See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271485672 The Eastward Enlargement of European Parties: Party Adaptation in the Light of EU enlargement Thesis · June 2013 CITATIONS READS 12 72 1 author: Mats Öhlén Dalarna University 18 PUBLICATIONS 19 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: European party families and ideological convergence between East- and West European member parties View project Interkulturellt utvecklingscentrum Dalarna - IKUD View project All content following this page was uploaded by Mats Öhlén on 04 March 2015. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. The Eastward Enlargement of European Parties: Party Adaptation in the Light of EU-enlargement To my mother Örebro Studies in Political Science 31 MATS ÖHLÉN The Eastward Enlargement of European Parties Party Adaptation in the Light of EU-enlargement © Mats Öhlén, 2013 Title: The Eastward Enlargement of European Parties: Party Adaptation in the Light of EU-enlargement. Publisher: Örebro University 2013 www.publications.oru.se [email protected] Print: Örebro University, Repro 04/2013 ISSN 1650-1632 ISBN 978-91-7668-938-7 Abstract Mats Öhlén (2013): The Eastward Enlargement of European Parties: Party Adaptation in the Light of EU-enlargement. Örebro Studies in Political Science 31, 353 pp. The aim of the study is to map out and analyse the integration of political parties from Central and Eastern Europe into the main European party families. The prospect of eastern enlargement of the EU implicated oppor- tunities and above all challenges for the West European party families. The challenges consisted of integrating new parties with a different historical legacy. The study focuses on mainly how the European party families han- dled these challenges and what motives that have driven them in this en- gagement. At a more general level the thesis sketches two alternatives in- terpretations of the process: Western neo-colonialism and contribution to democratisation. The method used for the study is comparative case-study method and the main sources that have been utilised are party documents and in-depth interviews. The study is delimited to the three main European party families: the Christian democrats, the social democrats and the liber- als. The countries of interest in Central and Eastern Europe are those post- communist countries that became EU-members in 2004 and 2007: Bulgar- ia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ro- mania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The time-frame is limited to the first party contacts in 1989 to the final inclusion of the new parties in 2000-2006. The results suggest that the European parties have responded with ambi- tious means to the challenge of integrating new parties from a post- communist context. They have set up new coordinating bodies and organ- ised educational programmes for the applicant parties, mainly directed to young politicians. The Christian democrats and the social democrats have also used parallel organisations as buffer-zones, which provided certain flexibility. As for motives, the Christian democrats stand out as the party family with the clearest power-oriented motives. At the other end, the lib- erals stand out as the party family that is most steered by ideology and identity. The social democrats went through a change with ideological considerations dominating the early phase and became increasingly power- oriented as the EU enlargement drew closer. When it comes to the two alternative interpretations of this process, the main conclusion is that they are intertwined and more or less impossible to separate from each other. Keywords : Transnational political parties, European Union, Central and Eastern Europe, Christian democracy, social democracy, liberalism. Mats Öhlén, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences Örebro University, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden, [email protected] Contents Preface ....................................................................................................... 9 Tables and Figures ................................................................................... 12 List of Abbreviations ................................................................................ 14 PART I: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 21 1. Introduction ......................................................................................... 23 1.1 Earlier research .............................................................................. 24 1.2 Purpose and research questions ...................................................... 32 1.3 Methodology and sources .............................................................. 33 1.4 Outline of the thesis ....................................................................... 41 2. Theoretical Approaches ....................................................................... 43 2.1 Institutionalised party co-operation at the European level ............. 43 2.2 Logics of party adaptation: Actor level .......................................... 48 2.3 Logics of party adaptation: Structural level.................................... 66 3. The Historical Legacy of Central and Eastern Europe .......................... 79 3.1 The term Central and Eastern Europe ............................................ 79 3.2 The old historical legacy ................................................................ 80 3.3 Independence and democratic experience ....................................... 83 3.4 Post-war developments .................................................................. 87 3.5 Communist modernisation and various paths to democratisation .... 89 3.6 Political parties in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989 ............. 93 4. European Party Families: A Background ............................................ 101 4.1 Historical background ................................................................. 101 4.2 Organisational structure .............................................................. 108 4.3 The structure of the EU party system ........................................... 113 4.4 The three main party families: A short background ..................... 122 PART II: THREE CASES OF PARTY ENLARGEMENT ...................... 133 5. The European Christian Democratic Family ...................................... 135 5.1 The actors of the EPP network ..................................................... 135 5.2 The first phase: Identifying partners ............................................. 137 5.3 The second phase: Evaluation and education .............................. 149 5.4 The third phase: Incorporation .................................................... 163 5.5 Concluding remarks: Size attracts size ......................................... 177 6. The European Social Democratic Family............................................ 179 6.1 The actors of the PES network ..................................................... 179 6.2 The first phase: Identifying partners ............................................. 181 6.3 The second phase: Evaluation and education ............................... 194 6.4 The third phase: Incorporation .................................................... 212 6.4 Concluding remarks: Towards a logic of consequences ............... 227 7. The European Liberal Family ............................................................. 233 7.1 The actors of the ELDR network ................................................. 233 7.2 The first phase: Identifying partners ............................................. 235 7.3 The second phase: Evaluation and education ............................... 247 7.4 The third phase: Incorporation .................................................... 255 7.5 Concluding remarks: Unrewarded for great effort ....................... 262 PART III: ANALYSIS, COMPARISON AND CONCLUSIONS ............ 265 8. Challenges of Integrating Parties from Post-Communist Regimes ...... 267 8.1 The main challenges ..................................................................... 267 8.2 Responses to the challenges ......................................................... 269 9. The Actor Perspective: Appropriateness or Consequences? ................ 275 9.1 General patterns ........................................................................... 276 9.2 Party family comparison: Diverging patterns ............................... 281 9.3 Conclusions and possible explanatory factors .............................. 294 10. The Structural Perspective: Two Alternative Images ........................ 301 10.1 West European neo-colonialism? ............................................... 301 10.2 Performing democratic party functions? .................................... 307 10.3 Evaluation of the two images ..................................................... 320 References .............................................................................................. 323 Party Documents ................................................................................ 323 Interviews........................................................................................... 328 Official Publications ........................................................................... 331 Websites ............................................................................................. 331