European societies continue to experience an extended period of party political instability as reflected in ascendance of new competitors and demise of established political organizations. Scholars have tried to grasp the dynamics of party systems by employing a variety of instruments.
At a first glance, the Latvian polity largely resonates with this general pattern of change. Over the course of seven post-Communist elections, six have seen a successful entry of new political organizations into the parliamentary arena. This has been accompanied by notable voter volatility and a high turnover of parliamentarians. These can easily be taken as indications of changes of Latvia’s party system if not political turmoil.
On the other hand, the basic pattern of political competition in Latvia has remained surprisingly stable – left-leaning parties of Russian-speaking minorities vs. right-of-center parties claiming to represent the titular nation. The persistence of this pattern and the corresponding exclusion of Russophone parties from coalitions may serve as an explanation of stability of key priorities in economic and foreign policy over the last 20 years in spite of an average cabinet lifetime of 14 months.
A stability of policies against the background of pronounced instability of parties, therefore, raises the question whether instability of individual parties is synonymous with instability of party system. What factors have facilitated this kind of (in)stability? Moreover, how can party system change be conceived of? Do existing measures capture it adequately? Are there any alternative indications of systemic change that can be used cross-nationally?
Our paper will attempt to address these issues by exploring the vibrant case of Latvia and explicating some patterns of change and stability in the country’s party system.
