Pirate Parties: Development Trends Worldwide

The article analyzes several development trends of pirate parties in cross-national perspective. The author studies dynamics of pirates' political program and conducts a correlation analysis of factors that determine the degree of institutionalization of their organizations. According to Yu.Kabanov's conclusion, in most cases pirate parties lack sufficient resources and often a desire to actively participate in the established party system. Neither popularity of their ideas nor their electoral results enjoy stability. However, one can already spot some potential growing points of pirate parties, especially in Europe. According to the author's forecast, transformations of the pirate movement will continue to take place and will become decisive for its future development. The latter will largely hinge upon the final choice of pirate parties: whether to retain their radical, anti-elite positions or move toward the median voter and common policy.