This research project adresses central questions within the study of parliamentary representation in the Czech Republic. Our study is focused on three themes: (1) Parlamentarians - who are Czech republic's political representatives and how do they conceptualise their role? (2) EU accession - how is political representation within a system of multilevel governance percieved by parlamentarians? Is there a division of labour or competition between representative institutions? What are Czech parlamentarians' attitudes toward EU institutions and proposals for reform? (3) Policy-making - how do parlamentarians percieve the legislative process? Has there been a fundamental change in the policymaking process following accession?
More generally, this project extends previous research at the national level and explores how accession has changed the nature of political representation in the Czech Republic. Using theoretically informed empirical methodology, this study makes a substantial contribution to debates surrounding the quality of democratic representation in the Czech Republic.
Project publications (total 16, displaying 1 - 10)
This chapter describes the role of the political parties in the elections and in the system of political representation. First, it presents the features and the development of the electoral system for both chambers. Then it describes the development of the party system and focuses on the election results, programmes of the parties and their position on the left-right scale. Finally, it brings and overview of the development of the partisanship and parties in the parliament.
The objective of the introductory chapter is to summarise the knowledge contained in literature to date about the Czech Parliament, inform about the existing surveys done there, touch upon the theoretical framework of the submitted publications based on the theory of representation, and introduce the structure of the literary works.
The first decade of the Czech democratic Parliament has seen the development of a newly conceptualised, bicameral Parliament in a new State. We identify general tendencies toward stabilisation, similar to Western European parliamentary practices. Another trend is the gradual change from organising the Parliament according to the majority principle to that of consensus.
The following chapter is dedicated to the discussions on the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty by the Parliament of the Czech Republic and its further implications. The first part deals with the stance of the Czech political elite towards the European integration and its further deepening, which should allow us to understand the grounds for its behaviour. The next part analyses the actual ratification discussions, which were extended into the Czech Presidency term.
The Chapter deals with the socio-demographic structure of the MPs. It focuses on the age, sex, education and occupation before the election and presents them from the point of view of the electoral terms and political parties. Finally, it analyses the effect of those features on the political attitudes and positioning of the seats within the Chamber.
The article examines four centre-right parties in East-Central Europe in order to assess the impact of ideology on party organization and revisit the thesis of organizational weakness in the region. The data collected indicate that, together with electoral success, inherited resources and national context, ideology does indeed shape the style of organization.
The chapter concentrates on the role of an MP and its perception. First it analyzes who deputies represent, how do they perceive tenor mandate and what linkage do they have to their party and electoral district. The second part of the chapter deals with the work of MPs in the parliamentary commissions, so to their specialist work. The result of this analysis is a complex evaluation of the role of an MP and its perception.
National rather than regional party systems are the norm in most democratic states.The link between party system nationalization and the individual voter has not been examined in the same detail. Here this link is explored using an ecological inference analysis of vote switching. This research, using the Czech Republic as a case study, shows that the presence of high party system nationalization evident across a pair of elections may be associated with non-uniform electoral swings.
The chapter is devoted to the relationship between the Chamber of Deputies and the government. The first part deals with the position of both these subjects in the Czech political system; the second part focuses on the composition of government and the vote of confidence or no confidence in each election term.
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