The European Union: A Joker or Just an Ordinary Playing Card for Slovenian Political Parties?

Abstract

Since independence in 1991 and until full membership in 2004, the EU played only a side role in party politics in Slovenia. However, the situation has remained very similar in the first four years of full EU membership as EU issues do not directly influence inter-party competition. Such issues have in fact held particular salience for national politics, but little salience for party politics. In addition, the EU arena has not exerted a significant impact on parties' internal organizational changes. The influence of the EU on a party and politics relates mainly to two factors: the governmental position of a party and its representation in the European parliament.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank Tim Haughton whose comments improved the final version of the article.

Notes

Alenka Krašovec, Damjan Lajh and Simona Kustec Lipicer, ‘The European Union and Party Politics in Slovenia: An Apparent or Real Impact?’, in Paul G. Lewis and Zdenka Mansfeldová (eds.), The European Union and Party Politics in Central and Eastern Europe (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2006), pp.169–89; Alenka Krašovec and Damjan Lajh, ‘Have Democratization Processes Been a Catalyst for the Europeanization of Party Politics in Slovenia?’, Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, Vol.10, No.2 (2008), pp.183–203.

Zares–New Politics was established in October 2007.

Angelo Panebianco, Political Parties: Organization and Power (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988); Frank L. Wilson, ‘The Sources of Party Change: The Social Democratic Parties of Britain, France, Germany and Spain’, in Kay Lawson (ed.), How Political Parties Work: Perspectives from Within (Westport, CT and London: Praeger, 1994), pp.263–83; Kaare Strøm and Lars Svåsand, ‘Political Parties in Norway: Facing the Challenges of a New Society’, in Kaare Strøm and Lars Svåsand (eds.), Challenges to Political Parties: The Case of Norway (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1997), pp.1–32; Kaare Strøm and Lars Svåsand, ‘Conclusion: The Limits of Entrepreneurship’, in Strøm and Svåsand (eds.), Challenges to Political Parties, pp.343–60.

Panebianco, Political Parties, p.12.

Robert Ladrech, ‘Europeanization and the Variable Influence of the EU: National Parties and Party Systems in Western and Eastern Europe’, Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, Vol.10, No.2 (2008), pp.139–50.

Thomas Poguntke, Nick Aylott, Elisabeth Carter, Robert Ladrech and Richard Luther (eds.), The Europeanization of National Political Parties: Power and Organizational Adaptation (London: Routledge, 2007).

Panebianco, Political Parties, p.207.

Ibid.

Peter Mair, ‘The Limited Impact of Europe on National Party Systems’, West European Politics, Vol.23, No.4 (2000), pp.7–15; Robert Ladrech, ‘Europeanization and Political Parties: Towards a Framework for Analysis’, Party Politics, Vol.8, No.4 (2002), pp.389–403.

Panebianco, Political Parties, p.207.

Luciano Bardi, ‘Transnational Party Federations, European Parliamentary Party Groups and the Building of the Europarties’, in Richard S. Katz and Peter Mair (eds.), How Parties Organize: Change and Adaptation in Party Organizations (London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1994), pp.357–72; Simon Hix, ‘The Transnational Party Federations’, in John Gaffney (ed.), Political Parties and the European Union (London: Routledge, 1996), pp.308–31; Simon Hix and Christopher Lord (eds.), Political Parties in the European Union (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997); Karl Magnus Johansson and Peter A. Zervakis (eds.), European Political Parties between Cooperation and Integration (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2002).

Ladrech, ‘Europeanization and Political Parties’, p.390.

Mair, ‘The Limited Impact of Europe’; Ladrech, ‘Europeanization and Political Parties’.

Ladrech, ‘Europeanization and Political Parties’.

For more on the characteristics of the Slovenian party system since 1990, see Danica Fink-Hafner, ‘Strankarski sistem v Sloveniji: Od prikrite k transparentni bipolarnosti’ [‘Party System in Slovenia: From Hidden to Transparent Bipolarity’], in Zoran Lutovac (ed.), Političke stranke i birači u državama bivše Jugoslavije [Political Parties and Voters in the States of Former Yugoslavia] (Belgrade: Friderich Ebert Stiftung, 2006), pp.363–84; Danica Fink-Hafner, ‘Slovenia: Between Bipolarity and Broad Coalition-building’, in Susanne Jungerstam-Mulders (ed.), Post-communist EU Member States: Parties and Party Systems (Aldershot and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006), pp.203–31.

The only early elections between 1991 and 2008 were held in 1992.

Janez Drnovšek was the prime minister in the period 1992–2002, with a short interruption of six months in 2000.

Jean Blondel, Ferdinand Müller-Rommel and Darina Malova et al., Governing New European Democracies (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2007).

The LDS was the main political force in Slovenia in the period 1992–2004 (with an interruption of just six months in 2000).

Samo Kropivnik, ‘Družbeni in ideološki profili slovenskih političnih strank v preteklem desetletju’ [‘Social and Ideological Profiles of Slovenian Political Parties in the Past Decade’], in Danica Fink-Hafner and Tomaž Boh (eds.), Parlamentarne volitve 2000 [Parliamentary Election 2000] (Ljubljana: Fakulteta za družbene vede, 2002), pp.27–48.

Fink-Hafner, Strankarski sistem v Sloveniji; Krašovec and Lajh, ‘Have Democratization Processes Been a Catalyst’.

Lieven De Winter and Margarita Gomez-Reino Cachafeiro, ‘European Integration and Ethnoregionalist Parties’, Party Politics, Vol.8, No.4 (2002), pp.483–503 (p.490).

