Local and National Parties in Hungary

The aim of this paper is to explore the emergence of local parties. Local parties, as opposed to the local chapters of national parties, are defined as political organisations that run candidates at elections, organise themselves and are active, only in a certain territory. The paper first presents a theoretical framework that provides concepts to grasp the problem of local parties. Then, the institutional and political settings of the specific case of the paper, Hungary, are presented. The exploration begins with an overview of the electoral performance of local parties. The next section continues with bivariate and multivariate analyses with the aim to better understand the factors that contribute opportunities and resources to local parties. Local parties are then analysed through the prism of a survey of local political organisations. The paper concludes with some tentative findings.