EXTENSIVE OR INTENSIVE GROWTH? AVENUES FOR ETHNO-REGIONALIST PARTIES TO TRANSCEND THEIR CORE CONSTITUENCY By Jad Marcell Harb 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 2019 I, the undersigned Jad Marcell Harb hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. To the best of my knowledge this thesis contains no material previously published by any other person except where due acknowledgement has been made. This thesis contains no material which has been accepted as part of the requirements of any other academic degree or non-degree program, in English or in any other language. CEU eTD Collection i ABSTRACT The aim of this work is to identify what strategies present themselves for European ethno- regionalist parties to transcend their core (ethnic) constituency, and to determine based on what factors it can be predicted that an ethno-regionalist force takes the path of either strategy, provided it is prone to opt for any ‘irregular’ innovation. After empirically finding two such strategies in Europe, lateral expansion from the core territory to the whole country, called the extensive strategy, and developing an ideological profile, the intensive strategy, variables are distilled from the corresponding literature that are supposed to account for confining ethno- regionalist parties to specifically take either of the two modes of growth: the three independent variables are the strength of regional identity, the level of regional autonomy, and the desire to participate in the national government and to be a determining force there. After formulating the hypotheses, a qualitative comparative examination of four European cases follows. Altogether, these cases provide sufficient support for the hypotheses to see them largely satisfied. That is, European ethno-regionalist parties where the regional identity is weak, the level of autonomy is low or non-existent, and where it is a primary aim for the party to seek governmental positions will be likely to opt for the extensive strategy, while their peers with the opposite characteristics are expected to go for the intensive path. The theory is also able to predict the behaviour of ambiguous cases in-between the two ideal types, but its applicability to cases beyond Europe remains an open question. CEU eTD Collection ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am extremely grateful to my supervisor, Professor Zsolt Enyedi, for the continuous support of my MA study, and for his kind mentoring of this thesis throughout its completion, especially for his sharing of expertise and knowledge. I am also thankful to the number of people who contributed to my effort by sharing their useful comments with me, and to those who in any other way facilitated my work. CEU eTD Collection iii Table of contents ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... iii Table of contents ....................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. vi Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Research question ............................................................................................................. 3 1.2 Variables ........................................................................................................................... 5 1.2.1 Two options – the dependent variable ....................................................................... 5 1.2.2 Independent variables .............................................................................................. 11 1.3 Definite hypotheses ........................................................................................................ 17 1.4 Research design .............................................................................................................. 19 Chapter 2: Lega Nord – from Padanian to Italian nationalism ................................................ 21 2.1 Inception and the beginnings .......................................................................................... 21 2.2 The quest of independence ............................................................................................. 23 2.3 Towards governability .................................................................................................... 24 2.4 Deregionalisation ............................................................................................................ 30 2.5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 32 Chapter 3: Scottish National Party – ideology’s cruciality in success ..................................... 33 3.1 A short history of the SNP .............................................................................................. 33 3.2 Social democracy ............................................................................................................ 35 3.3 Supporting independence – in a gradualist way ............................................................. 37 CEU eTD Collection 3.4 The peculiar Scottish identity ......................................................................................... 39 3.5 Competition with Labour ................................................................................................ 41 3.6 The effect of devolution and regional government participation ................................... 43 3.7 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 45 iv Chapter 4: Discussion ............................................................................................................... 46 4.1 Interim conclusion .......................................................................................................... 46 4.2 Further analysis – cases in-between ............................................................................... 47 Chapter 5: Most-Híd – embracing binationalism ..................................................................... 49 5.1 Hungarians and Hungarian parties in Slovakia .............................................................. 49 5.2 Creating a face of governmental competence, appealing to voters outside the ethnic constituency .......................................................................................................................... 52 5.3 Internal competition ........................................................................................................ 55 5.4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 56 Chapter 6: Volksunie and Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie – in quest of the median voter .............. 59 6.1 Federalised Belgium and the Flemish identity ............................................................... 60 6.2 The Volksunie – a roller-coaster of ideologies and policy accommodation .................. 62 6.3 Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie – success through ideology ................................................... 68 6.4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 70 Chapter 7: Applicability stretch ............................................................................................... 72 Chapter 8: Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 77 References ................................................................................................................................ 81 CEU eTD Collection v List of Tables Table 1: Lega Nord (1992-2013) and Lega (2018) vote share in Italian parliamentary elections (Chamber of Deputies results), 1992-2018 (percentages) ........................................................ 27 Table 2: Scottish National Party vote share in general elections (share in Scotland), Scottish Parliament elections (constituency votes), and regional referenda (pro-devolution and pro- independence results), 1945-2017 (percentages) ..................................................................... 38 Table 3: MKP and Most-Híd vote share in Slovak parliamentary elections, 1994-2016 (percentages) ............................................................................................................................ 55 Table 4: Volksunie (1954-1999) and N-VA (2003-2014) vote share in Belgian parliamentary (Chamber of Representatives results) and Flemish Parliament elections, compared to VB (1978- 2014), 1954-2014 (percentages) ............................................................................................... 67 CEU eTD Collection vi Chapter 1: Introduction Italy’s Lega Nord (Northern League) achieved something unique among ethno-regionalist parties in Europe during the 1980-1990s. The party invented a new identity for North Italians, the ‘Padanian,’