Addressing the Transnistrian conflict: competing stances of Moldova's political parties and expert community

Abstract

'The Transnistrian conflict continues to be one of the most important issues facing political parties and the expert community in Moldova. Since the start of the post-communist transition period, political parties have routinely felt the necessity to articulate their approaches to solving the conflict. During both electoral and inter-electoral periods, the Transnistrian issue has occupied a special position on the country's political agenda. This has required political parties to take a stance on the issue. Similarly, the country's expert community, which includes academics, political analysts, and media commentators, has struggled with the need to explain and interpret the conflict to their audiences. In presenting such interpretations for the general public, they could not avoid formulating their own positions on potential causes of and solutions to the conflict. The authors here employ elite survey techniques as one approach to analyzing the variation in political parties' and expert communities' attitudes towards a host of problems related to the Transnistrian conflict. The paper provides a detailed description of the documented attitudinal differences and similarities on various aspects of the Transnistrian conflict among key Moldovan political parties that has been drawn from a diversified political spectrum. It also attempts to document the differences in parties' attitudes as they change over time. The recent origins of the party system in Moldova and rapid transformations in the domestic and international environment in which the parties operate make the evolution of the Moldovan party system a very dynamic process. While the paper focuses on the analysis of party positions through the eyes of both party functionaries and members of the expert community, it compliments this analysis through the discussion of the attitudinal disposition of experts themselves. Given the critical role that the expert community plays in forming public opinion such discussions are a relevant addition to the main focus of the paper.' (author's abstract)