From the Return to Europe to Easy Money: Europeanization of Party Manifestoes in the Czech Republic
From the Return to Europe to Easy Money: Europeanization of Party Manifestoes in the Czech Republic

Summary/Abstract: The article is focused on the Europeanization of political parties in the Czech Republic with special attention paid to two areas of research. First, based on an original dataset, the authors examine the salience of the European issue and identifies the context by which the issue is framed. Second, the attitudes of Czech political parties towards European integration over time are scrutinized. Two main conclusions can be drawn from the Czech experience. In contrast to the pre-accession period when European integration was presented mainly in the context of EU membership and the general direction of European integration, the membership period is typical by focus on EU policies and financial subsidies that the Czech Republic gets from the EU budget. European integration constitutes an issue cross-cutting the most important economical division in Czech party politics, with a high conflict potential influencing the dynamics of party competition in the country.

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