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Academics usually look for constitutional conventions in Westminster-style democracies, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, or Australia. Nevertheless, growing evidence from practice shows that constitutional conventions are similarly essential attributes of even substantially different political regimes. This article is the first paper to systematically deal with constitutional conventions in the Czech Republic. To be more specific, I identify eight existing constitutional conventions there: (1) respect for the parliamentary majority, (2) institution of a formateur, (3) simultaneous existence of two prime ministers, (4) new cabinet's statement of policy, (5) delegation of negotiation and ratification of international treaties, (6) appointment of a (vice-)governor of the Czech National Bank without a countersignature, (7) missing signature of the president under laws, and (8) single vice-chairperson of the Supreme Court. On one hand, the scrutiny shows that constitutional conventions play an already established and important role even in a Central European democracy. On the other hand, the lack of political respect for unwritten rules and the relative immaturity of Czech democracy confirm that constitutional conventions are as fragile (or as strong) as political actors allow. Thanks to these facts, the study of constitutional conventions in the post-communist country is a precious laboratory with universal findings even for long-existing democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction to the selection of the papers presented at a two-day workshop “The End of the Story?” Problems and Perspectives of East European Literary Studies,” held at Princeton University on 8–9 February 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article deals with the membership of the most important Czech political party, ANO (meaning "yes" in Czech), led by Andrej Babiš, in the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). Our goals are to reconstruct how Babiš's party joined ALDE and to discuss the ideological differences between ANO and ALDE. The paper shows that ALDE's offer of membership in 2014 was motivated by a pragmatic need to bolster its own position in the European Parliament; ANO, meanwhile, needed to anchor itself in European politics. Andrej Babiš's technocratic and illiberal view was not apparent at the beginning, but more importantly, this did not matter to ALDE. ALDE's Czech "point of contact," ANO's foreign policy expert and the leader of its party group in the European Parliament, Pavel Telička, made ANO's membership credible. However, as a Euro-optimist, Telička was not compatible with ANO's flexible ideological character in the long term and the party group split up. A comparison of the parties' European Parliament election manifestos and positions on crucial controversial European issues clearly reveals a deep division between ALDE and ANO—and their fundamentally opposed ideological positions. We describe the findings as a new hyper-pragmatic trend in the creation of Europarties, which weakens their ideological cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article belongs to the special cluster, "Think Tanks in Central and Eastern Europe", guest-edited by Katarzyna Jezierska and Serena Giusti. What is the role of think tanks in Europeanization of national public spheres? To address this question, our paper explores the performance of think tanks in the immigration debate in the Czech Republic. Employing political claims analysis (PCA) and treating think tanks as boundary organizations active in multiple fields, we compare the levels of Europeanization of political claims made by think tanks with other actors. Our data set includes 2,374 political claims made on broadcast public TV in the period from April 2015 to March 2016. According to our quantitative data, Czech think tanks chose the discursive strategy of Europeanization more often than any other actor represented. Thus, think tanks have the potential to support Europeanization of national public spheres. However, their representation in media coverage is relatively low. Our results also demonstrate that think tanks should be treated as sui generis organizations since their strategy in the public sphere deviates from that of other civil society organizations. Think tanks Europeanized their claims-making, but others largely stayed on the national level while discussing the refugee crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the candidate selection process for realistic list positions with regard to multiple-office holding and personal characteristics in flexible-list proportional representation (PR) systems within the Czech context. More specifically, this issue is explored in the 2006–2017 elections to the Czech Chamber of Deputies. Results of binary logistic regression analysis with observations clustered by party or constituency indicate that incumbents (with or without multiple office holding) stand a significantly higher probability of being selected as a realistic candidate. This probability increases only if the incumbent also has the regional mandate. The results also show that candidates with a PhD degree or higher, with a higher public office position, at the age of forty-one to fifty years, or with residence in a regional capital or in Prague have a significant probability of being selected as a realistic candidate. A specific gender bias was also found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are only two European Union (EU) states where hard coal is still mined: Poland and the Czech Republic. One of the key interest groups in the hard coal mining industry are trade unions. They are particularly strong in this sector, almost entirely controlled by the state, in Poland—without their approval, it is in fact impossible to implement any significant reforms. The main goal of the article is to explain the influence of trade unions operating in the hard coal mining sector in Poland and the Czech Republic on the results of the reforms of this sector carried out in 2015–2019. The framework for empirical analysis is the theoretical output on interest groups and the power resources approach. Measuring the influence of an interest group on the decision-making process is one of the greatest challenges in research on