Political parties and the party system



The end of communism
•Renescence of political pluralismu
•„Small Bill on Political Parties“ – recognition of some political parties
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•Number of new political parties:
1.Already existing (OF, KSČ, ČSL)
2.Renewned (ČSSD)
3.Genuinely new (SZ, ODA, SPR-RSČ,…)
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Joke parties
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•Friends of Beer Party
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•Independent Erotic Initiative

The 1990 general election
•Struggle over the character of the régime
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•Clear victory of OF
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•Legitimity of KSČ confirmed
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•Number of new parties elected
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Development of political parties in a nutshell
•1991 – breakup of OF and emergence of ODS, OH and ODA
•1992 election won by ODS-KDS and formation of the centre-right cabinet (V. Klaus)
–Fragmentation of the parliament (LSU, HSD-SMS, ČSSD, SPR-RSČ, KSČ)
•1996 – the electoral success of ČSSD; formation of the centre-right minority cabinet (V. Klaus)
•Tendency to a bipolar pattern of competition BUT not repeated patterns of alteration (see later)
•Four main parties established
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OF and its effects on party system formation
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•Initially a very broad (anti-communist) movement
•Conflict over the character of the movement (and politics)
•Social-liberal Civic Movement
•Conservative-liberal Civic Democratic Party
•The role of political parties, civic society, attitude to economy…
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The „Big Four“
•Civic Democratic Party (ODS)
•Conservative (values) liberal (economy), soft-Euroscepticism
•Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD)
•Left-centre in economic terms, split in value dimension, pro-European
•Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM)
•Unreformed, anti-capitalist, Eurosceptic, the issue of the past
•Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People`s Party (KDU-ČSL)
•Social-conservative party, religious values, economically in the centre, existence of internal
disputes

Development of political parties in a nutshell
•1997/8 – splitting of ODS and the emergence of Freedom Union (US)
•1998-2002: reduction of the number of parliamentary parties, „opposition agreement“ (Coalition of
Four project)
•2002-2006: left-centre cabinets (ČSSD, KDU-ČSL, US-DEU)
•2006 – parliamentary dissapearence of US-DEU, entry of the Green Party (SZ), centre-right-green
cabinet
•2009 – fall of the cabinet  (a caretaker cabinet till 2010)
•2010 – the rise of (quasi-)new parties TOP 09 and Public Affairs (VV), weakening of the two major
parties, parliamentary departure of SZ and KDU-ČSL, centre-right cabinet

Electoral results (1990-2010, number of seats)
Data source: volby.cz, *Czech National Council election


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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/files/2013/10/Slide3.jpg
Zdroj: Haughton, Novotná, Deegan-Krause 2013


Party system stability in CZE – a systemic approach
•„the system of interactions resulting from inter-party competition“ (Sartori 1976) •A party system
change occurs „when a party system is transformed from one class or type of party system into
another“ (Mair 1997: 51-52) •A stable party system = stable and predictable patterns of party
competition
•How to measure these patterns?
•Cabinets composition? Polarity? Polarization?

Cabinets formation and patterns of party competition in the Czech Republic
•Since 1998 – the absence of clear, predictable government alternatives:
•The position of KSČM – very limited coalition potential, unprobable but not impossible cooperation
of left political parties, determinates interactions among the rest of the parties
•Pivotal position of KDU-ČSL (participation in both right-centre and left-centre cabinets)
•„Opposition agreement“ and after 2006 elections bargaining – (possible) cooperation of the two
major rival parties
•Uncertainty related to (quasi)new political parties – SZ (2006) and VV, ANO, Úsvit (2010) –
presence of new actors contributes to uncertainty and unpredictability of the patterns of
competition
•Variability of (possible) real coalition options - instability of the Czech party system

Conclusion
•Stable parties and unstable party system in the Czech Republic – necessary to distinguish between
parties stability and party system stability
•Unstable parties due to the recent electoral earthquakes
•Dominant unidimensional competition (supplemented by some other relevant issues)
•Unstable party system – lack of well-established patterns of conflicts and cooperation
•Roots of low stability:
–Character of parties (mostly top-down institutions)
–Atmosphere in society
–Economic turbulence
–Quality of political representation
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