Factors affecting the long-term success of new parliamentary parties: findings in a post-communist context

This article addresses a gap in the literature concerning the survivability of new political parties in existing parliamentary systems. It focuses on the particularities of post-communist party systems and considers the impact that the recent international financial and economic crisis has had on decreasing the legitimacy of the established parties - for which Slovenia will serve as a case study. We observe that, in addition to the institutional and political milieu (which in Slovenia is relatively amenable to new parties), two factors co-determine the ability of a newcomer to maintain a long-term parliamentary presence: (i) the new party's organisational resources and potential - particularly its social appeal and whether it has a publicly-recognisable party leader; and (ii) the nature of its positioning within the existing political divide, which entails having a clear original policy focus that can be located on the established political spectrum. However, a new party's potential success will also depends upon the relative responsiveness, representativeness, integrity and transparency of the established parties. Therefore, we argue that the study of newcomers also necessitates the study of established parties, of party-system adaptations, and party collapse.