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 .

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.

6. The party system

UK Politics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 121-143
Author(s):  
Andrew Blick
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
System P ◽  
Political Approach ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Uk

This chapter switches the focus to political parties. It looks at their individual roles and how they operate. The chapter discusses the parties that constitute the ‘party system’. It considers the two main parties operating at the UK level: the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. It also looks at the smaller parties, such as the Liberal Democrats. The chapter considers the political approach of the various parties and the type of support they attract. It also looks at how parties are funded. The chapter provides a number of theoretical perspectives to help with an analysis of political parties. These are: the extent to which parties pursue values or power; the respective roles of their members and leaders; groupings within parties; how far the UK has a two-party system or whether our definition of the party system should be revised; and the relationships between the various parities. The chapter then gives examples of how these ideas play out with specific focus on recent events involving the Conversative and Labour parties. The chapter asks: do members have too much influence over their parties? The chapter ends by asking: where are we now?

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.

Contested Constitutions

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasper de Raadt
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
European Countries ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Central European ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Constitution Making

What were the effects of constitution-making procedures on the acceptance of the new “rules of the political game” in postcommunist Central Europe? This article sets out to scrutinise the increasingly popular claim among politicians and scholars of democratisation that inclusiveness and popular involvement in constitution-making processes enhance a constitution's legitimacy. The concept of constitutional conflict, referring to political contestation over the interpretation and application of constitutional relations among state institutions, is introduced as a way to assess constitutional acceptance among politicians. The investigation concentrates on constitutional conflict patterns during the five years following constitution-making in seven Central European countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Constitution-making procedures varied substantially among the cases, as did the intensity and timing of constitutional conflict. The article finds that differences in constitution-making procedures do not necessarily determine the legitimacy of constitutions among political elites. Instead, ambiguity on the allocation of formal competencies among political actors and increasing political tensions between pro-reform and anti-reform parties during the early 1990s proved to be more important triggers of constitutional conflict. Accordingly, studies on constitution-making and democratisation should focus less on procedural aspects and take into account the fuzziness of important constitutional provisions and the extent to which constitutions can survive periods of intense political polarisation.

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.

Cleavages and political pluralism in the small municipality in Czech Republic

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Sylvie Kobzev Kotaskova
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Voting Behaviour ◽  
Political Pluralism ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Small Municipality ◽  
The Given

This paper deals with the issue of the existence cleavages in rural communities in the Czech Republic. The paper is focused on an analysis of the party system in small municipality Kamenna and the pluralism and the political environment in the municipality of Kamenna. This paper aims to clarify the formation of cleavage in the given municipality. A partial aim is to analyse the voting behaviour in the municipality, as well as a subsequent evaluation of the political participation of the residents of the Kamenna municipality. In the analysis of voting behaviour, the paper focuses on analysing the dispersion of electoral votes and subsequent evaluation of how voters vote. Keywords: Pluralism, Municipality, Cleavages, Political Process, Municipal Elections

Czech Militant Democracy in Action

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Mareš
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
European Dimension ◽  
European Court ◽  
Legislative Framework

This article analyses the dissolution of the extreme right Workers’ Party by the Czech courts in 2010. It situates the case in the historical development of party closures by militant democracy on Czech territory and explains why the Workers’ Party was the first party to be dissolved in the Czech Republic after the fall of the Communist regime. It also describes the legislative framework in contemporary Czech law for the dissolution of political parties. It details the political and legal repercussions of the ruling and the wider discussions it provoked, not only in political and expert circles but also among the general public. Given the fact that the case was taken to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the European dimension of the dissolution of the Workers’ Party is also analysed.

scholarly journals The dynamics of the party system in the Czech Republic

2021 ◽  
pp. 173-187
Author(s):  
Marcin Czyżniewski
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
Party System ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Council ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
The Moment

The article examines the changes that took place in the Czech party system from the moment of the political transformation of 1989/1990 to the last parliamentary elections in 2017. It is based on a survey of data on the results of the elections to the Czech National Council and the Chamber of Deputies. The interpretation of the data allows answering several research questions: is the Czech party system stable, and if so, is it possible to determine it model? Are the inevitable model changes sudden or evolutionary as a consequence of an observable trend? Is it possible to distinguish and define the stages of functioning of the Czech party system? To what extent does the party system of the Czech Republic have roots in the party system of Czechoslovakia and did the disintegration of the federal republic significantly affect its change?

Greece: From Coalitions as a ‘State of Exception’ to the New Normal?

2021 ◽  
pp. 284-323
Author(s):  
Myrto Tsakatika
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
National Crisis ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

Coalition government has been exceptional in Greece since the consolidation of democracy in 1974 but in the aftermath of the global financial crisis its occurrence has become more frequent. Most Greek government coalitions are surplus connected coalitions assembled to address an economic or national crisis and do not involve formal coalition agreements. Their formation takes place after a brief bargaining phase strictly circumscribed by precise constitutional rules under the aegis of the president of the republic. Greek coalitions are governed primarily by ad hoc fora of party leaders that make key decisions and resolve inter-coalitional conflict. The prime minister and key ministers dominate policy arguments, albeit taking into account the wishes of party leaders. The termination of coalitions is by and large due to party leaders’ strategic considerations, though the importance of policy disagreement among the partners is becoming a more significant consideration. While the post-crisis overhaul of the Greek party system has not greatly affected the main characteristics of the coalition life cycle, there is evidence that greater experience with coalition government may be leading to some tentative institutionalization of power-sharing practices and greater acceptance of such practices among political elites.

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