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ABSTRACT
This study compares three groups of full-time politicians in the Czech Republic. Two of these – MPs and mayors – came into existence in the early 1990s immediately after the fall of the communist regime, and the third, here referred to as county full-time politicians, appeared only at the turn of the millennium. To investigate their profiles and careers, a database was created from a wide range of sources, such as election results, county council meeting reports, county and personal websites, media databases and similar. Analysis of the database showed that establishing a second tier of local government (counties) opened up career opportunities primarily for members of the main political parties who had ambitions to become full-time politicians but did not want to disengage from the local network on which their political capital often rested. Like other politicians, those in the counties are predominantly middle-aged men with higher education. Furthermore, the party selectorates prefer candidates with experience in other elected positions. However, the ‘professional’ political career frequently starts at the county level. So far, the most typical have been county politicians who hold paid positions for one or two election terms. Transitions from or to other levels of government are often discrete. With the exception of the entry of municipal professionals into county politics, these transitions involve a small circle of people. The most visible part of county politicians is formed of the county presidents and those related with national politics. Moreover, these people often serve as the regional officials of political parties and play an important role in the recruitment of parliamentary politicians. Therefore, the effect of the newly established regional political elite on party politics should be examined in more depth. It is argued that the ‘invisible majority’ of full-time county politicians deserves scientific interest too, because it can have a major influence on shaping the policies and specific features of each region.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Czech Science Foundation under the grant ‘Regional Councils in a European Perspective' [P404/12/0714]; and the Fund for Support of Scientific Activity of the Faculty of Arts of the Palacky University in Olomouc, under the grant ‘Professionalisation of Local and Regional Politicians' [FPVC2012/18].
Note on author
Dan Ryšavý is Associated Professor at the Department of Sociology, Andragogy and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic, email: [email protected]
Notes
1. However, studies such as Scherpereel (Citation2009) or Yoder (Citation2013) document an ongoing interest in comparative studies of the regionalisation in Central and Eastern Europe.
2. I prefer the term county rather than region because this is an established concept (see Heinelt & Bertrana, Citation2011), which distinguishes the second tier of local government from the level of 'meso government' (Sharpe, Citation1993). Nonetheless, due to the fact that the Czech Republic is a country with just two levels of sub-national government (municipalities and counties), I do not avoid the use of key phrases such as regional elections or regional politicians where county elections or county politicians are meant.
3. The question of the selection of candidates in the proportional electoral system, in which the order of candidates on party lists plays a large role, in the Czech environment has been discussed in connection with the county elections by Outlý et al. (Citation2013), who were inspired by the approach set out in the work of Rahat and Hazan (Citation2001).
4. See Constitutional Law No. 294/1990 Coll., Article 86, Act No. 367/1990 Coll., on Municipalities and Act No. 418/1990 Coll., on the capital city of Prague.
5. The first Senate was elected in 1996, with each third of the Senate being elected for terms of two, four and six years, respectively. Since 1998, every two years elections have taken place for one-third of the Senate. For more information on the establishment of the Senate, its constitutional status and election rules, see Olson (Citation1996) and Linek and Mansfeldová (Citation2007).
6. The completeness and accuracy of the list was checked through the list of full-time ‘professionals’, who were asked about various county offices. Unfortunately, a portion of the lists obtained in this way also suffered from errors or incompleteness.
7. According to GfK research (2007/8) virtually all of the mayors of municipalities with more than 400 inhabitants are full-time politicians. This information was kindly provided by Radim Perlín from Charles University in Prague. He was a research leader of a project that prepared a typology of rural areas in Czechia. Mayors in the survey mentioned were asked about their perception of rural areas (Perlín et al., Citation2012).
8. For example, the basic salaries of the county presidents of the three most populated counties (more than 3400 euros per month) surpass the salaries of the mayors of all the cities except the capital city of Prague and at the parliamentary level this sum is exceeded only by base salaries of the chamber speakers. However, when tax exemptions, travel subsidies, different functional surcharges for work in committees, commissions and honorary membership in other bodies are included, the actual income of MPs is much higher (Mansfeldová, Citation2013, p. 37).
9. As for the ratio in the assemblies at various levels of government, women are usually better represented in parliament than in the county assemblies (cf. Vengroff, Nyiri, & Fugier, Citation2003). On the other hand, women are more likely to be present at the municipal than at the county level (see Kjaer, Citation2010). In Czech cities, the number of women in executives is significantly lower in comparison with the share of women among ordinary councillors (Ryšavý & Šaradín, Citation2011).
10. Municipalities of fewer than 3000 inhabitants are often led by people with no more than secondary education (according to the earlier mentioned GfK survey for the Radim Perlín project on the countryside).
11. In 2010, a populist party Public Affairs won 24 mandates in the 200-member lower chamber, formed a government coalition with two right-wing parties – the Civic Democrats and a second new party TOP09 (see more in Hanley, Citation2011) – and finally divided into two smaller subjects that were not re-elected in the 2013 early parliamentary election. The second most successful party in the early parliamentary elections in 2013 was also a new political entity called YES (ANO – formerly Action of Disgruntled Citizens), gaining 47 mandates and entering into government with the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats.
12. This average value may have been affected by the fact that the Czech mayors were addressed in the first year of their mandates.
13. The prestige of ministers was rated significantly better in the research Actor 2003 (UNIVERSITAS). The research, however, had a less ‘political’ focus. The possible influence of context was noted by Milan Tuček, whom I wish to thank for his insight here.
14. In the subsequent parliamentary elections (2006) about two times more local politicians got into the Chamber of Deputies than in the previous three elections (Linek, Citation2009).
15. Of the seven chief administrative officers who ran in the first election, four became county presidents; the other three received other full-time jobs! Also, other civil servants from district as well as ministerial levels became full-time county politicians.
16. More generally, three-quarters of all regional representatives elected in 2000 came from among those who in the past had been elected to representative bodies of municipalities or to parliament.
17. Most of these executives exercised concurrently full-time positions on the municipal level. This is especially true for the two counties with a smaller number of large cities (Olomouc and South Bohemian). The case is different for the more urbanised Moravian-Silesian county.
18. The only politician who remained an MP throughout his entire period as county president was the president of Central Bohemia, David Rath. Not even his parliamentary immunity, however, protected him from police investigation. He was charged with crimes related to his job in the county (see e.g. Ryšavý, Citation2013).
19. This includes four county elections, four parliamentary elections and six elections to one-third of the Senate.
20. Cases where politicians both succeeded in elections to the Senate and at the same time were awarded full-time mandates in county institutions are generally exceptions.
21. This is attested to by a survey conducted among regional representatives (Newcomers 2013), from which it is clear that a considerable portion of them hold elective offices in their political parties at the regional level.
22. This fact has been felt by both the Civic Democratic Party, which despite being the strongest opponents of establishing the counties ironically won the first two county elections, and the Social Democrats, whose coveted path back to the national government after the early elections in 2013 was greatly complicated by a ‘rebellion’ led primarily by prominent county politicians.