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Politics
Figure 1. Membership threshold for establishing political parties in post-soviet countries. Members/signatures to establish a party
Country
Members/ signatures to establish a party
Romania
25,000 members11
Moldova
4000 members12
Lithuania
1000 members13
Bosnia and Herzegovina
500 members14
Estonia
500 members15
Bulgaria
500 members16
Slovenia
200 members17
Ukraine
10 000 signatures18
Latvia
200 members19
Croatia
100 members20
1000 signatures21
Slovakia
10000 signatures22
Country
Czech Republic
amendment to the Political Parties Act and stipulated that 500 founding members are needed to establish a political party10. Since lowering the party establishing bar to 500 members in April, one party has already emerged and several other groups are planning to do the same ahead of parliamentary elections in March 2015. The emergence of single political party may not sound noteworthy in most of the Western democracies, but in Estonia the last birth of a political party happened in 2005. As there are parliamentary elections held within few month, we can forecast small “baby-boom” of the political parties in Estonian near future. [See: Figure 1]
MEMBERSHIP/ELECTORATE RATIO Membership/Electorate Ratio represents a percentage of voters belonging to a political party. The higher ratio figure shows that parties are natural and integral part of civil
societies and people see them as a chance to influence politics. Low membership/ electorate ratio level is a warning sign to political elite, as they stand far from their voters and people do not have enough confidence in them. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Mair, Biezen and Poguntke show in their study, that the average level of party membership in post-communist countries is 3.5%, in contrast to the average of 5.7% 11
Law on Political Parties of Romania, 2003.
12
Law on Political Parties of Moldova, 2007.
13
Law on Political Parties of Lithuania, 2010.
14
Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2001.
15
Act of Political Parties of Estonia, 2014.
16
http://www.legislationline.org/documents/id/15811
17
Act Amending the Political Parties Act of Slovenia, 2007.
18
Law of Ukraine on Political Parties in Ukraine 2001.
19
Law on Political Parties of Latvia, 2006.
20
Political Party Act of Croatia, 1993.
Act of Law on association in political parties and political movements of Czech Republic, 2006. 21
10 Political Parties Act of Estonia 2014: https://www.riigiteataja.ee/en/eli/508072014003/consolide
22
Law on Political Parties of Slovakia, 2005.