Party Families and the Case of Slovakia: Several Theoretikal Remarks
No.3(2003)
Abstract
Keywords:
Party family; sociological; institutional and voluntaristic factors.
This article examines various approaches to identification of party families. It is stressed that three kinds of criteria - sociological, institutional and voluntaristic - need to be examined in order to identify existing party families in East-Central Europe. A brief overview of estabilished poliitcal parties is given to illustrate the applicability to the conceptual framework to the Slovak case. The article concludes with assertion that comprehensive elaboration of case studies of East-Central European states must take place before any definitive answer to the problem of whether western party families are fully applicable to this region.
Party family; sociological; institutional and voluntaristic factors.