ABSTRACT
The post-Leninist political landscape in Eastern Europe has erupted into a plethora of parties and political organizations all claiming to represent the interests of significant social groups. For example, over one hundred parties and organizations participated in the October 1991 elections to the Polish Sejm. Unfortunately, instead of reflecting or articulating the interests of social groups, the emerging party systems appear to be reflecting the faultlines, fissures and fads among political elites. Parliamentary debates in Warsaw, Budapest and Prague have begun to resemble closed dialogues conducted on a remote and distant plane, far from the everyday reality of social life in these countries. Whereas stable systems of representation are based on institutionalized relationships between the state, political parties and interest groups that allow for multiple channels of interest articulation and representation, the situation in Eastern Europe is characterized by the lack of institutionalized relationships between state bureaucracies, elected officials and socially based interests.
