The nature of clientelism is Post Communist Europe is the subject of considerable debate: Regimes based on a single dominant party that monopolizes elite advancement into administrative and leadership positions seem to be the perfect breeding ground for clientelism, but the legacies of communism make it hard to attract new voters with the same public goods the people already took for granted. This lack of consensus stands in contrast to the scholarship studying the resurgence of clientelism following transitions to democracy in Latin America or Africa. It is further complicated by the observational overlap between corrupt and clientelistic practices, making it hard to disentangle these pathologies of unconsolidated democracies.

This panel seeks to look at theories of corruption and clientelism from the perspective of the most recent scholarship on party and electoral politics in the PostCommunist region. Specifically, Marko Klasnja and Grigore Pop-Eleches will contribute a paper on the partisan politics of electoral fraud in Romania (the 2012 impeachment referendum).

Isabela Mares will contribute a paper based on a list experiment in Hungary attempting to determine the extent of clientelistic linkages there. Herbert Kitschelt will present a paper  on the programmatic content of authoritarian legacy parties, co-authored with  Matt Singer. Finally, Monika Nalepa will present a paper on the relationship between personnel transitional justice and clientelism.

Our discussants---Anna Grzymala-Busse and Despina Alexiadou---will offer both a perspective that is well versed in nuances of the region and based on fresh insights from research experience outside of the Post-Communist region.