interest groups. However, the empirical analysis allows us to conclude that the purposes of mining trade unions both in Poland and in the Czech Republic were consistent, that the shape of the reforms introduced in 2015–2019 was convergent with these goals, and that the activity of trade unions had a very big impact on these reforms. However, in the long run, hard coal mining in Europe is in decline and trade unions are only trying to stop what is inevitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes historical monuments as instruments of Russia's attempts to impose its aesthetic hegemony in the post-Communist world. Drawing on case studies from the Czech Republic and Estonia, it argues that this hegemony is precarious and vulnerable due to inability to deal with the inherent ambiguity and complexity of historical events and figures. The Russian approach regards historical truth in absolute terms and is underpinned by a zero-sum game understanding of historical narratives. It does not tolerate a multiplicity of perspectives on history and has no appreciation for postmodernist deconstruction of historical symbols. This conflicts with a more diverse, reflexive and inclusive politics of memory as an intrinsic element of cityscapes of Prague and Tallinn where some of the controversial monuments connected with the Soviet occupation have been removed. Russia's reaction to these changes reveals an inherently vulnerable nature of its aesthetic hegemony which is deeply dependent on recognition of the absolute nature of its historical truth that the monuments are supposed to embody. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Holding two second-order elections simultaneously is expected to increase electoral participation. We exploit a natural experiment in which one group of Czech precincts was "as if" randomly assigned to holding subnational elections concurrently with senatorial ones. Using a unique data set containing variables on more than thirteen thousand precincts in five elections between 2000 and 2016, we detect a modest effect of concurrency only in the first election but no or inconsistent effect in the four subsequent contests. Furthermore, we report a strong effect of concurrency on invalid voting. We check for robustness using difference-in-differences design and matching techniques. Incongruent with existing theories, concurrency does not deliver on its promises and may come at a substantial cost to political representation. The surprising null effect on turnout is attributable to analyzing the effect of concurrency of the less salient on more salient elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the differences in pledge fulfilment strategies in majority and substantive minority governments. Issue ownership and dynamic agenda-setting literature are applied, expecting that government parties will focus on fulfilling the party's most salient pledges, and also the pledges that are publicly salient for the whole electorate. Adding these expectations to the context of substantive minority governments, parties must accommodate these attempts because they face the opposition actor(s) with veto power and their own policy motivation. Compared to majority governments, the odds of adopting party-salient pledges should decrease for minority coalition parties. The effect of public-salient issues should also differ from the majority governments. This analysis is conducted on government party pledges in one minority and two majority governments in the Czech Republic (formed after 2006, 2010, and 2013 elections). The analysis shows a generally weak effect for party and public issue salience on pledge fulfilment. The decreasing effect of party issue salience for minority government parties is supported; the effect of public issue salience does, however, not differ in its decreasing direction from the majority governments. The additional model including combinations of the high and low party and public salience shows that for minority governments, public salience decreases the odds of fulfilment regardless of party issue salience. The article concludes with a contextual explanation of the minority government's special character in the Czech case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why, when, and how does populism emerge in a stable democracy? This article investigates the political logic and ideological appeal of a rarely explored form of populism: technocratic populism. Technocratic populism uses the appeal of technical expertise to connect directly with the people, promising to run the state as a firm, while at the same time delegitimizing political opponents and demobilizing the electorate by instilling civic apathy. Technocratic populism is an anti-elite ideology that exploits competence to create the appearance of authenticity and proximity to ordinary people. It is less exclusionary than nativist or economic forms of populisms and its broad appeal is therefore arguably more threatening to representative democracy. In order to understand the appeal of technocratic populism, as well as why it arises at critical junctures when dominant ideologies are in turmoil, we argue that one must not ignore its historical roots, which shows that it transcends both regime changes and the traditional left–right divide. The article develops and examines these points using evidence from communist-era populist campaigns against "elitist" dissidents (from Charter 77) in the Czech Republic, and demonstrates how post-1989 politicians have exploited and also adapted ideas and strategies from the authoritarian past for the new democratic setting. The article highlights the adaptive character of technocratic populism across political regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the influence of presidents in the government formation process (GFP). The authors propose an original classification of roles of presidents, reflecting real constitutional practice, with five categories based on real presidential influence on the GFP, from the weakest to the strongest: observer, notary, regulator, co-designer, and creator. This classification is applied to Czechia, where the formal constitution gives the president great opportunities to intervene in the GFP. The results of the analysis of all cases of GFP show a significant variety of roles the Czech presidents have played: from notary to