Europeanization of Czech Political Scene: Political Parties and Referendum on Approach to European Union

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the attitudes of the main political parties
in the Czech Republic towards the European Union. A special emphasis is
put on the presentation of these attitudes in the pre-referendum period
and on the levels of support for membership achieved among the parties'
supporters. This topic is analysed through the theoretical lens of
"europeanization", an approach which examines the impact on domestic
(national) policies and political systems of EU policies and processes. This
theoretical perspective is usually applied to current member states but has
been increasingly extended to candidate countries in the pre-accession
period as well. In the period after the first democratic elections of 1990, the
"European" debate among Czech political parties has intensified and shifted
from the clear initial "yes" to membership to more complex and qualitative
questions. By the time of the national EU referendum, (June 2003) the
impact of "europeanization" was manifested by the presence of a significant
number of EU-related topics in the political parties' agenda. The authors
have utilized a range of political geography, sociology, and political science
methods to demonstrate a high correlation between the EU referendum
results and the levels of the partisan support for the parties favouring
membership in the EU. According to the available empirical data from
various public opinion surveys, the support for membership among the
voters of the Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), Civic Democratic Party (ODS),
Christian Democratic Party (KDU-ČSL) and Freedom Union (US-DEU) ranged
from 82 to 92 %. On the contrary, the position of the Communist Party
(KSČM) was clearly the opposite. In addition to the political orientation of
the voters, other factors which have influenced the voting results were
examined. These included such factors as regional unemployment rate,
education, wage levels as well as other political-geographical aspects.