Rule of Law in East Central Europe (Re-Act) – Sources and Methods Handbook

This is the sources and methods handbook for the project ‘Re-Act – Rule of Law in East Central Europe’ funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research from 2021–2024. The project’s central objective was to map the rule of law narratives in five EU member states in East Central Europe with regard to (1) the meaning and purpose that speakers ascribed to the rule of law, (2) what they said about its constitutive elements, (3) how they related the rule of law and its elements to democracy, (4) what they saw as the central source of legitimacy of the rule of law, (5) how they talked about rights related to the rule of law, and (6) what challenges to the rule of law they identified. The analysis was based on parliamentary speeches over 30 years, which were analysed using qualitative content analysis. This handbook provides an overview of the sources used, the preparation of the empirical material for the analysis, the coding scheme and the analytical process.