Dr. Steven D. Roper is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Eastern Illinois University, USA and Dr Janis Ikstens is an Associate Professor at the University of Latvia, Latvia.

'...a welcomed contribution to our knowledge of the contextual complexity of public and private party financing in Eastern Europe. Having successfully explored the funding landscape in each country the volume then manages to highlight some of the commonalities between cases ... enhancing our general understanding of the effect of finance on party system development.' Jóhanna Kristín Birnir, University of Maryland , USA 'Research on parties and party system development in Central and Eastern Europe has decidedly evolved over the last decade, taking advantage of the ever longer time span of democratic politics in the region as well as conceptual advances and the formulation of more precise research questions. This volume exemplifies this trend terrifically with a focus on one of the remaining gray areas in party research, party finance.' Journal of Baltic Studies

• Contents: Preface; Introduction: the influence of public finance on post-Communist party systems, Steven D. Roper; Russia: public offices, private money and biased contests, Vladimir Gel'man; Lithuania: political finance regulations as a tool of political manipulation, Ingrida Unikaite; Latvia: disclosure yet abuse, volatility yet stability, Janis Ikstens; Estonia: the increasing costs and weak oversight of party finance, Allan Sikk and Riho Kangur; Czech Republic: is it possible to buy political stability?, Lukáš Linek and Jan Outlý; Moldova: party institutionalization in a resource-scarce environment, Oleh Protsyk and Ion Osoian; Bulgaria: 3 finance regimes and their implications, Tatania Kostadinova; Hungary: rules, norms and stability undermined, Gabriella Ilonszki; Romania: the secondary influence of public finance on the party system, Steven D. Roper, Adrian Moraru and Elena Iorga; Index.