Vlastimil Havlík

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: The Story of the Populist Public Affairs Party in the Czech Republic

Abstract The 2010 parliamentary election resulted in the unprecedented electoral success of the Public Affairs, the first electorally successful exclusively populist political party in the history of the Czech Republic. The article examines the history, ideological profile and the internal organization of the party and concludes that the success of the party was facilitated by the growing dissatisfaction with the political situation. The VV result also indicates (together with the success of TOP 09 and the drop in electoral support for ODS) that the dynamics of the party system are changing, and that the right-wing/centre part of the political spectrum in the Czech Republic is undergoing restructuring. When assessing the organizational structure of the party, VV can be labelled as an excellent example of business-firm party.

For Rule of Law, Political Plurality, and a Just Society Use of the Legislative Veto by President Václav Havel

The President of the Czech Republic has few opportunities to actively intervene in the legislative process and express his opinion on the current situation, except for one: the power to veto laws. It is one of the most important powers belonging to the Czech Republic’s head of state, through which the president is able to influence the results of the legislative process. According to the Czech constitution, the veto must be accompanied by a written explanation, which gives the president an extraordinary opportunity to express his own view of not only the particular law being vetoed but the general political situation and direction of the country. The importance of the reasoning is greater if the state is headed by a strong figure with a clear vision of how society should function. The first Czech president, Václav Havel, was undoubtedly such a figure. This study will bring a qualitative analysis of Václav Havel’s veto reasonings, and point out how he systematically based his argumentation on three principles: rule of law, political plurality, and a just (humane) society.

Economic factors determining the electoral success of far-right and far-left parties in the EU countries1

The recent electoral success of far-right and far-left parties is often considered to be a side-effect of the economic crisis. This article aims to determine the degree to which the downturn in economic performance helped to increase the vote share of these parties. The research includes a set of 23 EU member states from the period 1995 to 2012, and finds that poor economic performance significantly determined the vote share of the far-left. Among the indicators influencing the far-left electorate were mainly changes in the GDP and unemployment rate. The research does not find any correlation between the far-rights vote share and the development of macroeconomic indicators.

Populism in Europe and the Americas. Threat or corrective for democracy

Many studies on populism have been published in recent years. Specific attention has been dedicated both to the relationship between populism and democracy, and to the rise and political performanc...

Electoral Legislation Reforms, State Funding and Political Parties in the Czech Republic: a Sign of the Cartelization of Party Politics?

The paper analyses the system of public funding of political parties in the Czech Republic. The first part of the paper presents an overview of the laws governing political party funding in a wider socioeconomic context. The second part of the paper presents empirical analyses of party funding, focusing primarily on the role that state funding plays in the overall political party income structure. Specific attention is paid to the differences between parliamentary and non-parliamentary political parties. The overall findings suggest that the system of state financing in the Czech Republic does not promote equality and inclusivity within the party system. On the contrary, the significant disproportion of funds available and allocated to parliamentary parties seems to promote and solidify the status quo.