THE ROLE OF IDEOLOGY IN BOUNDARY MAINTENANCE OF EUROPARTIES By Maria Sedlakova Submitted to Central European University Department of Political Science In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Supervisor: Professor Zsolt Enyedi CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2013 ABSTRACT The paper examines the role of party ideology in boundary maintenance of thirteen Europarties. The focus of the analysis is on the relationship between the Europarties and their national member parties, especially on the conditions that national parties have to fulfill in order to be accepted to the Europarty and what they have to do once they are accepted and function within the Europarty. Based on the qualitative content analysis of the party statutes, internal rules and regulations, the paper argues that ideology influences organizational structure of the Europarties (size of the party, party staff, party finance, decision-making within the party) and thus also how Europarty treats its applicants and members and whether and to what extent Europarty applies control mechanism such as disciplinary measures. First part of the analytical chapter describes party organizations at the European level and identifies factors that influence how selective or inclusive Europarties are. Second part focuses on the two cases studies: one when disciplinary measures were applied (suspension of Slovak party SMER-SD in 2006 from the Party of European Socialists) and one where disciplinary measures were not applied (Hungarian party Fidesz, 2012 and the European People’s Party). CEU eTD Collection i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project would not be possible without the guidance of my supervisor, Professor Zsolt Enyedi. I am grateful for his valuable comments, time and contagious passion about party politics. My gratitude goes to those political elites who in spite of the amount of work and lack of time, expressed their interest in this project. From the European People’s Party, I want to thank Mr. Christian Kremer and Nikolas Briec for their availability and willingness to share their experience and opinions. From the Party of European Socialists, my thanks go to Ms. Katarina Nevedalova and Boguslaw Liberadzki. Furthermore, my gratitude goes to Daniel I. for his insider stories from the European Commission and numerous discussions about Hungarian politics. I also want to thank the International Visegrad Fund for the support in 2012/2013. Finally, I want to thank all my friends and colleagues from the CEU community for an enjoyable intellectual journey and experience. Special thanks go to my family, Mina, Veronika, Samuel and Brian. CEU eTD Collection ii TABLE OF CONTENT Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................................... ii Table of content ......................................................................................................................... iii List of Tables and Figures .......................................................................................................... v List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................. vi 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 8 2. Europarties: Organizations with Different Structures ...................................................... 12 2.1. Theoretical Framework .............................................................................................. 12 2.1.1. Connecting Boundary Maintenance to Internal Party Structure ........................ 15 2.1.2. Impact of Ideology on Party Structure ............................................................... 20 2.1.3. Formal Rules and Organizations ........................................................................ 22 2.2. Conceptual Framework .............................................................................................. 23 3. Research Design and Methodology .................................................................................. 27 3.1. Methods and Data ...................................................................................................... 27 3.1.1. Analysis of Documents and Content Analysis ................................................... 27 3.1.2. Case studies ........................................................................................................ 29 3.1.3. The use of interview data ................................................................................... 30 4. The Data on Europarty Organizations: Empirical Analysis ............................................. 34 4.1. Three Dimensions of Boundary Maintenance ........................................................... 34 4.2. What influences boundary maintenance? .................................................................. 36 4.2.1. Party Size and Membership Structure ................................................................ 36 4.2.2. Party Staff ........................................................................................................... 41 4.2.3. Party Structure: Decision-making Within the Party ........................................... 43 4.2.4. Party Finance ...................................................................................................... 44 CEU eTD Collection 4.3. The Role of Party Ideology: Discussion .................................................................... 45 5. Case study ............................................................................................................................ 49 5.1. Party of European Socialists and SMER-SD 2006 ........................................................ 49 5.2. European People’s Party and Fidesz 2012 .................................................................... 52 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 60 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 62 iii Appendix A. ............................................................................................................................. 68 Appendix B .............................................................................................................................. 87 Appendix C .............................................................................................................................. 88 CEU eTD Collection iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 1. Position of the party families Table 1. Operationalization of “selective/inclusive” Table 2. Boundary maintenance of Europarties Table 3. Boundary maintenance of Europarties - summary Table 4. Membership structure by country: EPP and PES compared Table 5. Party staff and staff ratio of Europarties CEU eTD Collection v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AECR Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists AENM Alliance of European National Movements ALDE Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe DSS Democratic Party of Serbia EAF European Alliance for Freedom EC European Commission ECPM European Christian Political Movement ECR European Conservatives and Reformists EDP European Democratic Party EDU European Democratic Union EFA European Free Alliance EFD Europe of Freedom and Democracy EGP European Green Party EL Party of European Left ELDR Federation of Liberal, Democratic and Reform Parties of the European Communities EP European Parliament EPP European People’s Party EU European Union EUCD European Union of Christian Democrats EUD EUDemocrats CEU eTD Collection Fidesz Hungarian Civic Union Greens/EFA European Greens–European Free Alliance GUE/NGL European United Left–Nordic Green Left HZDS People’s Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia LSDSP Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party vi MDF Hungarian Democratic Forum MELD Movement for a Europe of Liberties and Democracy PES Party of European Socialists PNTCD Christian-Democratic National Peasants’ Party S&D Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats SMER-SD Direction – Social Democracy SNP Slovak National Party SOC Confederation of the Socialist Parties of the European Community UDF Union of the Democratic Forces CEU eTD Collection vii 1. INTRODUCTION People like me, and our political community, must accept that unfortunately the ideals we represent do not enjoy majority support in this House either. Our ideals are undoubtedly Christian and based on personal responsibility; we find national sentiment to be an important and positive thing, and we believe that families are the foundations of the future. It may be that a great many people believe otherwise, but that makes our position no less a European one. It may be that with this we are in a minority in Europe, but this position is no less a European position, and we are free to represent this conviction. You may disagree with what I will quote now, but I personally profess Schumann’s view that there will either be a Christian democracy in Europe or there will be no democracy at all. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a European position (Viktor Orban in EP 2012). Since 2011 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has visited the European Parliament