The Czech Social Democratic Party through the Lens of Multiple Streams Approach: The ČSSD Modernization Project
Abstract
Political parties are an important but often underestimated element of the policy-making process. They represent collective actors as well as formal institutions in the form of modern complex organizations that could be studied through policy process theories.
We argue that it is possible to apply MSA to political parties because they represent the same kind of organizations as governments, i.e. organized anarchies. Therefore, our aim is to probe the applicability of MSA in different domains and under different conditions on the case of the Czech Social Democratic Party's modernization's project (2006-2008), and thus to extend the applicability of MSA beyond governments.
This case offers not only a different domain to test MSA, but also a good case of problem solving under critical conditions. Using the MSA framework, we answer why partisan policy makers adopted the modernization project and consider why the realized project focused on management and elections-related affairs.