Low Membership in Czech Political Parties: Party Strategy or Structural Determinants?

Political parties in the post-communist countries are said to focus on electoral strategies and not on organizational building. Based on the detailed research of Czech political parties, we argue that political parties facing an environment that was hostile to organised partisanship adapted their organizational strategies to make party membership more attractive. Even though they experience a continually falling number of members or at least their stagnation. We show that the main reason for this lies not in parties’ lack of interest about members, but in psychological barriers among the public.