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The art of resistance : cultural protest against the Austrian far right in the early twenty-first century
\"Well before the far-right resurgence that has most recently transformed European politics, Austria's 1999 parliamentary elections surprised the world with the unexpected success of the Freedom Party of Austria and its charismatic leader, Jèorg Haider. The party's perceived xenophobia, isolationism, and unabashed nationalism in turn inspired a massive protest movement that expressed opposition not only through street protests but also in novels, plays, films, and music. Through careful readings of this varied cultural output, The Art of Resistance traces the aesthetic styles and strategies deployed during this time, providing critical context for understanding modern Austrian history as well as the European protest movements of today\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
When Left Is Right: Party Ideology and Policy in Post-Communist Europe
According to the classic partisan theory of spending, leftist parties are expected to increase government spending, and rightist parties are expected to decrease it. We argue that this relationship does not hold in post-Communist countries, where in the context of dual transition to democracy and to a market economy, leftist parties have had stronger incentives and better opportunities to enact tighter budgets, whereas rightist parties were compelled to spend more in order to alleviate economic hardships. We illustrate this theoretical argument with case studies from Hungary and Poland. We then test and find support for our theory by considering the influence of cabinet ideology on total, health, and education spending in thirteen post-Communist democracies from 1989 to 2004. We explore various alternative explanations and provide further narratives to support our causal argument.
Journal Article
Do Markets Punish Left Governments?
The political economy literature finds that stock markets drop after left-wing and increase after right-wing electoral victories. This study shows that the size of this reaction strongly depends on the political constraints that the incoming government faces. When constraints are high, the discretion of governments to implement their preferred policies is low, which implies that election outcomes are less relevant for financial investors. The analysis of an original dataset of stock market reactions to 205 elections since the 1950s confirms this conjecture. Stocks drop considerably after the election of a left government and increase after the election of a right government, but only in low-constraints countries. These partisan effects on stocks are highly persistent and even become stronger over time when additional information about the composition of the incoming government becomes available. However, the effects of elections on stocks fully disappear when political constraints are high.
Journal Article
Muslims’ Vote Choice: Exclusion and Group Voting in Europe
A well-documented fact is that Muslim citizens tend to vote for the left in greater proportion than non-Muslim citizens. In Western Europe, this difference in the vote for left-wing parties exceeds 30%. Interestingly, the gap endures despite Muslims’ integration into the host society, which is expected to militate against group voting. Why, then, do Muslims continue to vote as a group? And what factors account for their leaning towards the left? We argue that exclusion and discrimination, to which Muslims are regularly subjected as a group, work against the effect of integration on their vote choice, as it strengthens the saliency of group interests and “linked fate” in their voting calculus. Using public opinion survey data, we show that the more Muslims feel discriminated against by their host society, the more likely they are to engage in group voting and vote for the left. We also show that political exclusion, proxied by the electoral strength of radical-right parties, has a positive association with Muslims’ support for left-wing parties. Finally, we delve into the British case and show that experiences of physical violence are also manifested in stronger group voting by non-Western immigrants. Our article sheds light on a phenomenon that has the potential to reshape the electoral landscape in Europe by rendering ethnic and religious identity a crucial dimension of party competition.
Journal Article
WHAT CONSTITUTES THE LEFT IN ALBANIA? DEFINING COMMUNIST SUCCESSOR AND OTHER LEFT-WING PARTIES
The Left in Albania has long been synonymous with the communist successor, most notably represented by the Socialist Party of Albania (SPA). Emerging from the Cold War era, the SPA inherited not only the ideological framework, but also the political dominance that had been characteristic of communist rule. Over the past three decades, the SPA has remained one of Albania’s two dominant political parties, blending elements of socialist ideology with certain authoritarian tendencies. This legacy has contributed to an ideological and democratic void that other parties, particularly extra-parliamentary ones, have sought to fill. Among these, the Movement Together (MT) and the Hashtag Initiative (HI) have emerged as significant actors. Given the scarcity of comprehensive scholarship on Albania’s political landscape, this paper presents Albania as a case study to define and classify communist successor and other left-wing parties, drawing on frameworks applied in Central and Eastern Europe. The paper compares the platforms and political rhetoric of the SPA, MT, and HI, with a particular focus on the SPA’s conduct while in government. Moreover, the internal characteristics of these parties is examined to provide a nuanced understanding of Albania’s domestic political environment and what defines the Left in Albania.
