Activity of modern right-wing radical parties in the Czech Republic

2019 ◽  
pp. 164-173
Author(s):  
Tetiana Fedorchak
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Social Programs ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Political Radicalism

The author investigates political radicalism in the Czech Republic, a rather heterogeneous current considering the structure of participants: from political parties to the extremist organizations. The peculiarity of the Czech party system is the existence, along with typical radical parties, of other non-radical parties whose representatives support xenophobic, nationalist and anti-Islamic statements. This is primarily the Civil Democratic Party, known for its critical attitude towards European integration, and the Communist party of the Czech Republic and Moravia, which opposes Czech membership in NATO and the EU. Among the Czech politicians, who are close to radical views, analysts include the well-known for its anti-Islamic position of the Czech President M. Zeman and the leader of the movement ANO, billionaire A. Babich. Voters vote for them not because their economic or social programs are particularly attractive to the electorate, but because of dissatisfaction with the economic situation in the state. Almost all right populist parties oppose European integration, interpreting it as an anti-national project run by an elite distorted by a deficit of democracy and corruption. Keywords: Czech Republic, right-wing radical political parties, European integration, nationalism.

Two dimensions of the Europeanization of election programs: The case of the Czech Republic

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vlastimil Havlík ◽  
Hana Vykoupilová
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Lower Chamber ◽  
Qualitative Dimension

This article represents a contribution to the debate over the Europeanization of political parties, one of the hot topics in contemporary political science. It explores the extent of Europeanization in political parties represented in the lower chamber of the Parliament of the Czech Republic by means of an analysis of party election manifestoes. The extent of Europeanization in these documents is analyzed using a bi-dimensional conceptualization. The first we call the quantitative dimension, assesses the space taken by the topic of European integration in each manifesto. The second one we call the qualitative dimension. This, using the analysis of content, measures the degree to which the European integration issue is elaborated in the programs. Using this conceptualization, we analyze the election manifestoes of five Czech political parties in the period 1996–2006.

scholarly journals Party Institutionalisation in the Czech Republic: Towards a New Measurement of the Theoretical Concept

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 249-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub Stauber
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
System Level ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
Overall Stability ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Stability

The overall stability of the party system is usually studied on the basis of system-level aggregates such as electoral volatility or the effective number of political parties. Such an approach can be problematic, because it primarily measures just one dimension of stability, which is defined as the stability of electoral support. The article argues that this external dimension of stability should be further analysed in the context of the development of intra-party structures. The institutionalisation theory includes both dimensions, so it is capable of interpreting complex relations between them. Based on empirical data, the article systematically compares nine relevant political parties in the Czech Republic to better understand differences in the stabilisation of different types of party organisations in the context of party system changes in recent years.

scholarly journals The Eurosceptical and Autonomous Discourses on the Process of European Integration of the Czech Republic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oleksandr Poveda
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
The European Union ◽  
National Interests ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Eu

The peculiarities of the attitude of the two leading Czech political parties regarding the process of European integration through the prism of the effectiveness of the protection of national interests at the supranational level are analyzed in the given article. While conducting this study, it was revealed, that once it became clear that accession to the European Union would inevitably require certain national concessions from the Czech Republic, the leading Civic Democratic Party began to declare an increasingly Eurosceptic position. Gradually, EU membership was considered by it only through the prism of realizing the economic interests of the country. Civic Democrats have become even more vigorous opponents of deepening European integration and have strongly opposed the adoption of a common EU Constitution and federalization and have opposed any attempt to alienate part of national sovereignty in favor of the EU, since the Czech Republic joined the European Union. The author emphasizes that the disapproval by CDP of further European integration is explained by the historical fears of many Czechs, who are convinced that the development of the EU in a federal direction is in line with German interests and aspirations to dominate in Europe. The author also stresses on the fact, that the anti-German attitude of the Civic Democrats stems from the history of relations between two nations which have never been friendly and is explained by fears about further economic expansion of Germany in the Czech Republic. It was found that the discourse of Czech Communists on European integration is quite autonomous, because, in contrast to the CDP (and in general to all other parliamentary parties of the country), which although remains critical of the EU, but it does not question the Czech Republic membership in the European Union, the Communist Party does not consider any prospects for the functioning of the EU at all, and it does not consider the expediency of Czech Prepublic membership in it. Key words: Czech Republic; European integration; Civic Democratic Party; Communist Party of the Czech Republic and Moravia; Euroscepticism; Autonomist discourse.

