Archive 2/2015

Jan Kovář
Metropolitan University Prague, Czech Republic
email: jan.kovar@mup.cz

Abstract

This article investigates the Europeanisation of EP election manifestos prepared by Slovak political parties over the course of Slovakia’s decade-long membership in the European Union. To this aim, it conducts a content analysis based upon a novel coding scheme in which Europeanisation is measured primarily as EU issue salience and secondarily as the discussion of different EU-related (policy) issue areas. The results show that, in contrast to election manifestos prepared for other elections, the salience of EU issues is quite high in these Euromanifestos. On the other hand, average relative EU issue salience has decreased with each EP election held in the country. In terms of party EU political agenda, we provide evidence of relatively high convergence in terms of party EU political agenda, measured as the five most prominent issue categories in individual party Euromanifestos, particularly in 2004 and 2014. We also show that the five most prominent issue categories in the party EU political agenda represent almost half the natural sentences referring to the EU political level in the Euromanifestos analysed.

Key words

Europeanisation; Euromanifestos; content analysis; political parties; Slovakia.

Gábor Dobos
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary
email: dobos.gabor@tk.mta.hu

Attila Gyulai
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary
email: gyulai.attila@tk.mta.hu

Abstract

This study analyses the election manifestos of Hungarian parties in campaigns between 1998 and 2006, for the purpose of assessing the significance and nature of EU-related promises. Three campaigns and government terms are studied: one prior to EU accession, a second around the time Hungary became a Member State and the third after joining the EU. The study follows the mandate view of representative government and the pledge approach for exploring election manifestos. Three main categories of EU-related pledges are discussed: firstly, pledges related to values associated with the European Union, secondly, pledges on adaptation to its institutions, policies, and norms, and finally pledges that promised availability and use of EU funds. The findings are that only a small proportion of election pledges was EU-related, and few were specific enough to test their later fulfilment by governments. We maintain that our results show how undisputed the issue of Hungarian membership was before 2010. But this lack of EU-related conflicts diminished the information content of manifestos regarding accession.

Key words

European Union; Hungary; party manifesto; pledge approach

Marko Stojić
Masaryk University, Czech Republic
email: stojic.marko@gmail.com

Abstract

This article examines comparatively the stances of Serbian and Croatian political parties on European integration in relation to their international affiliations. It specifically seeks to explore how and to what extent the European People’s Party (EPP) exerted influence on parties from these two countries. The article analyses the nature of these linkages in a systematic manner by employing the concept of direct and indirect transnational impact. The study argues that, in general, the EPP was not a crucial driving force behind party stances on the European Union (EU) and its direct impact was rather low. However, the EPP appears to have had a considerable indirect impact on parties that were at an early stage of ideological transformation towards becoming credible mainstream and pro-European parties, after a long legacy of Eurosceptic and nationalist politics. These parties strove to obtain European legitimacy by becoming members of the EPP and were, consequently, more willing to harmonise their positions with (potential) European partner. Moreover, ‘EU commitment’ of Serbian and Croatian applicants, closely scrutinised by the EPP, was primarily related to their affirmative positions on EU membership, rather than their stances on any particular model of European integration.

Key words

Serbian and Croatian parties; European People’s Party; transnational party linkages; party attitudes towards the EU

Alenka Krašovec
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
email: alenka.krasovec@fdv.uni-lj.si

Tomaž Deželan
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
email: tomaz.dezelan@fdv.uni-lj.si

Abstract

The Europeanization of national political parties is one of the most important topic areas in the Europeanization literature. Slovenian parties have slowly started to act in the arena of the European Union (EU) since the 1990s, and questions regarding the degree of their Europeanization have become increasingly relevant. In light of Ladrech’s conviction that the clearest types of evidence of Europeanization may be found in programme changes, we focus our research on party manifestos. By conducting a computer-assisted content analysis of 65 manifestos between 1990 and 2014, we were able to examine the presence of EU-related topics and the frequency of reference to these topics, utilizing a quantitative measure of party Europeanization. We conclude that the presence of Europe in Slovenian parliamentary party manifestos is a consequence of an incremental process that intensified with the turn of the millennium and peaked with Slovenia’s accession to the EU. In addition, we observe that the interaction of variables has an important effect on the salience of Europe in manifestos, with the variables involved in a mutual feedback process, thus indicating that size, governmental status and EU party links matter. In the case of fringe parties, party family proved relevant as well.

Key words

election manifesto; Europeanization; Slovenia; political parties; party programmes

Abstract

Guerra, Somina. 2013. Central and Eastern European Attitudes in the Face of Union. Basingstoke - New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 179 pages.

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Štefek, Martin. 2014. Za fasádou jednoty. KSČ a SED po roce 1985. Červený Kostelec: Pavel Mervart, 221 pages.

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Laclau, Ernesto. 2013. Emancipace a radikální demokracie. Praha: Karolinum, 202 pages.

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