creator. Two factors are particularly important. Firstly, the timing of elections proved significant. When the GFP directly followed parliamentary elections, the presidents were weaker. In contrast, if the GFP followed a government break-up during the electoral term of the Chamber of Deputies, presidents were significantly stronger. Secondly, it depends on the real power of parties, that is, their ability to act together as a cohesive parliamentary majority. In most cases, the presidents showed their resolve to play a greater role than a notary, but they often faced a firm parliamentary majority that actually did not allow them to exert greater influence on the GFP. In contrast, the political proximity between the president and parliamentary parties appears difficult to assess, because there has been the public desire of non-partisan or "above-partisan" presidents in Czechia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business-firm parties founded on the initiative of a political entrepreneur are a phenomenon of growing importance in contemporary party politics. In practice, these are either commercial companies, whose structure is used for a political project, or new and separate organisations constructed on business principles. This article examines the case of Czech party ANO (“YES”), established by the owner of the Agrofert holding company Andrej Babiš. The party achieved remarkable success in the 2013 Czech general election. The opportunity for ANO’s success was provided by strong voter dissatisfaction, reinforced by the scandalous circumstances of the centre-right government’s fall. This context created a fertile ground for the introduction of a new entity espousing anti-party, anti-corruption, and anti-political sentiments. In ANO’s organisation and functioning, a strengthening of certain traits characteristic of this type of parties is apparent. A robust system for screening party members and representatives has been gradually put into place, and human resources–style techniques of psychological testing were employed at the party’s inception. Furthermore, the power in the party has been wholly centralised around the leader, and the party’s territorial structures assigned merely service tasks. ANO has also maximised its electoral-professional orientation. The strengthening of the typical traits of a business-firm party can be explained by reference to the party’s origin in the business environment and the notions entertained by its leader. In many respects, Babiš’s party has brought the organisational model of a business-firm party to its limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigations into Central Europe’s emerging party–state relationships—in contrast to those of the former Soviet Union—have focused less on the abuse of public office for private gain and more on patronage and clientelism as political resources. That debate in turn has been bounded by the conventional political science preoccupation with civil society, party, and state relations. This article contends that these conventions have tended to deflect our attention from the contemporary dynamics of political corruption in Central Europe, in which the commercial sector is a major player and the gains of political players primarily private. Building on the assumption that party systemic adaptations are contingent on changing power relations within the political economy, this article offers an ideal typical party model to characterise the behaviour of political parties that preside over the continuous marketization of the state. A “corporate brokerage party” directs its strategic focus to the private sector and acts primarily as a broker of the state’s power in the marketplace, whether expressed through privatisation, regulation, or public procurement. Using the Czech Republic as a critical case study for Central Europe, the evidence suggests that politicians able to direct allocation to the private sector with low regulatory constraints act less evidently as technocratic brokers of the public interest, partisan constituency, or organisation builders and more as private agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Czech Constitutional Court has gained a strong position within the political system. This article examines the judicial review of legislation from the point of view of the relation between the court and the parliament. The authors analyze trends in the use of petitions proposing the annulment of statutes, who makes use of the petitions, how successful the petitioners are, and what issues the petitions concern. The article pairs a quantitative view with a qualitative analysis of key selected decisions by the court, especially in the sphere of mega-politics. The authors test whether judicial review of legislation serves as a tool for parliamentary opposition. The results show the decisive effects of a legislative majority in the lower house of the parliament. If the government lacks a majority, the use of judicial review of legislation as an oppositional tool fades. Also important is the weakness of the upper house, which makes senators more likely to resort to using judicial review of legislation. An especially crucial factor is the presence of independent and semi-independent senators who, without broader political backing, see judicial review of legislation as a welcome tool. The most frequent topics of the petitions were transitional justice, social policy, and the legislative process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short essay introduces three articles about Socialist prefabricated apartment buildings in the Czech Republic and Poland. The essay begins by noting the impossibility of replacing the apartment blocks of the Communist bloc after 1989, despite their clear connotation with the undesirable gray uniformity of the old regime, and asks what their legacy has been for their inhabitants in the twenty years since. Based on summaries of the three articles by My Svensson, Adrienne Harris, and Kimberly Zarecor that follow, it draws some conclusions about the prefab neighborhoods. While the first two authors, who consider filmic and literary depiction of life in the blocks, tend to focus on the despair and entrapment people feel there, Zarecor, who notes the pre-socialist origins of prefabricated apartment buildings, uses contemporary surveys and other sources to demonstrate ways that they have proven adaptable to post-socialist life. All three articles suggest that the blocks of the former Communist bloc may be more similar to the “projects” of the West than formerly thought. It seems that the buildings’ gray uniformity has meant that they can serve both as the backdrop for slums and degradation, or, if refurbished and repainted, as an adequate post-socialist living space. