This lecture explores the possibilities of partisan influence on public policy in ten parliamentary democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. It will point out the basic assumptions of the classical partisan theory (parties-do-matter-hypothesis) and will apply these assumptions to party governments in CEE. In a nutshell, the empirical findings of this analysis confirm that there are indeed different ideological compositions of governments in CEE which is the precondition for testing the parties-do-matter hypothesis. However, contrary to their Western European counterparts, the duration of party governments in CEE is rather low which causes problems in the implementation of
party programmes in governmental policy. In long-lasting governments there is a tendency that public spending on social policy is higher among left-wing than among right-wing parties. Yet, the impact of the ideological composition of party government on public policy is empirically not at all as evident as in Western Europe. Overall, the analyses confirms that the “partisan theory” does not really “travel” to CEE.