Political Institutionalization ofParty Systems in Post-Soviet Transitional Countries.

The study critically evaluates different conceptual approaches to the operationalization of political institutionalization which have been offered in the literature on the subject. The author develops a detailed theoretical framework and operational indicators which help to measure the degree of institutionalization of a party system in a democratic country. The analysis focuses on two broad dimensions of political institutionalization, autonomy and stability, and proposes several feasible and precise indicators which allow the criteria of institutionalization to be operationalized. On the basis of this conceptual framework, the study measures levels of political institutionalization of the party systems in the five post-Soviet transitional countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, and Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]