Free Elections and Political Parties in Transition to Democracy in Central and Southeastern Europe

The spate of free competitive parliamentary elections held during the systemic 1989-91 transformation in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, GDR, Hungary, Poland, and Romania accomplished several different ends. The first such elections introduced a new democratic political order, legitimated a new constitutional order, and founded a democratic structure for multi-party system building, The second (or third) parliamentary elections held in 1992-96 stimulated the party-making process and consolidated a new party system as well as contributed to the formation of a parliamentary majority for government stability. Electoral systems differed from country to country and, as in Romania and Poland, from election to election. The first fully free parliamentary elections in Poland (1989) and Romania (1990) as well as the first, and only free election in the GDR were fair and proportional being in compliance with the requirements of “foundation” elections. Subsequent elections in Romania and Poland were held under more rigorous electoral rules to prevent further excessive fragmentation of party politics. In Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia more rigorous electoral rules, using proportional representation with a threshold of 4 or 5 percent, contributed from the beginning to the formation of a parliamentary majority, leading to government stability. Since 1993 there has been a trend toward reducing fragmentation of party politics in post-communist central and southeastern Europe.