engleski

Europeanization of social policy discourse: the case of Croatia

The paper analyzes the influence that the process of accession to the EU has exerted on the discourse of main parliamentary political parties in Croatia. The focus is on the social policy domain, and the author traces the influence of the European Social Model as a political idea and as a policy prescription in the programmatic documents of the two biggest political parties. The analysis covers nearly a decade (1999-2008) in which Croatia moved from being an outsider to Europe to being the candidate country first in line for accession to the EU. Using the content analysis method, the paper shows that the European Social Model is exerting a stronger influence on parties’ discourses as Croatia is drawing closer to EU membership. Both the Social Democratic Party and the Croatian Democratic Union party programmes have become more Europeanised as the process of European integration has advanced, although with some important differences. The SDP programmes since 1999 exhibit more continuity, while in the CDU programmes there is substantial discursive discontinuity.

Europeanization; post-communism; social policy

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