Institutional Choices For Democratic Transformation And Consolidation In Eastern European Countries

In the third wave of democratization,there are obvious differences in the institutional choices of diffe rent countries.Among them,most emerging democracies choose the presidential system,while other countries choose the parliamentary system or semi-presidential system.During the transition and consolidation of democracy in Eastern European countries,Poland,Hungary and Czechoslovakia had different institutional choices:Poland was more inclined to a strong president during the transition,and then reduced the presidential power through the"small constitution"and the 1997 constitution,the institutional design changed to the parliamentary system;Hungary has always adhered to a pure multi-party parliamentary system and successfully completed the transformation and consolidation of democracy.The Czech Republic and Slovakia adopted the parliamentary system when they split and established the country.After that,Slovakia adopted the presidential direct election system in 1999,and the Czech Republic adopted the presidential direct election system in 2012,and both entered the semi-president.Why do Eastern European countries have differences in institutional choices during the period of democratic transition and consolidation?The comparative historical analysis method is used to analyze the institutional choices of Poland,Hungary and Czechoslovakia with similar geographical features and historical political background.From the perspective of vertical time,the analysis of institutional choice can be divided into three stages:the institutional background before the democratic transition(before 1989),the institutional choice during the democratic transition period(1989-1993),and the institutional evolution during the period of democratic consolidation(after 1993).From a horizontal perspective,the institutional choice includes both social and historical soils and the institutional choices of political parties and political elites.The social and historical soil before the democratic transition covers four factors:historical political heritage,economic reform,religious tradition and political culture,and international environmental impact.The choice of political parties and political elites needs to examine the choices of political actors from the perspectives of choice preferences,power comparisons,political actions and compromises.The new institutionalism theory provides theoretical support for the analysis of the reasons for institutional choice.With the weakening of the boundaries of various new institutionalist theories,the multi-dimensional analysis of multiple genres can provide a more complete explanation for the institutional choice of political actors.Among them,the application of historical institutionalism theory and sociological institutionalism theory to analyze the influence of historical,economic,social and international factors on institutional choice;rational choice institutionalism theory can provide theoretical basis for analyzing political actors’specific institutional choice behaviors.The theoretical hypothesis of this paper is that political parties and political elites are based on rational self-interests,those who pursue utility maximization,some preferences in the process of political choice,and the interaction of political actors based on preferences,for political output.Through comparative analysis of institutional choices and institutional evolution in Poland,Hungary,Czech Republic,and Slovakia,this paper considers that the factors that drive institutional choice are complex.Among them,the political parties and political elites involved in institutional choices are based on self-interested rationality.Compromise is a direct factor affecting institutional choice.Different social and historical soils also play an important background role,restricting and influencing the choices of political actors.Among them,in the process of democratic transformation,Poland is deeply influenced by its religious and political and cultural factors.The historical heritage of the pre-democratic period provided the possibility of path dependence for the system selection of Hungary and Czechoslovakia.During the period of democratic consolidation,the evolution of the Polish,Czech,and Slovakian systems stemmed from the inadequacy of institutional design and practice,directly because of the institutional choices and political actions of political parties and political elites.Therefore,the construction and reform of the system needs to be treated with caution.The choice of a country’s system needs to adapt to the changes of the times in line with its national conditions.