Two dimensions of the Europeanization of election programs: The case of the Czech Republic
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2008 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Communist and post-communist studies |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Political sciences |
| Keywords | europeanization - czech political parties - election programmes |
| Description | This article represents a contribution to the debate over the Europeanization of political parties, one of the hot topics in contemporary political science. It explores the extent of Europeanization in political parties represented in the lower chamber of the Parliament of the Czech Republic by means of an analysis of party election manifestoes. The extent of Europeanization in these documents is analyzed using a bi-dimensional conceptualization. The first dimension, which we call the quantitative dimension, assesses the space taken by the topic of European integration in each manifesto. The second dimension we call the qualitative dimension. This measures the extent to which the European integration issue is elaborated in the programs. Each of these dimensions is then examined using a further categorization. The quantitative dimension is divided into categories representing diffuse occurrence, generally concentrated occurrence and specifically concentrated occurrence. The qualitative dimension is subdivided using the labels general reference, reaction to a specific aspect of integration and reflection on current issues of European integration. Using this conceptualization, we analyze the election manifestoes of five Czech political parties in the period 1996-2006. |
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