Contemporary European politics has seen a surge of new political parties successfully gaining political representation across the national parliaments. However, many disintegrate soon after...Show moreContemporary European politics has seen a surge of new political parties successfully gaining political representation across the national parliaments. However, many disintegrate soon after recording their parliamentary breakthrough, but some manage to survive and establish themselves in their party systems. What can explain these contrasting fates? First, a brief review of the available literature on the topic is presented and various theories are examined, which leads to the specification of the research question: “Does the homogeneity of party elites’ social backgrounds increase the likelihood of new party survival?” This thesis aims to contribute to the empirical research on the survival of new parties and answer the research question using a qualitative analysis of an extensive dataset of party elites’ social backgrounds in five new political parties in Slovakia. The research did not find compelling evidence to support the hypothesis that the homogeneity of party elites’ social backgrounds increases the likelihood of new party survival. The thesis concludes by discussing the reasons for this, explores alternative explanations, addresses its limitations and identifies areas for further research.Show less
International climate finance (ICF) is part of a broader climate justice movement, which is concerned with the tension that while the developed states in the Global North pollute the most, the...Show moreInternational climate finance (ICF) is part of a broader climate justice movement, which is concerned with the tension that while the developed states in the Global North pollute the most, the developing states in the Global South have to bear the consequences. ICF not only aims at reducing emissions, but mostly focuses on reducing the vulnerability of populations in developing states, through financial transfers from the Global North to the Global South. Climate justice movements insist on bottom-up policymaking, whereby power is handed back to non-state actors (NSAs) from the Global South. While the role of NSAs in international climate policies has been researched, their role in the specific finance programmes has been largely overlooked up until now. This paper therefore tries to contribute to the field through researching what role NSAs play in the design, implementation and evaluation of ICF programmes. This is done on the basis of content analysis of four of the United Nation’s climate financing programmes as part of its Green Climate Fund (GCF). This research concludes that the role of communities is only limited in the design and implementation stage, but much more present in the evaluation stage. The projects still have a very top-down focus and the involvement of the communities is hampered because of cultural and practical reasons. Strict objectives help to formalise the involvement of communities. While models of democratic pluralism and functionalism are already in place, a neocorporatist model could help the GCF to overcome difficulties in involving NSAs and to make their policies more effective and legitimate.Show less