Parties and Linkages in the Slovak Party System: An Overview

This study acknowledges Kitschelt’s inspiration by understanding party linkage as a mechanism closely pertaining to the relationships of accountability and responsiveness between political parties and voters. Three key linkages – programmatic, charismatic and clientelistic – are scrutinized. The authors identify the “link-age profiles” of relevant political parties in the history of Slovak party competition and use the results of an experts’ survey (from the DALP project) as a (limited) test of the authors’ expert judgement. The study then reflects on the latest developments in political linkages in a period when anti-establishment and anti-system political parties are gaining strength. The paper concludes that clientelism as a linkage played a significantly smaller role than predicted in the 1990s, while charisma – even though we define it differently from some mainstream approaches – manifested a stronger than expected influence on party competition. Also, combinations of charismatic and programmatic linkages seem to be attractive for a number of relevant Slovak parties. Finally, programmatic competition informed Slovak politics for longer and more successfully than Kitschelt’s model would suggest.

The 2020 Parliamentary Elections in Slovakia Steadily Turbulent Change of Direction

In recent years Slovakia witnessed a dynamic development with crucial consequences for its domestic politics. Vast civic mobilization, the emergence of new parties and decline of a long-term hegemon – all these features culminated in the 2020 general election. We first introduce the results and discuss them from a longitudinal perspective of Slovak politics. Most importantly, despite a considerably large portion of correctly casted ballots for parties which failed to pass the institutional thresholds, the outcomes do not suggest that the representativity or proportionality of the Slovak political system is about to suffer. Second, we focus on the rise and ideological appeals of populist political parties. Although similar in many ways, we show important differences in their ideological platforms.

‘The Slovakebab’: Anti-Islam Agenda in Slovak Parliamentary Elections and Beyond

The article examines discursive framing of Muslims during the 2020 Slovak parliamentary campaign, putting it in the broader context of the four-year period since the previous 2016 elections, which took place in the shadow of the European migration crisis. We adopt a social constructivist framework to argue that, despite very low numbers of Muslims in Slovakia, Islam remains a politically divisive issue. Competing discourses strive to redefine Islam for their own political purposes, making use of politicized symbols such as the ‘kebab’ or the ‘minaret’ in the process. This makes Islam a floating signifier of Slovak politics to which multiple meanings can be attached. In the absence of actual problems with Muslim minority integration, axiological conflicts over Islam can be seen as representing broader struggles between more culturally conservative and liberal-multiculturalist forces.

Spring poll may show disillusion with Slovak politics

Headline SLOVAKIA: Spring poll may show disillusion

The Role of the Migration Crisis in Contemporary Slovak Politics (2016–2018)

The migration crisis had a significant impact on the EU countries, and Slovakia is no exception. By a closer look at the Slovak documentary base, this field could be divided into several segments of its influence: foreign policy, internal security, macroeconomic policy, and internal political struggle. This whole complex of sources is forming a single line of conduct of the Slovak executive power in the field of the migration policy in Slovakia, which, however, has a number of negative features and quite a lot of opponents. As the rule, these opponents are from the oppositional parliamentary fractions and its deputies. Based on the analysis of the governmental documents, the article for the first time is considering the whole complex of problems related to migration, both in the area of the foreign policy and its influence on the internal sphere. In contrast to the Slovak experts (S. Goda, D. Fisher), proceeding from what Slovak security and defense should look like, the author analyzes the actual prerequisites of internal measures in this area and their consequences in the Slovak political discourse. This approach lets the author to conclude that there are some difficulties in the implementation of the migration policy in Slovakia, related to the use of Western conception of the causes and consequences of the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, which would not completely solve the problems this country is facing.

Migration Discourse in Slovak Politics. Context and Content of Migration in Political Discourse: European Values versus Campaign Rhetoric

The migration crisis has not only influenced the societies of Europe, their governments, and decisions taken by them but also affected the work of media. As soon as the migration crisis began to escalate in Europe, the old continent has continuously tried to cope with the influx of refugees from the war-threatened Middle East; not only individual statements of politicians and influential individuals but also communication flows themselves, which have created content and expanded context within networks, have become the center of interest. We can assume that in the previous months (especially in the case of the Slovak Republic), political and media discourses influenced societal and individual opinions and attitudes toward the migration crisis. The main aim of this article is to compare the various contents in the Slovak printed media in the context of the migration crisis. The dominant focus will be on analyzing media messages in the analyzed period in the context of creating political (media-based and electoral) discourse on the refugee crisis. We assume that over time, the main political discourse changed, and that the rhetoric of the main political actors also changed over time. The reason for this shift was the national election in March 2016.