Challenged by postmaterialism: left-wing parties in postcommunist Europe

ABSTRACT

The article explores the evolution of left-wing voting in the postcommunist countries of Central and Eastern Europe against the background of value shifts. The main trend indicates that those societies are witnessing a gradual transition to postmaterialism. However, examining the parties’ electoral manifestos allowed the authors to conclude that the twenty-first century cannot be characterized by uniform trends: only in the case of environmentalism did the left-wing parties adapt to the changing values of their electorate, while for other indicators the situation was the opposite. The main argument of the study, supported by regression analysis is that only the appeal to green policies prevented the left-wing parties from losing out in electoral campaigns, while the references to multiculturalism and social equality had the opposite effect. Curiously enough, the verbal commitment to traditionalist values also helped the left-wingers to retain their electorate. To get a more complete picture of the voting patterns, the authors carried out an investigation into the left-wing electorate. The conclusion was that supporters of the left-wing parties are increasingly inclined toward postmaterialism. At the same time, the study showed the ineffectiveness of the left-wing political programs. This creates a gap between the left-wing parties and their electorate.

KEYWORDS:

• Postmaterialist values
• Central and Eastern Europe
• postcommunistcountries
• left-wing parties
• electoral support

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 This article is an output of a research project implemented as part of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University).

2 Maria Snegovaya is recognized as a foreign agent in Russia.

3 Source: https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSContents.jsp. The LGBT movement is recognized as extremist in Russia.

4 Source: https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSContents.jsp

5 Source: https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSContents.jsp

6 Maria Snegovaya is recognized as a foreign agent in Russia.

7 The list of parties at issue is available in the appendix (see Table 3).

8 Source: https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSContents.jsp

9 The data about countries and waves can be found in the appendix (see Table 4).

10 In the context of economic liberalization, such issues took on an added importance following the collapse of the socialist bloc that preceded an economic crisis.

11 Source:https://manifesto-project.wzb.eu/datasets#

12 In the case of electoral alliances or government coalitions, the parties involved could publish joint manifestos. In this context, the values the variables take for ideological positions of all the coalition parties correspond to the entire coalition.

13 https://cses.org/data-download/cses-integrated-module-dataset-imd/

14 Here the sample includes such countries as Croatia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary, because the CSES survey was conducted there. As citizens of

Romania, Northern Macedonia and Albania were not surveyed, they are not part of the sample. Additionally, for the sake of comparability, Lithuania is excluded from analysis due to the fact the survey results that we use further do not cover the country.

15 The sample is limited to those respondents who, when asked which party they voted for in the recent parliamentary elections, told the interviewers about a left-wing party corresponding to a given country (see Table 3 in the appendix).

16 The list of parties in each country at issue corresponds to the one which can be found in the appendix (see Table 3).

17 https://ess-search.nsd.no/en/study/bdc7c350-1029-4cb3-9d5e-53f668b8fa74

18 The sample includes such countries as Croatia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, as the ESS survey was conducted there. As citizens of Romania, Northern Macedonia, Albania and Lithuania were not surveyed, they are not part of the sample. The sample is comparable to the set of countries used in the previous stage of analysis.

19 The list of parties in each country at issue corresponds to the one which can be found in the appendix (see Table 3).

20 Source:https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSContents.jsp

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University).