Party takeovers as alternative routes into politics: evidence from Slovakia

Abstract

This article examines external party takeovers, the acquisition and repurposing of existing parties by outside actors, as an alternative route into electoral competition. While research on party formation has focused on start-ups, splinters, and mergers, takeovers remain underexplored. We address this gap through a document-based qualitative analysis of three Slovak cases - Sme rodina, Republika, and Demokrati - showing how political entrepreneurs bypass registration barriers by appropriating legally existing organisations. We propose a six-dimensional analytical framework (brand, leadership, candidates, legal status, membership, ideology) to trace organisational transformation step by step. Empirically, we find that takeovers cluster under temporal or environmental pressure (imminent elections, COVID-19 restrictions) and typically target marginal or strategically stranded parties. In all cases, parties were effectively reduced to legal shells and then rebranded and relaunched; bargaining between incoming and outgoing elites traded leadership control for list placements or visibility. Transformational depth varies across ideology and membership, whereas changes in brand, leadership, and legal status are near-universal markers of takeovers. We argue that party takeovers constitute an emerging pattern in Eastern Europe's personalised and volatile party systems, challenging conventional distinctions between 'new' and 'old' parties and extending the literature on party novelty, change, and entrepreneurial politics.