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The essay discusses Central Eastern Europe as a ‘laboratory’ of existing, emerg‑ing as well as contained elements of illiberal backlash. The Central European countries show both challenges and resilience mechanisms in more ‘extreme’ conditions than the cases from Western Europe. The paper offers the connection between the domestic development of Central European states and the ‘polycrisis’ of European integration by linking the issue of politicisation of European integration with the emergence of illiberal politics in contemporary Europe. The goal and main argument of the paper are that there exists a nexus between illiberal Central Eastern European politicians and rising Euroscepticism in the region. The empirical research of Central Eastern European cases will help us better understand general trends of European integration politicisation.

The contribution analyzes the Czech political parties´ stances towards the war at Ukraine. The contribution analyzes the Czech political parties´ stances towards the war at Ukraine.

INTRODUCTION The Czech Republic embodies a remarkable exception from the set of cases dealt with in this volume. From the macroscopic point of view, the Czech Republic resembles rather homogeneous country compared to Canada or Switzerland. Nationally and ethnically rather homogenous country1 with considerable low level of religious alignments, low profile of ethnic-based political parties and peacefully departed from Czechoslovak federation does not look intuitively to be an appropriate object of scholar research aimed at minority claims and their political treatment. Historical path towards the present situation, however, shows much colourful picture of a country struggling with multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic, as well as multi-religious composition of the population. To simplify slightly, an observer can read the history of the second half of Czech 20th century as a history of de-complexification of Czech population. After extermination of Jewish population of Czechoslovakia, the German (and to considerable lower level Hungarian) inhabitants of Czechoslovakia were expelled, Ruthenia with Ukrainian-speaking (but with strong distinctive regional identity equipped) population was transferred to the Soviet Union and after partition of Czechoslovakia, the remaining Czech Republic left behind salient issue of Hungarian minority inhabiting Southern Slovakian regions. This short history is far from being a triumph of Czech politics of solving the ethnic and national disputes. It can rather serve as an example of how drastic measures were adopted in Europe only slightly more than half a century ago to achieve one of the ideals painted by enlightened concept of modern homogeneous nation that rules over a comprehensive territory of a nation-state. Therefore, the important part of the study must be devoted to explanations of how the Czech lands once became multi-cultural, what problems it took along, what kind of conflict unfroze during periods of reluctant democratisation of the 19th and hasty de-democratisation of the 20th century and how the changing majority-minority configurations and clashed reached the climax in the turmoil if 1939-1945 period. The partially coincidental, however fully accepted by political elite as well as public, strategy of violent homogenisation of the territory of the Czech Lands after the World War II did not remain without consequences for the recent politics of minority issues in the Czech Republic. By analysing the claims of politically relevant and in the same time contentious minority issues, such as situation of Czech Roma population and different strategies of its politicisation, the paper will not only show path dependency on experiences with violent unification and homogenisation of the Czech Lands but it will address important issue of how to cope with minorities, that are – for different reasons – unable to set the coherent political appeal of claims and to create sound minority. The experience with these “silent” but visible minorities with huge and risky potential of arousing political conflicts can bring some lessons for larger European Union of today.

In the European Union (EU) today political parties face a range of issues and challenges within the party systems of their respective countries. For parties in new member states of the EU, those which underwent a process of democratic transition during the 1990s, the situation is more complicated than for the rest. In a way, their position is more precarious than that of their Western European counterparts, as the concept of “political party” has various and not always positive connotations in Central Europe. Our contribution will not attempt to evaluate the positives and negatives of party politics in all EU member states with postcommunist legacies, but will focus on the Czech Republic. V současné Evropské unii čelí politické strany ve svých zemím rozličným problémům a výzvám. Pro politické strany v nových členských zemích, tj. těch které prošly demokratickou tranzicí v 90. letech, je situace ještě komplikovanější. Ve srovnání se západní Evropou má ve střední Evropě totiž pojem politické strany často negativní konotace. V příspěvku analyzujeme nicméně nikoli situaci ve všech postkomunistických zemích EU, ale jen v České republice In the European Union (EU) today political parties face a range of issues and challenges within the party systems of their respective countries. For parties in new member states of the EU, those which underwent a process of democratic transition during the 1990s, the situation is more complicated than for the rest. In a way, their position is more precarious than that of their Western European counterparts, as the concept of “political party” has various and not always positive connotations in Central Europe. Our contribution will not attempt to evaluate the positives and negatives of party politics in all EU member states with postcommunist legacies, but will focus on the Czech Republic.

Článok sa zabýva problematikou tranzitívnej spravodlivosti vo vybraných krajinách strednej Európy. Diskutuje vzťah medzi spôsobom demokratickej tranzície a spôsobom a tempom tranzitívnej spravodlivosti. Hlavní pozornosť je venovaná analýze a komparácii tranzitívnej spravodlivosti v troch stredoeurópskych krajinách – Českej republike, Poľsku a Slovensku. Článek se zabývá problematikou tranzitivní spravedlnosti ve vybraných zemích střední Evropy. Diskutuje vztah mezi způsobem demokratické tranzice a způsobem a tempem tranzitivní spravedlnosti. Hlavní pozornost je věnována analýze a komparaci tranzitivní spravedlnosti ve třech středoevropských zemích – České republice, Polsku a Slovensku. The paper deals with the issue of transitional justice in selected East-Central European countries. The relation between the mode of democratic transition and the means and pace of transitional judicial processes is discussed. Main attention is paid to the analysis and comparison of transitional justice issues in three Central European countries – the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia.

This article studies the issue of a typological categorization for the Czech party system. The author works from Sartori’s concepts of moderate and polarized pluralism; the reasons for using this concept are laid out in the theoretical part of the text. An analysis of individual phases of development of the Czech party system shows that until the middle part of the last decade the Czech party system could not be fit into a single type. However, analysis of the current form of the Czech party system at the electoral and parliamentary levels shows that the today’s Czech multi-party system displays the characteristics of a moderate pluralism.

The article deals with the potential impact of the electoral system on the party system. The general discussion, based on Duverger’s and Sartori’s electoral rules, concludes with an assessment of the Austrian case. Austrian party system development is examined with regard to the evolution of the country’s proportional representation electoral system. The author tries to find more relevant explanations for the changes within the Austrian party system’s logic of functioning other than the electoral system, such as the de-alignment of voters and the changing structure of cleavages. In order to show another factor shaping the Austrian party system arrangement, the author tries to discuss not only recent development since the mid 1980s, but he also evaluates the Austrian First Republic and the period from 1945 to 1986 . The article concludes with the argument that Duverger’s and Sartori’s electoral rules could be useful in discussing party system format but they have very little to say when party system mechanics is concerned.