The impacts of EU accession on politics in Malta as a small state : a sociological analysis

Abstract

The main aim of this dissertation was to explore the impacts of EU accession on Maltese politics. This research involved 8 elite respondents from political parties, political organizations and political scientists or academics in the field of politics. These participants all volunteered to take part in these interviews which were done remotely because of the Covid-19 pandemic. This study has 3 research questions which would lead to the emergence of themes that are part of the process of analysis. These are 1) what are the issues of policy elites on impacts of EU membership on Malta as a small state? 2) has EU accession impacted Maltese governmentality? 3) has politics in Malta changed since EU accession? From the interviewing process, enough data was gathered to suggest that Malta was indeed impacted by accession which mainly includes governmentality, economy, law and education, through themes like multi-layer governance, however it is clear that the political culture in the island hasn’t changed especially when themes like personalism (clientelism, patronage) and duopoly emerge, as these are still occurring in the island. Other themes which have emerged from the study further highlight characteristics of Malta’s political system such as the single transferable vote system, mass media owned by political parties and inequality in terms of resources and fairness to smaller political parties.