Do Anti-Corruption Parties Matter? The electoral fate and policy impact of the third wave of niche parties in central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Niche parties have been increasingly successful during the last 30 years. Parties focusing on immigration and environment have long been in business and their impact on the political discourse as well as on policy outcomes is well established. In this paper I analyze the electoral fates and policy outcomes of the third wave of niche parties, namely those focusing on anti-corruption, whose successes culminated during the 2000s. The focus is exclusively on new and splinter parties from Central and Eastern Europe and the questions to be answered are: To what extent are these parties successful in obtaining relevant positions in the government to be able to effectively fight corruption? What impact do they have on anti-corruption measures, thereby influencing the level of corruption? How successful are these parties in the following elections? In short, to what extent do anti-corruption parties matter? The results are rather mixed, but indicate that the more influential positions those parties have in government, the better are their anti-corruption performances, which implies that they are serious and competent enough to tackle those issues, despite their newness and lack of experience. Not surprisingly, the incumbent anti-corruption parties fare worse than those in opposition in subsequent elections, but quite a few still remain popular. Finally, all but one party abandoned their anti-corruption rhetoric in their second election, which implies that anti-corruption is a different type of issue, compared to the ones used by previous niche parties.