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article investigates the development over time of the automotive and textile industries post-1989 in four Central European countries in order to identify the key reasons behind sectoral growth or decline. The analysis demonstrates a divergent pattern of sectoral development, one that is in contrast to the perceived initial endowments of the countries and the structural positions of the sectors at the outset of the transition. Comparing the two sectors and individual success stories within them against a broader background of sectoral success and failure allows us to understand and isolate factors that lie behind the high status of the automotive sector by not only regional but also international standards. The article identifies three crucial factors that can be attributed to these outcomes: presence of foreign capital in the sector, active government support, and cooperative strategies among the firms in the sector and among the firms and other institutions in the countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Czech Republic’s socialist-era neighborhoods are largely intact twenty years after the end of Communist Party rule. These buildings will be rehabilitated, but not replaced, because of financial and logistical constraints. In the context of the country’s accession to the European Union in 2004 and the recent global economic crisis, this essay questions what can and should be done in an effort to make these neighborhoods better places to live in the present and the future. It starts with a brief history of postwar housing construction and socialist-era design methodologies, exploring postwar architectural practice and innovations in construction technology that were connected to the industrialization of housing production. The role of the Baťa Company in the development of panelák technology is described. In the context of post-socialist rehabilitation efforts, the discussion addresses current housing policy including regulated rents and the shift in emphasis from renting to ownership. Government subsidies and grant programs are considered, as well as problems such as physical degradation and social segregation. The essay proposes that for the future the social and spatial ideas that were part of the original designs may be more important than the architectural style of individual buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyses the dissolution of the extreme right Workers’ Party by the Czech courts in 2010. It situates the case in the historical development of party closures by militant democracy on Czech territory and explains why the Workers’ Party was the first party to be dissolved in the Czech Republic after the fall of the Communist regime. It also describes the legislative framework in contemporary Czech law for the dissolution of political parties. It details the political and legal repercussions of the ruling and the wider discussions it provoked, not only in political and expert circles but also among the general public. Given the fact that the case was taken to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the European dimension of the dissolution of the Workers’ Party is also analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The dramatic changes of 1989 have been widely understood as the confirmation of Western, liberal democracy as the ultimate model of the modern polity. The fact that 1989 was about a dual language that not only emphasized the rule of law and the implementation of rights, but also articulated ideas of democracy alternative to the mainstream liberal-constitutional idea, has not been at the forefront of interpretations of post-1989 trajectories. This does not mean, though, that 1989 has not had implications for the democratic imaginary and structures emerging in the new democracies. Dissidence has had important even if less visible implications for democratic imaginary and structure in ways that are still being played out. It should be recognized that the events of 1989 and dissident thought also indicated alternative, republican democratic models that have had implications for the democratic structures emerging in the wake of 1989. In the contribution, the author will first briefly discuss the one-sidedness of interpretations of democracy in post-1989 Central and Eastern Europe and, subsequently, highlight one alternative understanding of democracy that has emerged in some of the dissidents’ ideas prior to and in 1989, in particular in terms of notions of republican democracy. Second, the author will discuss some instances—predominantly referring to the experiences in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland—in which the influence of dissident ideas on constitutional and legal-institutional transformations, in particular regarding local self-government and direct democracy, becomes visible. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article investigates whether the Visegrád Group (VG) is proving capable of a successful transition from preaccession to postaccession cooperation in the expanded European Union (EU). Prior to EU accession, the VG agenda mainly emphasised political cooperation around strategic goals of EU and NATO membership, acting as an incubation chamber and the organising framework for joint policies and actions. The article finds that pessimistic prognoses for postaccession VG cooperation in circulation around the time of EU entry rather underestimated the VG's staying power and its usefulness as a vehicle for serving some of the requirements and challenges of the actuality of the "return to Europe." The postaccession agenda seems to have opened up many new avenues for cooperation on both intra-VG and external affairs, including towards the EU, and seems to have given rise to the kind of substantial practical cooperation agenda that eluded the VG during the preaccession period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes and