Centrist Anti-Establishment Parties and Their Struggle for Survival: (Comparative Politics)

How do parties survive when newness is their only selling point? This scholarly volume explores the most successful group of new political parties in Central and Eastern Europe: centrist anti-establishment parties (CAPs). These parties often claim to be neither 'left nor right', strongly criticize the political establishment, and instead promise 'corruption-free' politics. Initially extremely successful, many CAPs do not survive more than a few consecutive elections while others do endure. As the first book-length study on this type of party, Sarah Engler explores this question and focuses on CAPs' electoral strategies after their first elections. It derives three strategies of survival that lead to more sustainable electoral support: a reframed protest strategy, an anti-corruption strategy, and a mainstream strategy. Combining quantitative data from an original expert survey with qualitative evidence from elite interviews with MPs, party officials and anti-corruption experts, the author demonstrates that CAPs only survive when they abandon their initial strategy of pure protest. While strategic change is necessary for party survival, several failed attempts at transformation show that it is not sufficient. Ideology, seemingly irrelevant to CAPs' initial successes, eventually determines CAPs' fates. Engler also examines how these findings have implications for other European countries.Comparative Politics is a series for researchers, teachers, and students of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterized by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit: www.ecprnet.eu .The series is edited by Nicole Bolleyer, Chair of Comparative Political Science, Geschwister Scholl Institut, LMU Munich and Jonathan Slapin, Professor of Political Institutions and European Politics, Department of Political Science, University of Zurich.

Table of Contents:
Abbreviations Party acronyms Preface Acknowledgments 1: Introduction 2: Grasping the Nature of CAPs: Protest, Anti-corruption Claims and Programmatic Diversity 3: A Theoretical Framework of Survival: When Protest Alone Is Not Enough 4: The Trajectories of CAPs after Their Initial Breakthrough 5: Three Strategies of Survival: Critical Junctures, Rationales and Challenges 6: The Constraining Effects of Party Bases: The Role of Voters' Ideology 7: Conclusion Appendix References

About the Author :
Sarah Engler is Professor in Comparative Politics at the Leuphana University Lüneburg. Previously, she held a position as senior researcher at the Department of Political Science and the Center for Democracy Studies at the University of Zurich. Her research focuses on party competition, democratic institutions, and social inequality in Europe. Her work has been published in Democratization, European Political Science Review, the Journal of European Public Policy, and West European Politics.

Review :
The book proposes a theoretical framework that explains the evolution of these parties, their initial breakthrough and subsequent trajectory, three strategies of survival (grounded in critical junctures, rationale, and challenges), the constraining effects of their party bases, and the many lessons learned, which are relevant for Central and Eastern Europe and beyond. With great attention to detail and a wealth of cases drawn from all countries in the region, including the Baltic republics, this volume stands out for its analytical rigor. Graduate students, faculty members, and even practitioners will find this work informative and compelling. Highly recommended.