration Societal and Political Cleavages The Heritage of the Communist Past Patterns of Ideological and Social-Political Cleavages Sociodemographic Characteristics of Parties and Party Families Value Orientations and Political Priorities Attitudes towards ~conomic Transformation Point of Departure and Overall Economic Development Subjective Evaluations of Personal Economic Situations Attitudes towards the Economic Order and the Process of Economic Reform

6 vii 11. Social Consequences and Evaluations of Regime Change Winners and Losers of Transition Regime Change: Expectations and Reality Consolidation and Differentiation: a Survey of Trend Patterns Empirical Sources ( ) Appendix of data Bibliography Index

7 Preface This book is a revised, updated and substantially expanded version of our study Politischer Kulturwandel in Ost-Mitteleuropa, published in German by Leske & Budrich (Opladen, 1997). It condenses the data and results of a comparative research project initiated in 1990 and carried out over several years. Against the backdrop of the collapse of communism, the opening of the 'Iron Curtain', and both the liberalization and democratization of East-Central European countries, issues of transition and consolidation suddenly attracted the attention of political scientists everywhere, especially those working in the field of comparative politics. Two factors were decisive in the launching of the 'Politischer Kulturwandel in Ost-Mitteleuropa' project: first, the decision of public institutions to provide funding for a comparative research project of this scope; and secondly, the professional, international opinion research infrastructure provided by Fessel+GfK in Vienna, Prague, Bratislava, Budapest and Warsaw. A number of institutions and individuals active in the fields of academia or politics have lent inestimable and indispensable support, both financial and logistic, to 'Politischer Kulturwandel in Ost-Mitteleuropa' over the years. In particular, we are grateful to Professor Rudolf Bretschneider of Fessel+GfK, who has taken a keen personal interest in the project and generously supported it from its earliest stages. Thanks to the cooperation, logistic support and professional competence of GfK's management in Austria and its research directors in the four East Central European capitals, it has been possible to conduct regular annual representative opinion surveys with comparable variables and questions since This volume would not have been possible without the support of colleagues and partners of many years' standing. We wish to thank Marianne Zawilensky (Center for Applied Political Research), who has been in charge of the organizational and secretarial aspects of the project since fund raising began in Wolfgang Meixner (Center for Applied Political Research) proofread and copy-edited the German manuscript with particular care. Arike Handsur of Fessel+GfK assisted with parts of the manuscript. Ellen Palli (Department of Political Science, University of Innsbruck) and Wolfgang Palli (Innsbruck) typeset both the German and English manuscripts. We are grateful to Herwig Engelmann (Berlin) for his competent

8 X English translation of our text and to Lee Anne Oberhofer (Social Sciences Language Center, University of Innsbruck), who copyedited the present version of our study. Last but not least, we thank Macmillan Publishers and commissioning editor Sunder Katwala for their obliging cooperation. The publishing of this book was made possible through the financial support of the Austrian Federal Ministries for Foreign Affairs, Economic Affairs, and Science and Transport. Vienna, March 1998

9 Tables List of Tables and Figures Table 1: Central cognitive meanings of democracy (1995).. 75 Table 2: Conceptions of democracy in Hungary ( ) 76 Table 3: Images of politics in comparison Table 4: Table 5: Table 6: Table 7: Table 8: Table 9: Satisfaction with democracy and the political system ( ) Satisfaction with the development or the functioning of democracy ( ): 'Central and Eastern Eurobarometer' and 'Eurobarometer' Satisfaction with the functioning or development of democracy in international comparison ( ): 'Eurobarometer' and 'Central and Eastern Eurobarometer' Dissatisfaction with democracy by subgroups in five countries compared Correlations between dissatisfaction with life and dissatisfaction with democracy and/ or political practices (1995) Diffuse support for democracy as a form of government ( ) Table 10: Diffuse Legitimacy in international comparison.. 98 Table 11: Preference for single-party or multi-party system ( ) Table 12: Support for the parliamentary system ( ) 101 Table 13: Antidemocratic orientations ( ) Table 14: Rejection of antidemocratic and/ or antipluralist forms of government (1995) Table 15: Diffuse legitimacy of democratic systems compared (1997) Table 16: Authoritarian trends in East-Central Europe ( )

10 xii List of Tables and Figures Table 17: Confident and anxious democrats (1992/ ) 110 Table 18: Comparison of trust in institutions ( ) Table 19: Development of institutional trust ( ) Table 20: Assessment of authoritarian regimes in postauthoritarian democracies Table 21: Evaluations of communism in East-Central Europe (1995) Table 22: Evaluations of communism in East-Central Europe ( ) Table 23: Primary source of political information (1995) Table 24: Sources of political information (1995) Table 25: Most trustworthy source of political information (1995) Table 26: Trust in mass media ( ) Table 27: Political interest ( ) Table 28: Development of political participation ( ) 133 Table 29: Participation in political activities by country Table 30: Trends in external political efficacy ( ) Table 31: External political efficacy in international comparison Table 32: Civic orientations compared (1995) Table 33: Indicators of civic orientation in comparison (1995) Table 34: Criticism of elite responsiveness ( ) Table 35: Indicators of political efficacy in comparison (1995/96) Table 36: Trends in party identification ( ) Table 37: Party identification in international comparison 143 Table 38: Party membership in comparison

11 List of Tables and Figures xiii Table 39: Former Communist Party membership, countries compared Table 40: Continuity in cultures of organization (1995) Table 41: Indicators of political integration in comparison 145 Table 42: Communist Party membership, evaluations of communist regimes and system change; parties or party families in East-Central Europe (1995) Table 43: Ideological and social-political cleavages - parties and party families in East-Central Europe (1995) Table 44: Political issues and problems (1991, 1995) Table 45: Changes in value priorities: East-Central Europe ( ) Table 46: Sociopolitical orientations in comparison Table 47: Gross domestic products (GDPs) in comparison 166 Table 48: Economic indicators: East-Central Europe ( ) Table 49: Assessment of the economic situation and job security: East-Central Europe ( ) Table 50: Fear of unemployment: East-Central Europe ( ) Table 51: Evaluation of economic systems ( ) Table 52: Attitudes towards the market economy ( ) Table 53: Winners and losers of system change (1995) 185 Table 54: Regime change - expectations and reality ( ) Table 55: Typology of democratic efficacy and legitimacy, countries in comparison (1997) Table 56: Typologies of confident democrats in East-Central Europe, Austria and Southern Europe compared 193

12 xiv List of Tables and Figures Table 57: Antidemocrats in postauthoritarian democracies compared Appendix of data Table A1: Evaluation of the subjective economic situation: East-Central Europe Table A2: Retrospective evaluation of the subjective economic situation: East-Central Europe Table A3: Prospective evaluation of the subjective economic situation: East-Central Europe Table A4: Winners and Losers of System Change Figures Figure 1: Figure 2: Figure 3: Figure 4: Figure 5: Matrix of political culture research according to Gabriel Almond Data sources of 'Politischer Kulturwandel in Ostmitteleuropa' (Changes in East-Central European Political Culture) Levels and trend patterns of satisfaction with democracy in four countries Model of underlying tensions in the political culture of postcommunist societies Hard-core nationalists in East-Central Europe (1995) Figure 6: Typology of democratic legitimacy and efficacy. 190