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Europeanization of Croatian Political Parties

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Europeanization of Croatian Political Parties Europeanization of Croatian political parties Master thesis for the award of the academic degree of Master of Arts (MA) at the Karl-Franzens-University Graz Submitted by: Mia JURKOVIC at the Centre for Southeast European Studies Supervisor: Univ. - Prof. Dr. Florian Bieber Graz, 2017 Acknowledgments Hereby I express my utmost gratitude and appreciation for all those who stood by my side during the course of my education and who never doubted my path, even while I myself did. Special gratitude is dedicated to the lifelong support given to me by my parents and an economist and a physicist who as two patronuses guarded my pathway in order to ensure that I neither give up nor lose my happy thoughts and marbles. With their help I came to an end of my academic journey chapter, but I know if I ever decide to write new sequels that once again I can count on their unconditional love and support. Abstract: Croatia marked three years as a full European Union member state in 2016, but its Europeanization process started more than a decade and a half ago. Not only did the state itself undergo the process of Europeanization, but political parties in Croatia did as well. Research on behalf of political parties in Croatia is generally lacking and has become even greater in recent years after the accession. To this general lack, there is even a bigger absence of literature about Europeanization, either in Croatian or almost any kind of empirical research that combines Europeanization with Croatian political parties. This is why this thesis intents to combine Europeanization and political party research and aims to investigate five Croatian relevant political parties’ statutes in order to find indicators of Europeanization in them and characterize them with the help of the qualitative content statutory analysis. The research will in the end present the found Europeanization evidence in parties under investigation with their full properties and characteristics and reveal some peculiarities of each party statute in particular in regard to party Europeanization. Keywords: Europeanization, Croatia, relevant political parties, Europeanization of political parties Kurzfassung: Im Jahre 2016 feierte Kroatien nun schon sein drittes Jubiläum als vollwertiges Mitglied der Europäischen Union. Der Europäisierungsprozess innerhalb des Landes begann jedoch schon vor mehr als einem Jahrzehnt. Nicht nur der Staat selbst wurde dem Prozess der Europäisierung unterworfen, sondern auch die politischen Parteien. Generell gibt es einen Mangel an Forschung über politische Parteien innerhalb Kroatiens, der in den letzten Jahren nach dem Beitritt zur Europäischen Union sogar noch größer erscheint. Dies zeigt sich auch durch eine immer größere Abwesenheit von Literatur über die Europäisierung in der Landessprache und dem Fehlen fast jeglicher Art von empirischer Forschung, die das Thema Europäisierung mit Kroatischen politischen Parteien kombiniert. Auf Grund dieses Mangels konzentriert sich diese Arbeit auf das Thema Europäisierung innerhalb von politischen Parteien und wird fünf Statuten der in Kroatien relevanten politischen Parteien untersuchen. Mit Hilfe der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse wird versucht werden in ihren Parteistatuten Indikatoren der Europäisierung zu finden und mehr über ihre Eigenschaften zu erfahren. Schlussendlich soll diese wissenschaftliche Analyse am Ende Anzeichen der Europäisierung in den untersuchten Parteien mit ihren vollen Eigenschaften und Merkmalen aufzeigen und einige Besonderheiten jedes Parteienstatus, insbesondere im Hinblick auf die Europäisierung, enthüllen. Schlüsselwörter: Europäisierung, Kroatien, relevante politische Parteien, Europäisierung von politischen Parteien Table of Contents: 1. Introduction and historical context .................................................... 1 2. Research goal and research question ................................................. 5 3. Theoretical part – unpacking and defining a concept ...................... 6 3.1. Literature review ........................................................................................... 6 3.2. An overview and definitions of Europeanization and political parties ... 11 3.2.1. What are political parties? ........................................................... 17 3.3. Europeanization of political parties conceptually .................................... 23 3.3.1. Relevant political parties ............................................................. 28 4. Europeanization of political parties methodologically ................... 30 4.1. Relevant political parties in Croatia .......................................................... 35 4.2. Qualitative content statutory analysis ........................................................ 