Reactions to Russian Aggression from Eastern European Parties

• In Event: Development and Change in Comparative Parties

Abstract

How do political parties react to foreign threats? Although there has been a considerable amount of literature on political parties and foreign policy, most of this work has emphasized how political parties shape foreign policy. There has been significantly less attention given to how parties react to foreign policy threats. Some work has pointed to the effects of foreign policy “shocks” on partisan stances (e.g. Trubowitz 2011; Busby and Monten 2008; Hermann 1990) and we use this as the basis to examine the effects of increased threat. Using data from the Comparative Manifesto Project, we examine how political parties in countries most threatened by Russia have reacted to Russian actions in the Ukraine compared to other parties. We examine changes in the electoral manifestos regarding foreign policy and security issues of 71 parties in post-Communist Eastern Europe, comparing those that appeared before Russian actions in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, and electoral manifestos that appeared afterward. We hypothesize that parties from the far right we be most likely to change their policy pronouncements in a positive direction concerning Russia than other political parties.

Authors

• John Ishiyama, University of North Texas

• Christopher E. Pace, University of North Texas

• Brandon Stewart