Journal Article
The Effect of Competition on Terrorist Group Operations
Scholars have long accepted the contention that competition among terrorist organizations raises the level of violence used by the competitors. This article discusses this claim and advances another—that competition among terrorist organizations creates incentives to use less violence. Using insights from the organizational ecology literature—namely that competition occurs within \"species\"—I create a variable that assesses intraspecies competition. I test both claims using a data set of domestic terrorism created from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) for the years 1970 to 1997. I find support for the hypothesis that competition leads to more terrorism, validating the claims of outbidding theorists. Furthermore, ideologies have differential effects on whether outbidding occurs, with nationalist and religious terrorist groups responding to competition with more terrorism and left-wing organizations responding with less.
Journal Article
FROM A SOCIAL MOVEMENT TO A LEFT-WING PARTY: THE STUDY OF VETËVENDOSJE IN KOSOVO
This research examines the mobilization strategies employed by Vetëvendosje, a left-wing political party in Kosovo, as it transitioned from a grassroots anti-establishment movement to a governing party. In the context of socio-economic inequality, democratic
instability, and the legacy of post-communism, the study examines how populist mobilization serves as both a political tool and electoral strategy for social movements transitioning into political parties. Thus, it raises the following research questions: What factors enabled Vetëvendosje to maintain institutional legitimacy after its transition? How did populist mobilization influence its ideology and electoral outcomes? Through process tracing and content analysis of party manifestos, the research evaluates the evolution of populist discourse and its impact on electoral performance. By analyzing changes in identity and narrative within Vetëvendosje, this study contributes to broader discussions on social movements and the transformation of left-wing parties in post-communist societies.
Journal Article
INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE: THE LEFT-WING PARTIES IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE, TRAJECTORY OF A DECLINE FROM THE POST-COMMUNIST TRANSITION
This article reviews the electoral results of left-wing parties in Central and Eastern Europe since 1991 and the fall of Communism. By following the trajectories of left-wing parties, we can identify a three-phase periodization leading to the decline of left-wing parties. First, the reform of the heirs to communism, who converted to Western social democracy and reformed their political élite. This period is characterized by electoral success and government participation for the heirs of communism who have become social democrats. Then came the accession negotiations with the European Union, which brought the European issue to the forefront of the region’s agenda. The social-democratic parties held the issue, giving themselves an image of modernizers with the promise of social and economic progress. This period was marked by even greater electoral success, demonstrating the strength of these parties. Finally, the decline which followed the disillusionment of EU membership after 2008: social-democratic parties have lost their status as modernizers and are no longer able to regain a foothold in society, to the benefit of radical right-wing parties. This periodization leads us to consider the state of the left in the region today, and its reconstruction.
Journal Article
Communism, Federalism, and Ethnic Minorities: Explaining Party Competition Patterns in Eastern Europe
Scholarship on East European politics expects that party competition in the region is determined by various communist legacies, juxtaposing state-centric authoritarianism to a liberal market economy. Recent empirical evidence, however, uncovers significant variance of party competition patterns across East European countries. To explain this variance, this article argues that an interaction between communist institutional framework and partisan responses to ethnic minorities determines party competition structure in the region. While experience with communist federalism determines partisan affinities with ethnic minorities, tolerance or support for ethnic minorities leads the political actors associated with those minorities to general socially liberal positions. Consequently—and contrary to received knowledge—ethnic politics influence the ideological content of party competition and structure party systems in Eastern Europe.
Journal Article