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- Title
Strana svobodných občanů -- čeští monotematičtí euroskeptici?
- Authors
Kaniok, Petr
- Abstract
When, in the beginning of 2009, the Party of Free Citizens was founded, it was believed that the main impulse for establishing a new political party was the generally positive approach towards the Lisbon Treaty adopted by the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) a couple of months before. Thus, since its foundation, the media, commentators and political analysts have labelled the Party of Free Citizens as a single issue Eurosceptic party. This article challenges this prevailing evaluation of the Party of Free Citizens and subsequently confronts the party's programs and press releases with three concepts -- the concept of Euroscepticism connected with the work of Taggart and Szczerbiak, the concept of a single issue party developed by Mudde, and the concept of a niche party brought into political science by Meguide. The article concludes that while the Party of Free Citizens is undoubtedly a Eurosceptic party, both in terms of its soft and hard versions, its overall performance as a political entity does not meet the criteria of Mudde's concept of a single issue party. As the Party of Free Citizens puts a strong emphasis on European issues (compared to other mainstream Czech political parties), it can, at most, be described as a niche party.
- Subjects
CZECH Republic; OBCANSKA demokraticka strana; POLITICAL science research; POLITICAL parties; EUROSCEPTICISM; POLITICAL rights
- Publication
Central European Political Studies Review / Stredoevropske Politicke Studie, 2014, Vol 16, Issue 1, p75
- ISSN
1213-2691
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5817/CEPSR.2014.1.75