Pontes Meyer Resende, Madalena
(2005)
A party family theory of party positions on European integration: A Polish case study.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
This thesis proposes a theory of party positions on European integration based on a two-dimensional description of party ethos. This new theorisation considers the independent impact of a party's conceptions of political and economic communities on the responses of parties to European integration. Parties' ethos limits the long-term impact of polarising and centripetal strategies on European positions. The concept of political and economic ethos distinguishes this theory from the static ideological theory of Marks, Hooghe and Wilson, represents a critique of the dynamic theory of Sitter, and contributes to the general study of political parties. The validity of the general propositions developed in the thesis is then illustrated with reference to the development of Polish political parties, their ethos and competitive strategy, between the late 1980s and the early 2000s. The ideological importance of nationalism in Poland makes it a vivid example of the interaction between conflicts over the definition of political community, on the one hand, and parties' European integration attitudes, on the other. The framework proves sufficient to explain the unusually high number of Eurosceptic parties winning a seat in the last Polish parliamentary elections in 2001. The thesis also discusses in a more cursory way the application of the ethos theory on other European countries.
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