The Drivers Behind Relations Between Interest Organizations and Political Parties in the CEE Countries

The chapter analyzes factors informing relations between interest organizations and political parties in three post-Communist countries: Poland, Slovenia and Lithuania. The base of comparison are responses to the comparative survey conducted among organizations at the national level. The fundamental question of the chapter is whether these young democracies, using Western democracies as established benchmarks, have been able to develop complex linkages involving parties and interest organizations. The chapter finds that interest organizations and political parties in Central and Eastern Europe live rather separate lives, contrary to the requirements of participatory democracy. However, if organizations express interest in contacting political parties, it is mostly explained by organizations’ financial means (i.e. the larger the funding available for the groups, the more likely they are to contact parties).