EPAC – a new dataset on ethnonationalism in party competition in 22 European democracies

Abstract

Datasets in the field of ethnic politics still tend to treat ethnonational groups as unitary actors and do not differentiate between the positions of the organizations representing these groups. Datasets in the field of party politics differentiate between the positions of political parties, yet fail convincingly to conceptualize an ethnonational dimension of competition. This Research Note presents EPAC, a new dataset on Ethnonationalism in Party Competition that seeks to fill this gap. Based on an expert survey, EPAC provides cross-sectional data on the ethnonational positions of 210 political parties in 22 multinational European democracies. The conceptualization of an ethnonational dimension of competition underlying the dataset is introduced and a series of validity and reliability tests performed. Test results show that EPAC provides valid and reliable measures of party positions on an ethnonational dimension that can serve as an empirical base for study of the causes and effects of the mobilization of ethnicity in party competition.

Political Representation of Minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina: How Reserved Seats Affect Minority Representatives’ Influence on Decision-making and Perceived Substantive Representation

“…7 Studying both national minorities and constituent minorities therefore allows us to examine also the impact of coinciding ethnic parties. For the purposes of this article, we rely on available classifications distinguishing political parties along the lines of ethnicity based on a combination of general public perception, parties' own self-definitions (Bochsler, 2010), and the opinions of experts on party-ethnicity linkages in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Szöcsik & Zuber, 2015; Table 2). …”

Position, selective emphasis and framing

“…The drivers of peripheral mobilisation have varied considerably from place to place. Scholars have paid particular attention to culture, identity, language, and ethnicity as key markers of territorial difference within the state (for a recent example, see Szöcsik and Zuber, 2015), but these factors have not been equally important everywhere. In some places, economic or fiscal interests have been just as, or more, significant in providing a basis for differentiation within the state (Alonso, 2012: 25;Hepburn, 2009: 484-485;Rokkan and Urwin, 1983).…”

“…In some places, economic or fiscal interests have been just as, or more, significant in providing a basis for differentiation within the state (Alonso, 2012: 25;Hepburn, 2009: 484-485;Rokkan and Urwin, 1983). The political/institutional demands articulated by political actors in the name of a distinct national or regional group have also differed, ranging from full secession to far more limited demands for cultural or linguistic protection (De Winter, 1998;Massetti, 2009;Szöcsik and Zuber, 2015).…”

“…In doing so, the authors adopt methodologically innovative ways of measuring the different strategies. With regard to the first two tools, position and salience, systematic data collection for the territorial dimension has only recently begun and the contributors to this Special Issue are at the forefront of this development (Alonso, 2012;Alonso et al, 2015;Massetti, 2009;Massetti and Schakel, 2015;Szöcsik and Zuber, 2015). With regard to the third tool, parties' framing of issues, and independent of whether these issues belong to the economic or the territorial dimension, only few scholars have thus far systematically measured this important component of parties' strategies (Basile, 2013;Chaney, 2013Chaney, , 2014Helbling et al, 2010).…”

“…In multinational democracies such as Spain or Belgium, parties have to navigate in a policy space constituted by a territorial dimension alongside a leftright dimension. To date the more general party competition literature has paid surprisingly little attention to multi-dimensional party competition arising from the presence of an ethnonational (Szöcsik and Zuber, 2015) or territorial (Alonso, 2012) dimension alongside the more commonly analysed economic and social value dimensions. Scholars have often subsumed territorial issues or issues related to national identity under a cultural or a 'new politics' dimension (Spies andFranzman, 2011: 1053).…”