Which Europe do the Portuguese Parties Want? Identity, Representation and Scope of Governance in the Portuguese Euromanifestos (1987–2004)

Abstract

This article analyses the nature of Portuguese political parties' attitudes towards Europe. Three major European dimensions are focused upon: identity, representation and scope of governance. Their consistency over time and their relevance for party competition are analysed, drawing on the INTUNE Euromanifesto Dataset. We observe that behind the Portuguese party system's apparent enthusiasm towards the European project, there are significant differences between the parties on European integration issues. Our three independent variables (left vs. right; mainstream vs. extreme; incumbent vs. opposition) are clearly related, with differences in regards to a European identity, but not a national identity. Moreover, mainstream parties adopted favourable opinions towards the outcomes of the integration into the European Union (although to a lesser extent after 1991), while extremist parties tend to be more pessimistic. In connection to scope of governance in the six policy areas considered, differences (either in terms of mainstream/extreme and incumbent/opposition status) are more evident in defence and foreign policy areas.

Key Words:

• Political parties
• EU
• Euromanifestos
• attitudes

Notes

This research was funded by a grant from the INTUNE project (Integrated and United: A Quest for Citizenship in an Ever Closer Europe) financed by the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Union, Priority 7, Citizens and Governance in a Knowledge Based Society (CIT3-CT-2005-513421).

¹ Several publications are being prepared, drawing on the INTUNE Datasets results, e.g. Sanders et al. (forthcoming); Best et al. (forthcoming); Cotta & Isernia (forthcoming).

² Socialist Party.

³ Social Democrat Party.

⁴ Democratic and Social Centre – Popular Party.

⁵ Portuguese Communist Party.

⁶ Ecologist Party ‘The Greens'.

⁷ Left Block.

⁸ INTUNE collected 20 manifestos elaborated by the six most important Portuguese parties for the five European elections that took place in Portugal since 1986. The selected parties are the ones that have representation at the National Parliament and at the European Parliament – PS, PSD, CDS-PP, PCP, PEV and BE. For 1987, PSD, PCP and CDS-PP; the PS and PEV manifestos were not available. For 1989, PSD, PCP and PS; the PEV and CDS-PP manifestos were not available. For 1994, PSD, PCP, PS, CDS-PP and PEV; for 1999, PSD, PCP, PS, CDS-PP, PEV and CDU (coalition PCP–PEV); the manifesto for BE was not available. For 2004, PS, BE, CDU and FP (coalition PSD–CDS-PP). The decision of including, in 1994 and 1999, both the individual manifestos of PEV and the manifesto of their coalition with PCP (CDU) is due to the fact that this pre-electoral coalition is dominated by the communists. Therefore, there are some differences in the attitudes of its component parties – a ‘green’ position and the communist position, essentially mirrored in the coalition's manifestos. In fact, the mere existence of these two different documents attests these different stances.

⁹ The independent variables were operationalized as follows. In the first one – position of the parties in the left–right dichotomy – PSD and CDS-PP manifestos were categorized as right-wing, whereas PS, PCP, PEV and BE documents were coded as left-wing. The second independent variable is the ideological extremity of the party, created through a division between manifestos elaborated by parties placed closer to the extreme left (PCP, PEV and BE) and extreme right (CDS-PP) ends of the spectrum, and by mainstream parties, i.e. those that are close to the centre of the spectrum (PS and PSD). Lastly, the third factor incorporated in this analysis is the status of the party at the moment of the European election (incumbent vs. opposition), operationalized through the creation of a dichotomy variable which characterizes each manifesto as having been written by an incumbent party or by a party in the opposition at the moment of the European election.

¹⁰ Due to the small number of cases (N = 20), we decided to use a 90% confidence interval, accepting differences as statistically significant when the p value is below 0.1. In addition, in order to not overwhelm the reader with statistical information, we only present the Chi-square figures for the cases in which they are statistically significant. Readers interested in all of the test results can contact the authors and they will be given access to this data.

¹¹ Source: INTUNE Euromanifesto Dataset, Portuguese File. Translation into English was made by the authors of this article.

¹² Source: INTUNE Euromanifesto Dataset, Portuguese File. The translation into English was made by the authors of this article.

¹³ Source: INTUNE Euromanifesto Dataset, Portuguese File. The translation into English was made by the authors of this article.

¹⁴ Source: INTUNE Euromanifesto Dataset, Portuguese File. The translation into English was made by the authors of this article.

¹⁵ Source: INTUNE Euromanifesto Dataset, Portuguese File. The translation into English was made by the authors of this article.

¹⁶ Source: INTUNE Euromanifesto Dataset, Portuguese File. The translation into English was made by the authors of this article.