compares Czech and Slovak party politics after 1989. The concept of cleavages is used as a theoretical starting point. The authors point out that although the communist period overshadowed the traditional cleavages dating from the second half of the nineteenth century, it is possible to analyze some politically-based cleavages in the respective party arrangements of the two countries. The main conclusion of the article is as follows: that despite differing trajectories of political development during the 1990s, at the present time, both the Czech and Slovak party systems show great similarities in terms of the prevalence of the socioeconomic cleavage. Socioeconomic cleavage emerged quite early after 1989 in the Czech Republic; in Slovakia the socioeconomic cleavage has become dominant only in recent years. This has contributed to the stabilization of the classic left-right model of political competition and the consolidation of the two countries' party systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines changes in the structure and operation of the Czech Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) after the collapse of communism through its entry into the European Union. Like all foreign ministries, the MFA must adapt to the changing nature of diplomacy, where the distinction between foreign policy and domestic policy has become increasingly blurred. The MFA must compete in a more crowded foreign policy-making environment. However, the MFA has also been transformed by the collapse of communism. The ministry has been purged and forced to reevaluate its operations, goals, and institutional culture. This article evaluates the success of the MFA in meeting these significant challenges, and compares these reforms to the reforms of other ministries in the Czech Republic and other foreign ministries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the development of Czech policy after 1989 and the controversies it caused. It first looks at the ambiguous nature of the communist welfare state and then proceeds to outline the theoretical alternatives. After early and energetic changes in the system, stagnation set in around the mid-1990s. Despite some problems, the current performance of the system is satisfactory, but its outlook in terms of long-term efficiency is unsatisfactory, as it will generate a rising debt into the future. In particular, the disadvantaged situation for families, the insufficient work motivation, and the frozen pension system are all causes for concern. The political shift to the right after 2006 ushered in reform measures and new reform plans. While reforms are necessary, their feasibility is uncertain owing to the fragility of the Czech political scene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explains, first, why there was a uniform emergence of equal opportunities legislation across East Central European states in the late 1990s and early 2000s and, second, why the speed of adoption varied across countries. The author deviates from a traditional comparative focus on domestic factors and instead treats her two case studies—Poland and the Czech Republic—as part of an international system in which external actors can exert a simultaneous but differential effect on domestic policies. The author argues that the European Union (EU) accession process prompted equal opportunities legislation in both countries but domestic actors mediated this influence in different ways. In Poland, legislation was delayed due to an organized opposition to EU gender equity laws and its close ties to parties of the Right in government, two factors absent from the Czech case where laws passed earlier. The author also suggests that the EU's financial and political resources may enable it to reshape these domestic actors in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous Central and Eastern European countries have restructured their regional level of public administration in the context of their accession to the European Union. Focusing on the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the article studies how the EU has influenced the institutionalization of regions and regional self-government. Regionalization may have been driven mainly by EU conditionality or, as a competing explanation suggests, more by domestic factors. The article argues that the EU altered the opportunity structure faced by domestic actors but that its role was more complementary than decisive. Czech and Slovak governments instrumentalized a perceived EU conditionality to promote their own political objectives. These findings demonstrate that a top-down concept of conditionality lends itself to fallacies and should be substantiated by reconstructing the domestic politics of Europeanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The euroscepticism of the Czech Civic Democratic Party (ODS) is well known but has been rarely examined in detail. This is surprising, given how poorly ODS fits the profile of eurosceptic parties. These are usually marginal radical groupings. This article maps the developing euroscepticism of the Czech centre-right between 1991 and 2002. It notes a shift from a euroscepticism stressing neo-liberalism and Czech and Central European distinctness to one stressing the defence of "national interests" against German-inspired eurofederalism. Existing explanations of ODS euroscepticism present it as simultaneously ideologically dogmatic and opportunistic. A similar ideology-versus-strategy dichotomy informs much emerging euroscepticism literature. Such new centre-right parties in post-communist Europe, which originated as vehicles for post-communist transformation, challenge this view. As they become strategically and ideologically exhausted in an era of increasingly "normal" party competition, euroscepticism may enable them to combine ideological renewal and the development of new catchall appeals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the nostalgia for the popular culture of communism in the Czech Republic. State of mass culture under communism; Consumer-oriented popular culture; Legacies of communism.

Asserts the collapse of the center-right coalition government in the Czech Republic. Domination of corruption in the national politics; Effect of corruption on transition politics; Analysis of the impact of corruption on democratization and marketization.