Party Takeovers as Alternative Routes into Politics: Evidence from Slovakia

This article investigates party takeovers - the acquisition and repurposing of political parties by external actors - as an alternative mechanism of party entry. While existing literature on party formation has largely focused on new start-up parties, splinters, and mergers, the phenomenon of takeovers remains underexplored. We address this gap through a qualitative analysis of three Slovak cases - Sme rodina, Republika, and Demokrati, that illustrate how political entrepreneurs bypass formal registration requirements by appropriating existing parties. We develop an analytical framework centred on five dimensions: brand, leadership, candidates, legal status, and membership, to systematically capture how takeovers unfold. Our findings show that takeovers represent a new level of unrooted entrepreneurial party politics and deepen the hollowing of political parties. In all cases, parties were reduced to legal shells, subsequently “bought,” rebranded, and relaunched as electoral vehicles. Takeovers were driven by pragmatic incentives: incoming elites sought to circumvent demanding registration rules and electoral time constraints, while outgoing leaders often traded control for candidate positions or influence. We argue that party takeovers constitute an emerging trend in Eastern Europe that challenges conventional understandings of party-building and novelty.