Geoffrey Pridham, ‘Patterns of Europeanization and Transnational Party Cooperation: Party Development in Central and Eastern Europe’, in Paul G. Lewis (ed.), Party Development and Democratic Change in Post-Communist Europe (London: Cass, 2001), pp.178–98; Zsolt Enyedi and Paul G. Lewis, ‘The Impact of the European Union on Party Politics in Central and Eastern Europe’, in Lewis and Mansfeldová (eds.), The European Union and Party Politics, pp.231–49.

Given its creation in October 2007, it is necessary here to stress Zares's novelty and the absence of any chance to observe developments over a longer period of time.

In 2005 the United List of Social Democrats changed its party name to the Social Democrats.

Normally a full member of PES can come only from an EU member state, but PES made an exception and allowed full membership to parties coming from at that time accession states, but only when an accession agreement between the nation-state and the EU had been signed.

In the period 2000–4 the Youth Party of Slovenia had the status of a parliamentary party.

Ladrech, ‘Europeanization and Political Parties’, p.397.

Krašovec et al., ‘The European Union and Party Politics in Slovenia’, p.185.

Damjan Lajh and Danica Fink-Hafner, ‘Institucionalno prilagajanje slovenske izvršne oblasti povezovanju Slovenije z ES/EU: mednarodno primerjalni pogled’ [‘Institutional Adaptation of Slovenian Executive Power to the Integration of Slovenia into the EC/EU: International Comparative View’], Teorija in praksa, Vol.39, No.6 (2002), pp.970–99.

Danica Fink Hafner and Damjan Lajh: Proces evropeizacije in prilagajanje političnih ustanov na nacionalni ravni [The Process of Europeanization and Adaptation of Political Institutions at the National Level] (Ljubljana: Faculty of Social Sciences, 2005), p.53.

Milan Balažic, ‘Evropa zdaj’ [‘Europe Now’], Teorija in praksa, Vol.39, No.4 (2002), pp.559–78.

Danica Fink-Hafner, ‘Dilemmas in Managing the Expanding EU: The EU and Applicant-States’ Point of View', Journal of European Public Policy, Vol.6, No.5 (1999), pp.783–801.

The SNP won 3.2 per cent of the votes in the elections held in 1996 and 4.4 per cent in the 2000 elections.

According to official census conducted in 2002, 6,243 persons declared themselves as belonging to the Hungarian minority, while 2,258 persons identified themselves as belonging to the Italian minority. Data collected by minorities themselves in 2002 differ from official ones: they identified 8,328 persons belonging to the Hungarian and 3,388 persons to the Italian minority.

Alenka Krašovec and Damjan Lajh, ‘The Slovenian EU Accession Referendum: A Cat-and-Mouse Game’, West European Politics, Vol.27, No.4 (2004), pp.603–23.

The centre-right cluster of governmental parties suffered a big symbolic loss after the second round of presidential elections in November 2007.

Ladrech, ‘Europeanization and Political Parties’, p.369.

In particular see the contribution of Haughton and Rybář to this collection.

Kenneth Benoit and Michael Laver, Party Policy in Modern Democracies (London: Routledge, 2005).

On issue salience see the contribution by Whitefield and Rohrschneider to this collection.

Damjan Lajh and Alenka Krašovec, ‘Co-operation Between Slovenian Parliamentary Political Parties and European Party Federations’, in Ladislav Cabada and Alenka Krašovec (eds.), Europeanisation of National Political Parties (Pilsen: Fakulta Humanitnich Studii ZČU, 2004), pp.161–77.

Krašovec et al., ‘The European Union and Party Politics in Slovenia’, p.185.

This is consistent with the notion of the EU as a ‘reference point’: see Haughton and Rybář's contribution to this collection.

Paul Lucardie, ‘Prophets, Purifiers and Prolocutors: Towards a Theory on the Emergence of New Parties’, Party Politics, Vol.6, No.2 (2000), pp.175–85 (p.175).

The only two parties not in favour of full membership (calling themselves ‘Eurorealist’ rather than Eurosceptic parties) – the (parliamentary) SNP and the (non-parliamentary) Democratic Party of Slovenia – together received just 5.3 per cent of votes: see Krašovec et al., ‘The European Union and Party Politics in Slovenia’, p.180.

Krašovec et al., ‘The European Union and Party Politics in Slovenia’, p.182.

For more on the EU (and NATO) referendum, see Krašovec and Lajh, ‘The Slovenian EU Accession Referendum’.

Krašovec et al., ‘The European Union and Party Politics in Slovenia’, p.174.

On that date Slovenia, Italy, Croatia and the European Commission reached an agreement whereby the Croatian Ecological and Fisheries Zone would not apply to EU member states.

See, for example, ‘Council Conclusions on Enlargement: Croatian Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone (2850th General Affairs Council meeting)’, Brussels, 18 Feb. 2008, available at: <http://www.eu2008.si/si/News_and_Documents/Council_Conclusions/February/0218_GAERC.pdf>, accessed 25 April 2008.

Sanader pozval sabor, naj podpre začasno ustavitev izvajanja ERC [Sanader called Sabor {parliament} to Support Temporary Suspension of Implementing Ecologic and Fishery Zone] (Ljubljana: Dnevnik, 12 March 2008), available at: <http://dnevnik.netinet.si/novice/eu/305051>, accessed 25 April 2008.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alenka Krašovec

Alenka Krašovec is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and specializes in political organizations and policy-making processes.

Damjan Lajh

Damjan Lajh is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. His research interests include the Europeanization of (sub-)national policy actors, EU policy-making processes, and the comparative analysis of democratic transition and constitutional choice in post-Yugoslav states.