Spending Other People’s Money? Automated Content Analysis of Sub-National Parties’ Positions on EU Cohesion Policy

Citizens’ confidence in the problem-solving capacities of the European Union (EU) has been shaken during the severe economic and sovereign debt crisis in Europe. This casts doubt on the future of the European integration process. One key element of EU’s attempt to foster citizens’ identification with the EU has been (and still is) its Cohesion policy, i.e. its cohesion, regional and urban policies. This policy targets regions and cities across the whole of the EU with the overall goal of improving citizens’ quality of life. Since Cohesion policy accounts for almost one-third of the total EU budget in 2014-2020 it should attract the attention of political parties – both at the national and regional level – to promote and communicate this policy among citizens, in particular by referring to potentially financial benefits of the European Regional Development. This paper addresses the following two questions: (1) ‘How do parties frame European integration and EU Cohesion policy?’ and (2) ‘Do parties change their political positions in European integration over time?’ These questions will be answered by applying semi- and fully-computerised methods of content analysis to extract the European policy position of parties and governments acting on the sub-state level in 10 EU Member States over time. Furthermore, a quantitative measure will be developed that provides information on whether and how ERDF support is framed in political documents of parties and governments on the regional level. These empirical findings will give a first hint whether and how political representation of EU Cohesion policy differs between political parties, regions, and countries.