%0 Journal Article %T Communist Successor Party Adaptation in Candidate-Centered Systems: the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia and the Czech Social Democratic Party in the Czech Republic %A Tatiana P. Rizova %J Journal of Politics and Law %D 2012 %I %R 10.5539/jpl.v5n2p145 %X I compare the adaptation strategies of the Czech ex-communists to competitive elections upon the implosion of East European communism in 1989. In order to survive in a competitive electoral environment, parties that symbolize the communist legacy ought to refashion their internal organization and party programs; their leaders have to signal to their target electorate that they will jettison their predecessors¡¯ dictatorial practices and embrace democratic instruments. The direction and magnitude of these organizational and programmatic changes are dictated by the electoral goals of these parties¡¯ leadership and are shaped by important features of the electoral institutions such as ballot structure. %U http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jpl/article/view/17428