By Zsolt Enyedi
Whether political parties pursue office or programmatic goals, competition should be their dominant form of coexistence. And yet parties frequently decide to cooperate with each other, not only in government and parliament, but also in the electoral arena. The drive towards cooperation is particularly manifest under the threat of authoritarianism, but it is present in consolidated democracies as well. In order to make party alliances effective, many challenges need to be met. In this special series, the Lead Researcher of the CEU Democacy Institute Re-/De-Democratization Work Group Zsolt Enyedi examines with the help of experts how such challenges are tackled, and what techniques of cooperation are employed.
Danica Fink-Hafner: Voters turn towards symbolic personalities when they are disappointed with political parties [Party Co-Op Series]
Zsolt Enyedi discusses party cooperation in Slovenia with Danica Fink-Hafner, professor and Head of the Political Science Research Programme at University of Ljubljana, and expert on party politics, European integration, nation-building, interest-representation and democratization.
Does England Love Coalitions? Party cooperation in the UK [Party Co-Op Series]
As part of the Party Co-Op series, Alan Wager discusses his upcoming work on party alliances in England with the host, Zsolt Enyedi.
Latin America: When parties become cartels, people are going to rebel against them [Party Co-Op Series]
In this episode, Zsolt Enyedi and Jennifer McCoy examine party cooperation in Nicaragua, Chile, Venezuela and Colombia.
Although the liberal democrats won, the word ‘liberal’ is still not popular in Czechia [Party Co-Op Series]
Zsolt Enyedi in conversation with Krystof Dolezal, political scientist and strategist about party cooperation in Czechia during the 2021 parliamentary elections. They discuss the rationales behind the establishment of the two opposition blocks, the reasons for their respective levels of success, and the lessons that can be drawn from Czech party cooperation.
Hungary two months before the elections – can the opposition win? Zsolt Enyedi in conversation with Daniel Rona [Party Co-Op Series]
Zsolt Enyedi discusses with Daniel Rona, director of the 21 research center the key questions related to the cooperation between the opposition parties before the April elections.