Communism, Federalism and Ethnic Minorities: Explaining Party Competition Patterns in Eastern Europe

Organised by the Chair in Multilevel Governance at the VU University Amsterdam and ACCESS EUROPE

Lecture

Scholarship on eastern European politics expects that party competition in the region is determined by communist legacies that juxtapose state-centric authoritarianism and democratic market economy. But there is significant variation in party competition patterns across eastern European countries. Professor Jan Rovný (Sciences Po, Paris) argues that an interaction between communist institutional framework and partisan responses to ethnic minorities determines party competition structure in eastern Europe.

While experience with communist institutions determines partisan affinities with ethnic minorities, tolerance or support for ethnic minorities leads to general social-liberal positions. Consequently — and contrary to received knowledge — ethnic politics influences the ideological content of party competition, and structures party systems in eastern Europe. 

About Jan Rovný 

Jan Rovný is Assistant Professor at the Centre d’études européennes and LIEPP at Sciences Po, Paris, and affiliated with the Center for European Research at the University of Gothenburg (CERGU) in Sweden.

He holds a BA in Political Science from McGill University, an MA in European Politics and Administration from the College of Europe in Bruges, and an MA, PhD in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

His research concentrates on political competition in Europe with the aim of uncovering the ideological conflict lines. He explores the issues that political parties contest across the continent, the strategies that different parties follow, as well as the preferences and voting patterns of voters. Rovný is a principal investigator of the Chapel Hill Expert Surveys on party positioning. 

Registration

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