Comparison of Political Parties' Approach to the Smart City

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Comparison of Political Parties' Approach to the Smart City FACULTY OF SOCIAL STUDIES Comparison of political parties’ approach to the Smart City initiatives based on their position on the left-right spectrum Master’s Thesis DARYNA SAKHAROVA Supervisor: PhDr. Petr Kaniok, Ph.D. Department of International Relations and European Studies European Studies Brno 2020 1 COMPARISON OF POLITICAL PARTIES’ APPROACH TO THE SMART CITY INITIATIVES BASED ON THEIR POSITION ON THE LEFT-RIGHT SPECTRUM Bibliographic Record Author: Daryna Sakharova Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University Department of International Relations and Euro- pean Studies Title of Thesis: Comparison of political parties’ approach to the Smart City initiatives based on their position on the left-right spectrum Degree Programme: European Studies Supervisor: PhDr. Petr Kaniok, Ph.D. Academic Year: 2020 Number of Pages: 72 Keywords: Smart city, political party, political spectrum, left- wing, right-wing, content analysis 1 COMPARISON OF POLITICAL PARTIES’ APPROACH TO THE SMART CITY INITIATIVES BASED ON THEIR POSITION ON THE LEFT-RIGHT SPECTRUM Abstract This work analyses how the political parties present the Smart City concepts in their programs. The author uses the method of content ana- lysis of political parties' manifestos in order to determine whether there is an actual difference between the political parties in their reflection of the Smart initiatives depending on their position within the political spectrum. This work also aims to define whether certain similarities are present between left- and right-wing parties concerning the Smart agenda. Following the research, the author concludes that the topics re- lated to the Smart agenda are frequently used by the political parties in order to maintain the fundamental principles that correspond to their position in the political spectrum. 2 COMPARISON OF POLITICAL PARTIES’ APPROACH TO THE SMART CITY INITIATIVES BASED ON THEIR POSITION ON THE LEFT-RIGHT SPECTRUM Statutory Declaration I hereby declare that I have written the submitted Master's Thesis concerning the topic of Comparison of political parties’ approach to the Smart City initiatives based on their position on the left-right spectrum independently. All the sources used for the purpose of fi- nishing this thesis have been adequately referenced and are listed in the Bibliography. In Brno 6 September 2020 ....................................... Daryna Sakharova 3 COMPARISON OF POLITICAL PARTIES’ APPROACH TO THE SMART CITY INITIATIVES BASED ON THEIR POSITION ON THE LEFT-RIGHT SPECTRUM Acknowledgements Hereby I would like to sincerely thank PhDr. Petr Kaniok, Ph.D. for his guidance, patience, and advice while supervising my Thesis. His con- structive remarks have played a significant role all long. Furthermore, I would like to express special gratitude to my parents and friends which were always supporting me during my Master studies. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 Table of Contents List of Abbreviations ................................................................................. 7 List of Figures.............................................................................................. 9 1 Introduction ..................................................................................... 10 2 Defining key features of Left- and Right-wing political parties 12 2.1 Left-wing political parties ....................................................................... 12 2.2 Right-wind political parties ................................................................... 13 3 Smart City definition and delimitation of the concept ....... 16 3.1 Smart governance ...................................................................................... 17 3.2 Smart economy ........................................................................................... 19 3.3 Smart environment ................................................................................... 21 3.4 Smart people ................................................................................................ 22 4 The aim of the thesis and current state of knowledge ........ 23 4.1 Parties selection .......................................................................................... 24 4.2 State of knowledge .................................................................................... 27 5 Methodology and research strategy ........................................ 29 5.1 Comparative approach ............................................................................. 29 5.2 Content analysis .......................................................................................... 29 6 Analysis of the attitudes of the political parties towards the Smart City concept .......................................................................................... 36 6.1 Attitudes of political parties towards the Smart Governance . 42 6.2 Attitudes of political parties towards the Smart Economy ....... 46 6.3 Attitudes of political parties towards the Smart Environment 49 6.4 Attitudes of political parties towards the Smart People ............ 55 7 Discussion of the state of knowledge ....................................... 58 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 8 Conclusion ........................................................................................ 61 Bibliography ............................................................................................. 63 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 7 List of Abbreviations CEE – Central and Eastern Europe CHES – Chapel Hill Expert Survey DI – Digital Inequality EER – Estonian Greens EIP-SCC – European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities EU – European Union G2B – Government to Business G2C – Government to Citizens G2E – Government to Emploees G2G – Government to Government GVC – Global Value Chains ICT – European innovation partnership on smart cities and communities KSČM – Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia LW PP – Left-wing Political Party NGO – Non-Profit Organization ODS – Civic Democratic Party of Czech Republic OECD – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and De- velopment RW PP – Right-wing Political Party SC – Smart City SDE – Social Democratic Party of Estonia SE – Smart Economy SEnv – Smart Environment SG – Smart Governance 7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 8 SM – Smart Mobility SP – Smart People 8 LIST OF FIGURES 9 List of Figures Figure 1 – Smart City Dimensions Figure 2 – Anticipations of differences between the ideologies and their support either by the LW or the RW PPs within the Smart Governance parameter Figure 3 - Anticipations of differences between the ideologies and their support either by the LW or the RW PPs within the Smart Economy param- eter Figure 4 – Anticipations of differences between the ideologies and their support either by the LW or the RW PPs within the Smart Environ- ment parameter Figure 5 – Anticipations of differences between the ideologies and their support either by the LW or the RW PPs within the Smart Governance parameter Figure 6 – Similarities and differences of the Smart City strategies’ re- flection of LW and RW PPs Figure 7 - Similarities and differences of the attitude towards the Smart Governance of LW and RW PPs Figure 8 – Similarities and differences of the attitude towards the Smart Economy of LW and RW PPs Figure 9 – Similarities and differences of the attitude towards the Smart Environment of LW and RW PPs Figure 10 – Similarities and differences of the attitude towards the Smart People of LW and RW PPs 9 COMPARISON OF POLITICAL PARTIES’ APPROACH TO THE SMART CITY INITIATIVES BASED ON THEIR POSITION ON THE LEFT-RIGHT SPECTRUM 1 Introduction The fact that cities are constantly increasing in size by both urban land expansion and the growth of its population has already become uni- versally accepted. The European urban agglomerations have trans- formed into the centres of education and knowledge-based and prosper- ing economies. These areas are often considered to maintain better la- bour productivity and a higher quality of life (BBVA research, 2016). These great advantages that are frequently associated with the ‘Big City Life’ are causing a considerable increase in the urban population. For in- stance, due to increasing urbanisation by the end of the 21st century the urban population will rise up to 9 billion people. This implies that 85% of the world’s total population will become the cities’ inhabitants (OECD, 2015). The EU is not an exception regarding the urbanisation phenome- non. The current figure of the European dwellers with an urban area res- idency is approximately 75% of the EU population (Urban Environment, n.d.). This figure is as well gradually significantly increasing. Apparently, due to the rapid growth in the population and a massive flow of migrants harboured by the great number of the European cities, cities are facing a great number of political and economic challenges. In this context, main issues that should currently be addressed include ris- ing environmental pressure, massive migration that might cause further social, urban and cultural problems, the increasing need for smart re- sources allocation strategies, etc. Apart from that, as it has been esti- mated by the European Commission (n.d.), cities have begun to operate as autonomous entities by maintaining their personal economic, social, and environmental standards. Evidently, due to the fact that these issues are closely related to different political topics, it has become a mandatory task for the city governments and the political actors to introduce nu- merous innovative
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