38 5. Empirical results of Croatian party Europeanization .................. 41 5.1. Croatian Democratic Union – HDZ ........................................................... 43 5.1.1. HDZ party statute Europeanization .............................................. 44 5.2. Social Democratic Party – SDP .................................................................. 51 5.2.1. SDP party statute Europeanization ............................................... 52 5.3. Croatian Peasant Party – HSS .................................................................... 56 5.3.1. HSS party statute Europeanization ................................................ 57 5.4. Croatian People’s Party – Liberal Democrats – HNS .............................. 61 5.4.1. HNS party statute Europeanization .............................................. 62 5.5. Istrian Democratic Assembly – IDS ........................................................... 67 5.5.1. IDS party statute Europeanization ................................................. 68 6. Conclusion ........................................................................................... 71 7. Bibliography ....................................................................................... 76 8. Annex ................................................................................................... 87 List of Abbreviations ALDE The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe CEE Central and Eastern Europe CMP Comparative Manifesto Project DC Democratic Centre (Demokratski centar) EC European Community EP European Parliament EPP European Peoples Party EU European Union Europarties European transnational party federations HDZ Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska demokratska zajednica) HNS Croatian People’s Party (Hrvatska narodna stranka – liberalni demokrati) HSLS Croatian Social Liberal Party (Hrvatska socijalno-liberalna stranka) HSS Croatian Peasant Party (Hrvatska seljačka stranka) HSU Croatian Party of Pensioners (Hrvatska stranka umirovljenika) IDS Istrian Democratic Assembly (Istarski demokratski sabor – Dieta democratica Istriana) MEPs Members of the European Parliament MOST Bridge of Independent Lists PES Party of European Socialists SEA Single European Act SDP Social Democratic Party (Socijaldemokratska partija Hrvatske) SDSS Independent Democratic Serb Party (Samostalna demokratska srpska stranka) The Commission European Commission The Council Council of the European Union (formerly the Council of Ministers) The Parliament European Parliament The Union European Union 1. Introduction and historical context On July 1st 2016, Croatia marked three years of European Union (EU) membership. The journey to membership started all the way back in 2001, when on December 5th the Croatian Parliament ratified the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA)1. Some authors even claim it started in 1999, when the process of European integration began for Western Balkan countries with the launch of the SAA2. Disregarding a year sooner or later, after the Zagreb Summit in 2000, the true process of Croatia coming closer to the EU began3. Soon, an official request for membership followed and was met with a positive avis from the Commission in April of 20044. Two months later, in June, Croatia received its official status as a candidate country5. Negotiations on EU accession started on October 3rd 2005 and the goal of membership was ultimately achieved on July 1st 20136. The event of July 1st is considered one of the most important events in Croatian history, after achieving independence and territorial integrity. It was often referred to as one of the most important national and state political goals7, with numerous indicators that political consensus has been met on behalf of EU membership. One of the best examples pointing to this consensus is the ‘Alliance for Europe’, a national strategy to include all political parties in efforts to accomplish Croatia's EU plan, which started in 2005 at the time of negotiations8. Among other, that alliance is an indicator that there were no parliamentary parties in Croatia opposed to membership, and even more important, it meant that parties in Croatia, which have been and still are biggest rivals, have put their rivalry aside and collaborated together in order to achieve what everyone called a strategic foreign policy goal9. Under the leadership of the former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, it was even declared that EU membership is a main 1Available at: http://www.mvep.hr/hr/hrvatska-i-europska-unija/pregovori/ [Accessed on May 19th 2016] 2Beširević, N. (2012). Demokratizacija i europeizacija kao teorijski okviri instrumenta uvjetovanosti u „Politici proširenja“ Europske unije. Političke perspektive, 1: 35. 3Grubiš a, D., Beš irević, N., & Š
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