Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2011, 47(1): 61-88 | DOI: 10.13060/00380288.2011.47.1.04

Parties in the Policy Space: The Case of the Czech Republic

Roman Chytilek, Otto Eibl
Fakulta sociálních studií, Masarykova univerzita, Brno

This article is based on a top-down approach to investigating political interactions between parties and voters and introduces the policy-space perspective into this approach. Its basic premise is as follows: through the application of categories of the proximity/distance of political actors, conflicts latently or manifestly present in a party system can be represented in the policy space. Mapping the policy space traces these relationships and helps to answer the question: What are the positions of political parties on the selected political topics? After providing an overview of existing scholarship on policy-space perspective in Czech politics, the article introduces and discusses a substantive and methodological decision that must be made in this type of research. The empirical part of the article replicates key aspects of Kenneth Benoit's and Michael Laver's study mapping policy spaces in modern democracies. The article employs as yet unpublished data from a late 2008 expert panel on the political positions of Czech parliamentary political parties. On the basis of this data the article seeks to answer the following research questions: What is the character of the Czech policy space? What is the relationship between substantive policy dimensions and the synthetic right-left dimension? What additional potential does mapping the policy space offer in comparison with research based on other premises?

Keywords: policy space, distance, conflict dimension, party system, top-down approach.

Published: February 1, 2011Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Chytilek, R., & Eibl, O. (2011). Parties in the Policy Space: The Case of the Czech Republic. Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review, 47(1), 61-88. doi: 10.13060/00380288.2011.47.1.04.
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Bakke, Elisabeth, Nick Sitter. 2005. "Patterns of Stability. Party Competition and Strategy in Central Europe since 1989." Party Politics 11 (2): 243-263. Go to original source...
    2. Bélanger, Éric, Bonnie M. Meguid. 2008. "Issue Salience, Issue Ownership, and Issue-based Vote Choice." Electoral Studies 27 (3): 477-491. Go to original source...
    3. Benoit, Kenneth, Michael Laver. 2005. "Mapping the Irish Policy Space: Voter and Party Spaces in Preferential Elections." The Economic and Social Review 36 (2): 83-108. Go to original source...
    4. Benoit, Kenneth, Michael Laver. 2006. Party Policy in Modern Democracies. London: Routledge. Go to original source...
    5. Benoit, Kenneth, Michael Laver. 2007a. "Estimating Party Policy Positions: Comparing Expert Surveys and Hand-coded Content Analysis." Electoral Studies 26 (1): 90-107. Go to original source...
    6. Benoit, Kenneth, Michael Laver. 2007b. "Benchmarks for Text Analysis: A Response to Budge and Pennings." Electoral Studies 26 (1): 130-135. Go to original source...
    7. Budge, Ian. 2000. "Expert Judgements of Party Policy Positions: Use and Limitations in Political Research." European Journal of Political Research 37 (1): 103-113. Go to original source...
    8. Budge, Ian, Dennis J. Farlie. 1983. Explaining and Predicting Elections: Issue Effects and Party Strategies in Twenty-Three Democracies. London: George Allen & Unwin.
    9. Budge, Ian, Hans-Dieter Klingemann, Andrea Volkens, Judith Bara, Eric Tanenbaum. 2001. Mapping Policy Preferences. Estimates for Parties, Electors, and Governments 1945-1998. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
    10. Budge, Ian, Paul Pennings. 2007. "Missing the Message and Shooting the Messenger: Benoit and Laver's 'Response'." Electoral Studies 26 (1): 136-141. Go to original source...
    11. Carter, Neil. 2001. The Politics of the Environment. Ideas, Activism and Policy. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. Go to original source...
    12. Çarkoğlu, Ali, Melvin J. Hinich. 2006. "A Spatial Analysis of Turkish Party Preferences." Electoral Studies 25 (2): 369-392. Go to original source...
    13. Červenka, Jan. 2006. "Současný stranický systém z perspektivy konfliktních linií." Pp. 115-138 in Daniel Kunštát (ed.). České veřejné mínění: výzkum a teoretické souvislosti. Praha: Sociologický ústav AV ČR.
    14. Dow, Jay K. 2001. "A Comparative Spatial Analysis of Majoritarian and Proportional Elections." Electoral Studies 20 (1): 109-125. Go to original source...
    15. Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper.
    16. Enelow, James N., Melvin J. Hinich. 1984. The Spatial Theory of Voting: An Introduction. Cambridge, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
