CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Harb, Jad Marcell |
|---|---|
| Title | Extensive or Intensive Growth? Avenues for Ethno-Regionalist Parties to Transcend Their Core Constituency |
| Summary | The aim of this work is to identify what strategies present themselves for European ethno-regionalist parties to transcend their core (ethnic) constituency, and to determine based on what factors it can be predicted that an ethno-regionalist force takes the path of either strategy, provided it is prone to opt for any ‘irregular’ innovation. After empirically finding two such strategies in Europe, lateral expansion from the core territory to the whole country, called the extensive strategy, and developing an ideological profile, the intensive strategy, variables are distilled from the corresponding literature that are supposed to account for confining ethno-regionalist parties to specifically take either of the two modes of growth: the three independent variables are the strength of regional identity, the level of regional autonomy, and the desire to participate in the national government and to be a determining force there. After formulating the hypotheses, a qualitative comparative examination of four European cases follows. Altogether, these cases provide sufficient support for the hypotheses to see them largely satisfied. That is, European ethno-regionalist parties where the regional identity is weak, the level of autonomy is low or non-existent, and where it is a primary aim for the party to seek governmental positions will be likely to opt for the extensive strategy, while their peers with the opposite characteristics are expected to go for the intensive path. The theory is also able to predict the behaviour of ambiguous cases in-between the two ideal types, but its applicability to cases beyond Europe remains an open question. |
| Supervisor | Enyedi, Zsolt |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/harb_jad.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University