ABSTRACT
The party system is responsible, to a significant extent, for advances in institutionalizing democratic practices. Moldovan party development is impressive when compared with patterns of political competition in other Western Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries such as Belarus and Ukraine. The Moldovan party system proved to be sufficiently robust to withstand the pressures of popularly elected presidents attempting to bypass parties and monopolize power during the 1990s. The party system also managed to preserve its competitive character under the lasting dominance of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) whose full commitment to democratic values has been questionable throughout the 2000s.
