ABSTRACT
ACCORDING TO SUCH WELL-KNOWN DEMOCRATIC INDICES AS THE Freedom in the World or the Polity project, the region that once was home to some of the pre-1989 world’s harshest dictatorships now comprises countries that rank among the global democratic frontrunners.1 Central and Eastern Europe seems to have fully entered the realm of liberal democracy. Nevertheless, the transformation was so sudden, swift and comprehensive (Kornai 2006;
Kuran 1991) and the initial conditions seemed so hostile to democracy (Greskovits 1998, p. 2; Jowitt 1992, chapter 8) that the quality of the democratic process in the region invites further scrutiny. One of the key elements to investigate is political participation, understood here as ‘[voluntary] activity that has the intent or effect of influencing government actioneither directly by affecting the making or implementation of public policy or indirectly by The author thanks Nicolas Sauger, Nonna Mayer, Florence Haegel, Antoine Jardin, Jennifer-Miller Gonzalez, Lucas Leemann and two anonymous reviewers for insightful comments on earlier drafts of the article. Any errors remain the author’s sole responsibility.
