![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
Abstract
Party laws and regulation in the Czech Republic are largely permissive and have served the interests of the established parties, helping to underpin the largely oligopolistic nature of Czech party politics. Whereas non-financial regulation remained virtually unchanged in the first two post-communist decades, party financing laws have been amended, often in response to scandal. Although the existing system of regulation has helped entrench the position of the main political parties, the system is not impervious to change. Indeed, a ruling of the Constitutional Court combined with the anti-corruption appeal of new parties helped weaken the position of the largest parties in the 2010 elections. Subsequent scandals have ensured the continuing fragile stability of Czech party politics.
Acknowledgements
Parts of this article were written during a fellowship in the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. I am also grateful to Tereza Novotná, Kieran Williams, the audience at the Council for European Studies conference in Boston in March 2012 and this journal's reviewers for very helpful comments on drafts. In addition, Ekaterina Rashkova-Gerbrands kindly clarified the substance of the changes in one law. In particular, I would like to single out Abby Innes for special thanks for her four and a half pages of constructive remarks on the original conference paper. Děkuji! Above all, I am indebted to the editors of this special issue, Fernando Casal Bértoa and Ingrid van Biezen, for their almost unlimited reserves of patience.
Funding
Financial support accorded by the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.
Notes on contributor
Tim Haughton is Reader (Associate Professor) in European Politics at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of Constraints and Opportunities of Leadership in Post-Communist Europe (2005), the editor of Political Parties in Central and Eastern Europe: Does EU Membership Matter? (2011) and is the joint-editor of the Journal of Common Market Studies' Annual Review of the European Union.
Notes
1. Although they may not always be correct in their assessment.
2. “There are only two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can't remember what the second one is”, Mark Hanna, Republican National Committee Chairman, 1895, display at Newseum, Washington, DC.
3. Lidové noviny, 31 May 2010.
4. It was notable that the two countries ranked higher, Hungary and Slovenia, and also experienced earthquake elections in 2010 and 2011, respectively (Batory Citation2010; Haughton and Krašovec Citation2013).
5. KDU-ČSL crossed the parliamentary threshold in 2013 and also returned to the subsequently formed government.
6. Czechoslovakia split on 1 January 1993 (Innes Citation2002).
7. The 2010 and 2013 elections are again exceptions. In 2010, two new entrants crossed the parliamentary threshold and even entered government (Haughton et al. Citation2011). One of these, Public Affairs, subsequently split, spawning another new entity: LIDEM. In 2013, two other new entrants, ANO and Úsvit, won a combined quarter of the vote (Hanley Citation2013; Haughton et al. Citation2013).
8. It is worth noting Václav Klaus became Czech president in 2003 only thanks to the votes of the Communists in the parliament. Moreover, Communists have been involved in coalitions at the sub-national level.
9. Although there was a large slice of anti-communist sentiment in Klaus's Doleva nebo s Klausem? Electoral campaign in 1998.
10. These funds are allocated to parliamentary factions rather than parties per se. Intended for the “purchase of consumables, minor tangible assets, expenses for refreshments for working meetings”, etc. they are set at much lower rates than the direct funding. In 2005, for instance, it was fixed at 24,500 crowns for each faction plus 3400 crowns for each member (Linek and Outlý Citation2008, 87).
11. For the 1990 and 1992 elections, the threshold was 2%.
12. Between 1995 and 2001, the average exchange rate between the Czech crown and the dollar was 32.15 crowns to the dollar. Since January 2000, the crown has seen a noticeable appreciation against the dollar. The exchange rate was around 21 crowns to the dollar at the time of the May 2010 elections.
13. Only parties are entitled, hence independent senators are disadvantaged (Linek and Outlý Citation2008, 85).
14. 2009 was also an election year: elections to the European parliament were held.
15. Depending on the definition of “new” (Sikk Citation2005, Citation2012), we might also add the creation of the KDU-CSL/US-DEU coalition which entered parliament in 2002, but it was an electoral coalition rather than a new party.
16. Following the 2010 elections placing restrictions on spending became a more prominent theme with even more cross-party support, although there was no cross party agreement on the exact measures. An exception to this general trend was agreement on limiting spending in the 2013 presidential campaign.
17. See Pehe (Citation2002).