    17. Enelow, James N., Melvin J. Hinich (eds.). 1990. Advances in the Spatial Theory of Voting. Cambridge, New York, Port Chester, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press.
    18. Enyedi, Zsolt. 2005. "The Role of Agency in Cleavage Formation." European Journal of Political Research 44 (5): 697-720. Go to original source...
    19. Evans, Geoffrey, Stephen Whitefield. 1993. "Identifying the Bases of Party Competition in Eastern Europe." British Journal of Political Science 23 (5): 21-48. Go to original source...
    20. Evans, Geoffrey, Stephen Whitefield. 1998. "The Structuring of Political Cleavages in Post-Communist Societies: the Case of the Czech Republic and Slovakia." Political Studies 46 (1): 115-139. Go to original source...
    21. Fiala, Petr, Vít Hloušek. 2003. "Stranický systém České republiky." Pp. 13-54 in Petr Fiala, Ryszard Herbut et al. Středoevropské systémy politických stran. Česká republika, Maďarsko, Polsko a Slovensko. Brno: Mezinárodní politologický ústav MU.
    22. Fukuyama, Francis. 1992. The End of History and the Last Man. New York: Free Press.
    23. Gabel, Matthew J., John D. Huber. 2000. "Putting Parties in Their Place: Inferring Party Left-Right Ideological Positions from Party Manifestos Data." American Journal of Political Science 44 (1): 94-103. Go to original source...
    24. Havlík, Vlastimil. 2008. "Jak je měřit? Přístupy a metody analýzy postojů politických stran k evropské integraci." Středoevropské politické studie 10 (4): 340-369.
    25. Havlík, Vlastimil, Hana Vykoupilová. 2008. "Two Dimensions of the Europeanization of Election Programs: The Case of the Czech Republic." Communist and PostCommunist Studies 41 (2): 163-187. Go to original source...
    26. Hloušek, Vít, Lubomír Kopeček. 2004. Konfliktní demokracie. Moderní masová politika ve střední Evropě. Brno: Mezinárodní politologický ústav MU.
    27. Hloušek, Vít, Lubomír Kopeček. 2008. "Cleavages in the Contemporary Czech and Slovak Politics. Between Persistence and Change." East European Politics and Societies 22 (3): 518-552. Go to original source...
    28. Hotelling, Harold. 1929. "Stability in Competition." The Economic Journal 39 (153): 41-57. Go to original source...
    29. Inglehart, Ronald. 1997. Modernization and Postmodernization. Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
    30. Inglehart, Ronald, John Huber. 1995. "Expert Interpretations of Party Space and Party Locations." Party Politics 1 (1): 73-112. Go to original source...
    31. Kitschelt, Herbert. 1992. "The Formation of Party Systems in East Central Europe." Politics & Society 20 (1): 7-51. Go to original source...
    32. Kitschelt, Herbert, Zdenka Mansfeldová, Radoslav Markowski, Gábor Tóka. 1999. Post-Communist Party Systems. Competition, Representation and Inter-Party Cooperation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Go to original source...
    33. Kitschelt, Herbert, Regina Smyth. 2002. "Programmatic Party Cohesion in Emerging Postcommunist Democracies. Russia in Comparative Context." Comparative Political Studies 35 (10): 1128-1256. Go to original source...
    34. Kitschelt, Herbert. 2004. "Parties and Political Intermediation." Pp. 149-164 in Kate Nash, Scott Allan (eds.). Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Go to original source...
    35. Kouba, Karel. 2007. "Prostorová analýza českého stranického systému. Institucionalizace a prostorové režimy." Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 43 (5): 1017-1037. Go to original source...
    36. Kreidl, Martin, Klára Vlachová. 1999. "Sociální zázemí extrémní pravice v ČR. Voliči SPR-RSČ v letech 1996-1998." Sociologický časopis 35 (3): 335-354.
    37. Krejčí, Oskar. 1994. Kniha o volbách. Praha: Victoria Publishing.
    38. Kunštát, Daniel. 2006. "Stranická identifikace českých voličů." Pp. 139-153 in Daniel Kunštát (ed.). České veřejné mínění: výzkum a teoretické souvislosti. Praha: Sociologický ústav AV ČR.
    39. Kunštát, Daniel. 2007. "Sociální a demografický profil voličského zázemí českých politických stran." Naše společnost [online] 5 (1) [cit. 23. 1. 2010]. Dostupné z: <www.cvvm.cas.cz/upl/nase_spolecnost/100066s_Volici.pdf>.
    40. Laver, Michael, Kenneth Benoit, John Garry. 2003. "Extracting Policy Positions from Political Texts Using Words as Data." American Political Science Review 97 (2): 311-331. Go to original source...
    41. Laver, Michael, W. Ben Hunt. 1992. Policy and Party Competition. London: Routledge.
    42. Laver, Michael, Norman Schofield. 1990. Multiparty Government. The Politics of Coalition in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    43. Lawson, Key, Andrea Römmele, Georgi Karasimeonov (eds.). 1999. Cleavages, Parties and Voters: Studies from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania. Westport, CT: Praeger.
