29
third of Romanians think it would be good that there exist a single party.
57
Surely this testifies to
the lack of credibility and even accountability of Romania’s political party system as a linchpin
of a democratic, or democratizing, regime.
In attempting to analyze the Russian party system, Rose and Munro argued that
In an accountable party system, the choice of voters may fluctuate between parties from
one election to the next, but the supply of parties remains constant. By contrast, in a
floating party system, the parties competing for popular support change from one election
to the next. Some parties disappear from the ballot, new parties appear, others alter their
names and much else, and several parties combine in blocs that blur or destroy their
previous identities. Accountability is not meaningful when voters can neither reaffirm
nor withdraw their support from the party for which they voted at the previous election
.
58
Viewed in this limited sense, Romania’s party system is considerably deficient on the question of
accountability.
As emerges from Figure 3, Romania’s party system is a complete mess from the point of
view of informational costs for voters or even panel audiences, rivaling Italy in the mid-1990s.
Only one party in Romania has retained its name and identity consistently over the past four
national elections and will run in the fifth. That is the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania
(UDMR). No other party has managed to accomplish that feat.
[FIGURE 3 ABOUT HERE]
Convention