DEVELOPING PARTY ORGANIZATIONS IN EAST-CENTRAL-EUROPE - WHAT TYPE OF PARTY IS LIKELY TO EMERGE

Political parties are central to the process of democratization in eas t-central Europe. In contrast to the many studies that look at the ins tability of new parties and party systems, this article focuses on par ty organizational development. First, a hypothesis is put forward cont ending that parties in the region are likely to develop as formations with loose electoral constituencies, unimportant membership and a domi nant role played by party leaders. Second, this hypothesis is tested o n a sample of six parties from the Czech Republic. The analysis shows that certain variations in organizational structure exist, deriving fr om the distinction between old parties and newly established parties, the former deviating from the hypothesis to a greater extent than the latter.