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The article focuses on the paper highlighting the role of political corruption in determining vote choice of the citizens in Central and East Europe.

What accounts for the electoral successes of Eurosceptic and populist political parties in Central and East Europe? Citizens in the region have expressed their support for these types of parties during recent elections while, at the same time, aggregate levels of support for EU membership and trust in EU institutions remain high. EU-centered explanations for the growing popularity of these parties have focused on the dissatisfaction of citizens with specific aspects of European integration such as the economic reforms, the perceived loss of sovereignty or the strict requirements regarding protection of minorities. This paper proposes an alternative causal explanation by establishing a relationship between perceptions of domestic political corruption in East Europe and citizens’ growing support for populist and Eurosceptic parties. Moreover, it shows that the news media has a direct influence on citizens’ perceptions of political corruption. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What accounts for the electoral successes of Eurosceptic and populist political parties in Central and East Europe? Citizens in the region have expressed their support for these types of parties during recent elections while, at the same time, aggregate levels of support for EU membership and trust in EU institutions remain high. EU-centered explanations for the growing popularity of these parties have focused on the dissatisfaction of citizens with specific aspects of European integration such as the economic reforms, the perceived loss of sovereignty or the strict requirements regarding protection of minorities. This paper proposes an alternative causal explanation by establishing a relationship between perceptions of domestic political corruption in East Europe and citizens' growing support for populist and Eurosceptic parties. Moreover, it shows that the news media has a direct influence on citizens' perceptions of political corruption. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How has the process of Europeanisation affected East European party systems? This paper draws attention to a possible indirect effect of Europeanisation on party systems and party competition in the recently joined EU member states from East Europe. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will explore the impact of Europeanisation on the national party systems of East European states. According to the proposed theory, the extensive use of conditionality and EU membership criteria in these countries has resulted in convergence of the positions of mainstream political parties on the majority of issues. As they grow closer in the ideological space, voters have less alternatives to choose from. This can explain the frequent electoral successes of newly formed parties which are still capable of distinguishing themselves while they are not yet directly constrained by the membership criteria. Nationalist and populist parties, in particular, are one visible example of the unintended effects of Europeanisation on the new member states' party systems. Parties of this type have embraced the general goal of EU membership but taken diverging positions on a number of salient issues specific to their national audience. Thus, they have been able to present a viable alternative to the voters and have achieved electoral successes despite the high levels of EU membership approval among the population. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]