Values and Electoral Decisions in the Czech Republic

1998 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petr Matějů ◽  
Klára Vlachová
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Voting Behaviour ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Political Orientations ◽  
Political Spectrum

This article is an attempt to identify the role of politically relevant values and attitudes in voting behaviour in the Czech Republic. In view of the results of earlier analyses, which show there has been a process of intense crystallization of left–right political axis of the Czech political spectrum, this paper aims to demonstrate the specific roles of declared and value-based left–right political orientations, the effects of external and internal political efficacy, the feelings of anomie, and the required role of state. The analysis of data from the ISSP survey carried out at the end of 1996 shows that a person's declared position on the left–right axis of political orientation has far stronger influence on voting behaviour than does his or her position on the left–right scale based on socio-economic values traditionally underlying left–right political orientations. This difference indicates, among other things, that in the Czech Republic the declared right-wing political orientations so far acted as barrier to voting for left-wing political parties, for which people would likely vote if they voted according to their value-based left-wing orientations.

scholarly journals Political transformations in the Czech Republic after the “Velvet revolution”: a retrospective approach

2020 ◽  
pp. 148-164
Author(s):  
Tetiana Fedorchak
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Difficult Situation ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Velvet Revolution

Using a retrospective approach, the author explores the changes that took place in Czechoslovakia after the 1989 «velvet revolution». The article emphasizes that the «velvet revolution» later grew into a national revolution and led to the emergence of two new nation-states; into a political revolution that destroyed the authoritarian regime and contributed to the emergence of new democratic political institutions; in the economic revolution, during which the mechanisms of a market economy were created in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The country made a simultaneous transition from dictatorship to democracy, from a command economy to a free market and to a nation state. Despite such a difficult situation and a large number of tasks, Czechoslovakia was able to eliminate the totalitarian legacy, solved the transformational tasks and problems of the division of Czechoslovakia into two sovereign states. In the Czech Republic, the classical political mechanisms of a democratic civil society had already been established in the 1990s and first, a multiparty political system. New democratic election laws laid the groundwork for a competitive multi-party system and political pluralism. The 1993 Constitution of the Czech Republic legislated a new political system for a democratic society, which was to be based on the voluntary creation and competition of political parties, who respect fundamental democratic principles and deny violence as a means to an end. The «velvet revolution» caused a sharp rise in civic activity. On the eve of the first parliamentary elections in 1992, more than 140 political parties and right-wing and left-wing social movements were registered in the CSFM. This was the peak of the quantitative growth of the number of political parties at the stage of building civil society.

A breaking-up of a pro-European consensus: Attitudes of Czech political parties towards the European integration (1998–2010)

2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vlastimil Havlík
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Political Science ◽  
New Classification ◽  
Expert Survey ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
European Consensus ◽  
The Eu

This article represents a contribution to the debate over the attitudes of political parties to the European integration-one of the hot topics in contemporary political science. It explores the dynamics of attitudes of political parties in the Czech Republic to the EU and analyzes them in the context of parties primary ideologies. On the basis of the results of an expert survey the author interpretes the changes in the major features of “European” debate in the Czech Republic and offers a new classification schema of attitudes of political parties towards the EU, according to the preferences of economic and/or political dimension of European integration.

Das tschechische Parlament in der Pandemie: Zum Krisenmanagement einer Minderheitsregierung

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 860-877
Author(s):  
David Jágr
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Approach ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

The pandemic crisis occurred while illiberal populist leaders governed in Central and East­ern Europe . The Czech Republic was faced with a simultaneous crisis of political parties and the transformation of its party system . The onset of these trends was triggered by the global financial crisis during which the established parties were weakened and the way to parliaments and governments was opened for populists parties . The fight against the pandemic brought changes to the functioning of parliaments and the need for parliamentary adaptations . The Czech case is the least likely of government dominance in a pandemic . Due to the weakness of the minority cabinet and the unprecedented fragmented Chamber of Deputies, the cabinet had to opt for temporary ad hoc alliances with different parties . Over the course of the pandemic, the political actors changed their political approach from cooperation to conflict, leading to government instability and the failure to effectively con­trol the spread of the pandemic, with the Czech Republic becoming one of the worst affect­ed countries in the world .

Coordination problem and grand coalition: the puzzle of the government formation game in the Czech Republic, 1998☆

2003 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Csaba Nikolenyi
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Coordination Problem ◽  
Government Formation ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Minority Government ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government

After the 1998 general elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic, the largest party, the Social Democrats, formed a minority government. The formation of this government was puzzling for at least four reasons. First, according to the so-called Opposition Pact, the minority government was supported from the outside by the conservative Civic Democratic Party, the principal opponent of the Social Democrats in the party system. Second, the grand legislative coalition was not followed by the sharing of executive portfolios between the two largest parties. Third, the two parties entered into this agreement only weeks after they had explicitly stated their unwillingness to govern together. Fourth, neither theories of coalition formation nor those of minority government formation provide an accurate prediction for this outcome. This article provides a solution for these puzzles based on a game theoretic analysis.

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