Party Political Ideology and Compliance with EU Gender Equality Policies:The Case of Bulgaria and Hungary – Post-EU Accession

The purpose of this study is to clarify how party political ideology influences policy implementation and compliance with EU gender equality policies in Bulgaria and Hungary after EU accession. Following the theoretical framework, it is expected that the presence of right-wing political parties in the national government will increase the likeliness of non-compliance with EU directives related to gender equality. This was especially expected with regard to political parties following traditional values and belonging to the Traditional/Authoritarian/Nationalistic (TAN) group. In order to analyse this expectation, a qualitative content analysis of secondary data is conducted, using several sources, including gender equality and anti-discrimination reports as well as the Gender Equality Index. The empirical analysis suggested that indeed political parties following a traditional ideology negatively impact the implementation process as well as compliance with the EU gender equality policies. Especially practical compliance suffered from this. Moreover, in Hungary, there was a general unwillingness of the government to achieve meaningful implementation. Comparing the two countries shows that in both Hungary and Bulgaria, a traditional national discourse was visible which also affected the compliance with EU gender equality policies.