Ideology in Maltese party politics

Abstract

This dissertation examines, from a sociological perspective, the evolution of politic.al ideology in Malta since the attainment of lndependence. Following a theoretical review of the 'end of ideology' theses the study adopts Fukuyama's 'end of history' and seeks to test its relevance to the Maltese context. Using the Manifesto Research Group (MRG) methodology, as explained by Budge, Klingemann, Volkens, Bara and Tannebaum (2001 ), the study subjects a selection of electoral programmes from the Nationalist Party and the Malta Labour Party to a content analysis. The constructed data set enables cross-time and cross-party comparisons of the ideological position of Malta's two significant political parties. The findings of the study are then placed in the context of international research from the Comparative Manifestos Project of the Social Sciences Research Centre of Berlin and an attempt is made to examine how the two main Maltese political ideologies, Christian Democracy and Social Democracy. can be placed on the ideological continuum that exists for the respective party families. Following the empirical part, the critical analysis of the dissertation sets to discover whether ideological distinctions between Old Nationalists and New Nationalists, and, conversely, between Old Labour and New Labour, are real. The study seeks also to determine whether there is a decline of either of the political ideologies. The study concludes that Maltese political ideology has arrived at a standstill, based on a wide consensus on liberal economics, liberal politics and the welfare state. Currently Maltese politics is devoid of radical alternatives. The dissertation therefore suggests the proposition that Maltese political ideology is experiencing a new conservative age, hereby designated as the Christian Democrat Consensus.