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Volt Europa: A New Kind of European Political Party?
Trunečka, Adam ; Kasáková, Zuzana (advisor) ; Mejstřík, Martin (referee)
Alongside the process of European integration in a large number of policy areas, scholars have also observed political integration in the EC/EU. The major European political parties, or Europarties, were founded by and subjected to their constituent member parties, not their individual members - many of them do not even offer individual membership. This is why the Europarties are described as "parties of parties". Throughout time, there have been attempts at establishing grassroots pan-European parties. The most notable contemporary examples are DiEM25 and Volt Europa. The aim of this thesis is to understand whether the self-presentation of Volt as "the first pan-European party" is in fact reflected in its internal structure and whether it is different from the "classical" "parties of parties". The typologies of vertical party organization developed by Maurice Duverger served as a framework for this thesis. Using thematic analysis, I studied the statutes of Volt and some of its branches. This was complemented by semi-structured interviews with some of the party members. I concluded that Volt Europa gives its individual members extensive rights and a central role in its party structure. Conversely to typical Europarties, it also has some power over the national branches. Additionally, it partially...
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