Rebuilding Leviathan: Party Competition and State Exploitation in Post-Communist Democracies (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)

Why do some governing parties limit their opportunistic behaviour and constrain the extraction of private gains from the state? This analysis of post-communist state reconstruction provides surprising answers to this fundamental question of party politics. Across the post-communist democracies, governing parties have opportunistically reconstructed the state - simultaneously exploiting it by extracting state resources and building new institutions that further such extraction. They enfeebled or delayed formal state institutions of monitoring and oversight, established new discretionary structures of state administration, and extracted enormous informal profits from the privatization of the communist economy. By examining how post-communist political parties rebuilt the state in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia, Grzymala-Busse explains how even opportunistic political parties will limit their corrupt behaviour and abuse of state resources when faced with strong political competition. Frontmatter Acknowledgments (page xi) List of Political Party Abbreviations and Acronyms (page xiii) 1 INTRODUCTION (page 1) 2 COMPETING FOR THE STATE (page 29) 3 DEVELOPING THE FORMAL INSTITUTIONS OF THE STATE (page 81) 4 THE EXPANSION OF STATE ADMINISTRATION: PATRONAGE OR EXPLOITATION? (page 133) 5 PRIVATIZING THE STATE: PARTY FUNDING STRATEGIES (page 182) CONCLUSION (page 222) APPENDIX A: PEAK PARTY ORGANIZATIONS IN POST-COMMUNIST DEMOCRACIES, 1990-2004 (page 229) APPENDIX B: DETERMINING STATE ADMINISTRATION EMPLOYMENT AND RATE OF GROWTH (page 233) APPENDIX C: ANCHORING VIGNETTES (page 242) Bibliography (page 247) Index (page 269) Competing For The State -- Developing The Formal Institutions Of The State -- The Expansion Of State Administration : Exploitation Or Patronage? -- Privatizing The State : Party Financing Strategies -- Conclusion -- Appendix A. Party Organizations In Post-communist Democracies -- Appendix B. Measuring State Administration Employment -- Appendix C. Anchoring Vignettes. Anna Grzymala-busse. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 247-268) And Index.