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2009:8 Czech Parliament in the Second Decade of Democratic Development

Zdenka Mansfeldová, Lukáš Linek (eds.)

The objective of this study is to examine the work of the Czech Parliament from 1992 to the present and the fulfilment of its representative function within that period. Given the dominant position occupied by the Chamber of Deputies, more attention is devoted to it than the Senate in this study. First the publication briefly focuses on the institutional architecture of the Czech Parliament and Parliament’s place in the country’s political system. It then looks at Parliament as the arena of the political-party contest. Gradually political parties are gradually becoming the main organisational principle in Parliament’s work, in the assertion and mediation of interests, and in the formation of decisions in the legislative process. The authors found that stabilisation of the party system occurred at the same time as party shares in Parliament were stabilising and the norms and identity of party politics were taking root. Parliament and elections played an important role in the shaping, crystallisation and stabilisation of political parties and the professionalizing of new political elites. These elites usually comprise middle-aged men with university education who have been in politics for a long time.

In a democracy Parliament fulfils a number of roles, which are usually laid out in the constitution together with other related laws and informal rules. These roles remain fixed in the long term, but their relative importance varies over time; some gain while others wane in significance as domestic and international circumstances change and specifically with accession to the European Union. Creating legislation and acting as a check on government have long been regarded as its most important roles. An analysis of the legislative process shows the growing dominance of the government in this process, although there also exists room for Senate to play a greater role (when there are different majorities in the two chambers) or for the individual – and often difficult to control – activity of MPs. The dominance of the government relates to its role in connection the country’s accession to the European Union.

Keywords

parliament – political party – legislative – representation of interests – government – political elites

Summary

The objective of the study ‘Czech Parliament in the Second Decade of Democratic Development’ is to analyse the forms and dynamics of development of political representation in the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The study combines an institutional and a behavioural approach, describes the formation and functioning of this institution, and analyses the opinions and views of MPs on selected questions and issues. The Czech political system is a parliamentary democracy with a bicameral Parliament; the key role occupied by Parliament in part derives from its function of creating other political institutions. The majority of space in this publication is devoted to the Chamber of Deputies owing to its greater political significance, while only some basic features of the Senate are discussed.

This publication draws on a broad range of quantitative and qualitative data collected over the more than fifteen-year period that the Sociology of Politics research team at the Institute of Sociology has been studying the Czech Parliament. Sources include data drawn from questionnaire surveys conducted by the research team, documents from sessions of the Chamber of Deputies, a database of MPs, along with the basic characteristics of MPs. In the years between 1993 and 2007 a total of six questionnaire surveys were conducted as standardised personal interviews with MPs in the Czech Chamber of Deputies. These surveys cover all the electoral terms of Parliament, so it is possible to observe individual variables over time and compare the resulting data.

In the Introduction, the authors describe the start and the background of research on the Czech Parliament and the basic literature on the topic in the fields of political science and sociology. They briefly outline the basic points of the theory of political representation to mark out the conceptual framework of the study, which aims to analyse the forms and dynamics of political representation in the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic.

The first chapter gives a brief description of the history of formal parliamentary structures on the territory of what is now the Czech Republic and takes a closer look at Parliament since the Czech Republic was established in 1993. It then presents an analysis of the internal organisation of Parliament (the relationship between the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate) and both its chambers, focusing on two basic organisational principles: the party system (parliamentary party groups /PPGs) and expertise (committees). The introduction of the new rules of order of the Chamber of Deputies in 1995 served as a strong stabilising factor in Parliament’s work, it standardised and rendered transparent the legislative process and the way Parliament functions, and it codified the role of political parties in the organisation of Parliament and its legislative work. Another important change to the internal functioning of Parliament was the gradual incorporation of opposition parties into committee leadership. The opposition and its participation in the legislative process are essential factors in the democratic functioning of parliamentary systems.

