Kõneaine kujundamine kui poliitilise toetuse mõjutamise vahend vanemahüvitise seaduseelnõu näitel
Date
2006
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
For a young parliamentary country it is usual that several parties form coalition. Also
an opposition consists of many smaller political parties. Coalition has its own role in
parliamentary systems but the experience has shown that coalition parties have
limited opportunities for implementing their policies. Does it mean that opposition
parties that partly cannot carry out their programmes and promises automatically lose
their electors’ support? What possibilities do opposition parties have for increasing
their constituency?
In this paper under the name “Agenda Setting as a Tool for Influencing the Public
Support. On the Example of the Parent Subvention Bill” I have analysed what
possibilities do opposition parties have for introducing their viewpoints and setting
political and media agenda.
In the bachelor thesis I have dwelled upon party Mõõdukad after elections in 2003
when they became opposition party. Their parent subvention topic is one of the best
examples of successful opposition party activities in Estonian modern political
culture.
This paper is based on the seminar thesis “Opositsioonierakonna võimalused toetuse
võitmiseks poliitilise kõneaine kujundamise abil” prepared by Margus Mets, Olavi
Paide and Henri Käsper. In this paper I have compared these results with another
party – Reformierakond – that has also given parent subvention very important role in
their political promises and communication.
The aim of the theses is to give a detailed overview of the activities of Mõõdukad and
Reformierakond in Parliament during a period April-December 2003 and also
compare these results with public support to these parties. The analyses are based on
Parliament stenographs, media texts and TNS Emor political poll about supporting
political parties.
All in all, in a matter of parent subvention Mõõdukad’s activities in Parliament were
quite successful. As a result of their activities one of biggest public discussions was
given rise in Estonian society and it still goes on. Consequently opposition parties can
influence social processes by setting political agenda with their activities in
Parliament.
In parent subvention matter Mõõdukad’s activities had all classical elements of
political campaign. Besides that they distributed more press releases and wrote more
articles about the subject compared to Reformierakond. Mõõdukad’s opinion was
represented in almost all media debates about this topic.
Hereby the hypothesis found proof – Mõõdukad’s activities in Parliament and media,
during the period when parent subvention bill was processed, formed political agenda
of Estonian society to a great extent and through that the party also gained bigger
public support. This example demonstrated that also opposition party has possibilities
to gain public support through setting political agenda, activities in Parliament and
communication.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General), bakalaureusetööd, poliitiline kommunikatsioon, valimisvõitlus, sotsiaalpoliitika, hüvitised, vanemahüvitis