Reviving Party Democracy in Southeast Europe through New Left Movement Parties: Reflections and Recommendations

This essay reflects on the nexus of the crisis of parliamentary party democracy and the challenges of party organizing. It focuses in particular on the cases of new left movement parties that have emerged over the past decade in Southeast Europe, specifically Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia. The central argument of the essay is that this breed of actors is confronted with two types of challenges: first, the need to maintain the identity of a left-wing challenger, while engaging in strategic collaboration with mainstream center-left parties; second, further organizational development that can innovatively address the contradictions between movement-based and party-based organizing.