The second chapter is devoted to selected aspects of governance in relation to political parties and their representation in Parliament. Political parties are the main organisers of democratic governance in the Czech Republic. A crucial role in this is played by the proportional electoral system, which contributes to the development of party-based political representation while at the same time it guarantees the existence of political parties in Parliament. The key role of political parties is reinforced by the institutional rules of the legislative process and the actual way in which Parliament is organised internally and in which the parliamentary party groups/PPGs function. The electoral system and the party system both exhibited considerable stability during the period under observation. The only significant changes in the system of elections to the Chamber of Deputies related to the following two parameters: (1) the number of electoral districts was increased from eight to fourteen (thus reducing their average size) and (2) the method used to convert votes into seats has changed. The end effect of this proportional electoral system, with its relatively large electoral districts, has been the formation and stabilisation of a multi-party system. This stability was further reinforced by the basic factors that drive party choice in the Czech Republic, such as (1) the socioeconomic dimension of redistribution by the state, which is a basic cleavage, (2) the social liberalconservative dimension, and (3) the emotional relationship to the communist regime.

The stabilisation of the system of political parties in Parliament and the standardisation of the rules of parliamentary procedure also had an impact on the legislative work of the Chamber of Deputies. Chapter Three identifies two periods of extensive legislative activity. The first period involved setting up the legal system of the democratic state and preparing the basic steps in the socio-economic transformation and the second the adoption of European norms. After joining the EU, legislative activity shifted its focus, but has nonetheless remained very significant. If we were to evaluate legislative activity from a purely quantitative perspective (that is, by the number of laws discussed and passed), the Chamber of Deputies is a very effective chamber. During the period under observation the role of the Government in legislative activity increased and from the perspective of the number of laws proposed and passed its role approached standards observed in Western democracies. The Government thus to a certain degree became the main actor in legislative initiatives. The process of harmonising Czech law with EU norms after 1998 was a key factor in strengthening the Government’s role.

Chapter Four analyses the relationship between the Government and Parliament. In conformity with constitutional definitions, in the eyes of MPs one of the most important roles of Parliament, alongside its legislative work, is to act as a check on the Government. However, the results of analyses show that in practice the performance of this function has been influenced by the given balance of political powers in Parliament, and thus in MPs’ views Parliament has failed to fulfil this role. The opposition puts more emphasis on Parliament’s role as a check on the Government and is more critical of how well Parliament fulfilled that function. While in Western democratic Parliaments such a finding would be regarded as trivial, in the post-communist environment, where the existence of an effective opposition endowed with sufficient influential means only became possible in democratic Parliament, this finding is evidence of the ‘learning’ process. This process has involved the adoption and application of an entire repertoire of activities and mechanisms for checking the Government. Key among them is the expression of support for or disagreement with Government bills, formal and informal consultations, lobbying individual members of Government, and extreme action such as calling for a no-confidence vote. Other checking mechanisms that became increasingly important during the period under observation are the summoning of Parliament at the demand of MPs and the growing number of Government non-confidence votes, especially in the last two office terms. Both of these phenomena are the result of the weak position that governments occupy in Parliament, regardless of whether they have a slight majority or a minority.

Chapter Five contains an analysis of socio-demographic data on MPs since 1992 that tries to answer the question of who Czech MPs are. The socio-demographic structure of MPs differs significantly from that of the general public, primarily by sex, age, education, economic activity, and employment. The socio-demographic structure of the MPs and the supporters of individual political parties also in many cases differ. Analysis reveals that the Chamber of Deputies shows a low rate of descriptive representation. Women are under-represented in Parliament compared to their numbers in society, while people with higher education and public sector employees are significantly overrepresented. A detailed analysis also shows the effect of socio-demographic variables on the political attitudes of MPs.

The final chapter focuses on the role of MPs and their perception of that role or, in other words, how MPs interpret their mandate. In the context of the theory of representation, the chapter examines the difference between the legal definition of a mandate and how individual MPs interpret it. From the Constitution’s definition of a mandate it follows that in decision-making legislators are not bound by any commands or orders. However, an analysis of empirical data showed that MPs tend mainly to direct their behaviour according to party politics and party identification is the dominant factor in their decisions. Political parties have a fundamental influence on the work MPs do, including their committee membership, and they are a key actor in the articulation and mediation of interests. The analysis of empirical data thus identifies a gap in traditional theoretical approaches to representation that do not generally stress the role of political parties.