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.

本手册为德国联邦教育与研究部资助的“Re-Act - 东中欧法治原则”项目之来源与方法指南，项目时间跨度为2021年至2024年。该项目之核心目标在于，针对五个东中欧欧盟成员国，对法治叙事进行描绘，具体包括：（1）演讲者赋予法治的意义与目的，（2）对法治构成要素的阐述，（3）法治及其要素与民主的关系，（4）法治合法性之核心来源，（5）与法治相关的权利讨论，以及（6）识别出的法治挑战。分析基于过去30年的议会演讲，并采用定性内容分析方法。本指南概述了所使用之资料来源、分析所用经验材料的准备、编码方案及分析过程。