Paying for appeasement: On the moderating role of public subsidies in East Central European party politics

Casal Bertoa, Fernando; Rama, José

Abstract

Focusing on the relationship between the access of political parties to direct public funding and electoral support for anti-political-establishment (e.g. populist, extremist) parties (APEp), this article tries to fill an important gap in the literature. Whereas previous contributions, mostly focused on the United States or established democracies in Western Europe, have presented contradictory findings, our study of 19 new democracies in East Central Europe clearly shows that the absence of state subsidies for political parties boosts support for those with an anti-political-establishment character. More importantly, and taking into account the minimum legal payout threshold that grants parties access to public subsidies, our results show that the more restrictive the regulations and the greater the difficulties faced by parties in obtaining state help, the higher the support for APEp. Our findings have obvious implications for the development of post-Communist party systems and the future of legislative (party funding) reform in the region.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 10, 2021
• Online Publication Date: May 11, 2021
• Publication Date: 2022-07
• Deposit Date: Apr 17, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 28, 2023
• Journal: Party Politics
• Print ISSN: 1354-0688
• Electronic ISSN: 1460-3683
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 28
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 611-624
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13540688211015933
• Keywords: Sociology and Political Science
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5524570