    44. Linek, Lukáš. 2008. "Hodnotové systémy politických elit a veřejnosti." Socioweb [online] 6 (10) [cit. 23. 1. 2010]. Dostupné z: <http://www.soc.cas.cz/download/675/10_07_socioweb_Linek.pdf>.
    45. Mansfeldová, Zdenka. 2003. "Obsahová analýza volebních programů českých politických stran." Pp. 470-478 in Vladimíra Dvořáková, Andrea Heroutová (eds.). II. kongres českých politologů. Praha: Česká společnost pro politické vědy.
    46. Matthews, Steven A. "A Simple Direction Model of Electoral Competition." Public Choice 34 (2): 141-156.
    47. McElroy, Gail, Kenneth Benoit. 2007. "Party Groups and Policy Postions in the European Parliament." Party Politics 13 (1): 5-28. Go to original source...
    48. Merrill, Samuel III., Bernard Grofman. 1999. A Unified Theory of Voting: Directional and Proximity Spatial Models. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Go to original source...
    49. Matthews, Steven A. "A Simple Direction Model of Electoral Competition." Public Choice 34 (2): 141-156.
    50. Mikhaylov, Slava, Michael Laver, Kenneth Benoit. 2008. "Coder Reliability and Misclassification in Comparative Manifesto Project Codings." Příspěvek přednesený na výročním shromáždění Midwest Political Science Association. Chicago, 3.-6. 4. 2008.
    51. Miller, William L., Stephen White, Paul Heywood. 1998. "Political Values Underlying Partisan Cleavages in Former Communist Countries." Electoral Studies 17 (2): 197-216. Go to original source...
    52. Novák, Miroslav. 1999. "Utváření stranického systému v českých zemích." Politologický časopis / Czech Journal of Political Science 6 (2): 133-145.
    53. Novák, Miroslav, Klára Vlachová. 2001. Linie štěpení v České republice. Komparace národní úrovně s příkladem konkrétní lokality. Sociologické texty / Sociological Papers 01:08. Praha: Sociologický ústav AV ČR.
    54. Petrocik, John R. 1996. "Issue Ownership in Presidential Elections, with a 1980 Case Study." American Journal of Political Science 40 (3): 825-850. Go to original source...
    55. Rabinowitz, George, Stuart Elaine MacDonald. 1989. "A Directional Theory of Issue Voting." American Political Science Review 83 (1): 93-121. Go to original source...
    56. Rokkan, Stein, Seymour M. Lipset. 1967. Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-National Perspectives. New York: Free Press.
    57. Schofield, Norman, Itai Sened. 2006. Multiparty Democracy. Elections and Legislative Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press. Go to original source...
    58. Scully, Roger, David M. Farrell. 2003. "MEPs as Representatives. Individual and Institutional Roles." Journal of Common Market Studies 41 (2): 269-288. Go to original source...
    59. Steenbergen, Marco R., Gary Marks. 2007. "Evaluating Expert Judgements." European Journal of Political Research 46 (3): 347-366. Go to original source...
    60. Strmiska, Maxmilián. 2007. "The Czech Party System: A Few Observations on Properties and Working Logic of the Czech Party Arrangement." Pp. 107-115 in Vít Hloušek, Roman Chytilek (eds.). Parliamentary Elections and Party Landscape in the Visegrád Group Countries. Brno: Centrum pro studium demokracie a kultury.
    61. Šedo, Jakub. 2007. Volební systémy postkomunistických zemí. Brno: Centrum pro studium demokracie a kultury.
    62. Švancara, Jan. 2007. Wordscores - metoda analýzy politických textů. [online]. Diplomová práce. Praha: Fakulta sociálních studií MU [cit. 23. 1. 2010]. Dostupné z: <http://is.muni.cz/th/75346/fss_m/svancara.pdf?lang=en>.
    63. Vinopal, Jiří. 2006. "Empirická přístupnost levo-pravé politické orientace." Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 42 (1): 129-147. Go to original source...
    64. Vlachová, Klára, Petr Matějů. 1998. "Krystalizace politických postojů a politického spektra v České republice." Sociologický časopis 34 (2): 145-170.
    65. Volkens, Andrea. 2005. "Comparative Manifesto Project, Manifesto Research Group - Manifesto Data Set 2005, Data Handbook." [online] Berlin: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung [cit. 23. 1. 2010]. Dostupné z: <http://www.wzb.eu/zkd/dsl/pdf/Manifesto-Project.pdf>.
    66. Whitefield, Stephen. 2002. "Political Cleavages and Post-Communist Politics." Annual Review of Political Science 5: 181-200. Go to original source...
    67. Wlezien, Christopher. 2005. "On the Salience of Political Issues: The Problem with 'Most Important Problem'." Electoral Studies 24 (4): 555-579. Go to original source...
    68. Zielinski, Jakub. 2002. "Translating Social Cleavages into Party Systems: The Significance of New Democracies." World Politics 54 (2): 184-211. Go to original source...

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content