Czech Politics: From West to East and Back Again

Description

This volume provides a comprehensive overview of Czech politics, past and present. The authors not only cover the main political developments of the past two centuries, they also situate the current political system in the context of communist and pre-communist legacies. They argue that amidst the dramatic changes of the Velvet Revolution, one can find a plethora of continuities in culture and institutions that help to explain the shape of Czech politics today. Cover Czech Politics: From West to Eastand Back Again Contents Introduction: Czech exceptionalism Andrew Roberts 1. The birth of modern Czech politics: 1848–1918 Vít Hloušek 1.1. Czech society and the Czech national revival: a difficult transition from serfs to citizens 1.2. Was Czech society exclusively Czech? Nationalist disputes and their cultural and political consequences 1.3. The Czech lands as part of Cisleithania: the consistent constitutionalisation and the inconsistent liberalisation of political institutions 1.4. Czech society, parties, and politics before World War I 1.5. Czech society in the context of Central Europe 2. Politics in interwar Czechoslovakia Jan Holzer 2.1. The idea of the Czechoslovak state 2.1.1. Parliamentary democracy 2.1.2. Anti-Catholicism 2.1.3 Czechoslovakism 2.2. Governance in the First Republic 2.2.1. Coalition governance and anti-system opposition 2.2.2. Caretaker governments and the critique of political partisanship 2.2.3. The Castle 2.2.4. The cultural front 2.3. The political crisis of the First Republic 2.3.1. ‘Strong democracy’ 2.3.2. The presidential election of December 1935 2.4. Political traditions of the First Republic 3. Czech lands under dictatorships and totalitarian regimes 1938–1989 Jan Holzer 3.1. The Second Republic 3.1.1. Political regime 3.1.2. Governance 3.1.3. Party system 3.1.4. The end of the Second Republic 3.2. The Protectorate 3.2.1. The regime of the Protectorate and its instruments 3.2.2. Society and domestic resistance 3.2.3. The government-in-exile and foreign resistance 3.2.4. The end of the war 3.3. The Third Republic 3.3.1 The starting points for the reconstruction of the political system 3.3.2. A pre-totalitarian authoritarian regime 3.4. The communist regime in Czechoslovakia 3.4.1. Communism as state ideology and as a system of power 3.4.2. 1968: a crisis of, or an opportunity for, communist ideology? 3.4.3. The 1970s and the era of ‘real socialism’ 4. The Velvet Revolution: the causes and process of the decline of communist power83F Stanislav Balík 4.1. The events of November 1989 4.2. Fall of the executive 4.3. President 4.4. Representative bodies 4.5. A Velvet Revolution? 4.6. Conclusion 5. The Velvet Divorce: the end of Czechoslovakia Lubomír Kopeček 5.1. Legacies of the past and Slovak nation- and state building 5.2. The pitfalls of democratic transition, or was communism pure evil? 5.3. The Hyphen War and the battle over powers 5.4. Deadlocked negotiations and nearly incompatible constitutional ideals 5.5. Institutional blockage 5.6. Dismantlement 5.7. Ex-post considerations 6. Czech political institutions and the problems of parliamentary democracy Lubomír Kopeček 6.1. The adoption of the Czech constitution: circumstances, influences, and controversies 6.2. The parliament and fragile cabinets 6.3. The Senate’s image as an unnecessary institution 6.4. Regional arrangements: a complicated genesis and a problematic result 6.5. The president’s aura and constitutional inviolability 6.6. Presidents, prime ministers, and the dangers of political dualism 6.7. The constitutional court and the political consequences of judicial decisions 6.8. Conclusion: malfunctioning institutions and the need for reforms 7. Electoral systems and an obsession with elections Stanislav Balík 7.1. The electoral system for the Chamber of Deputies 7.2. The electoral system for the Senate 7.3. The presidential electoral system 7.4. The regional electoral system 7.5. The local electoral system 7.6. The electoral system for the European Parliament 7.7. Conclusion 8. Reshuffling the party system: from non-politics to anti-politics Pavel Pšeja 8.1. Party system formation and the dispute about the nature of political partisanship 8.2. On the road to traditional partisanship: 1990–1998 8.3. The ups and downs of party politics: 1998–2010 8.4. Searching for the ‘other’ way: Czech (non-)partisanship since 2010 8.5. Some concluding remarks about Czech party politics Appendix: Results of elections to the Czech National Council and the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic151F 9. Market reforms, society, and the main features of Czech capitalism Lubomír Kopeček, Stanislav Balík 9.1. Orderly economic decline at the end of the communist era 9.2. A limited ‘Big Bang’ 9.3. ‘Small privatisation’ and restitution 9.4. Voucher privatisation, the ‘Czech way’ and the decline of public trust in the transformation 9.5. The era of left-wing governments 9.6. Post-2008 economic recession and the return of prosperity 9.7. Budget policy and the national debt 9.8. Taxes 9.9. Conclusion: reflections on the Czech transformation and capitalism 10. Europeanising and Westernising Vít Hloušek 10.1. Return to Europe: Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic in Europe and the world during the 1990s 10.2. NATO: providing security and a sense of belonging in the West 10.3. The road to the European Union160F 10.4. Problems with Europeanisation: European integration as a task and an apple of discord 10.5. Conclusion 11. Five ways of looking at Czech politics Andrew Roberts 11.1. Explaining pre-1989 politics 11.1.1. Awakening a nation: Nationalism 11.1.2. Liberals in a liberal empire: Liberalism 11.1.3. A plebeian nation: Egalitarianism 11.1.4. The meaning of Czech history: democratic humanism 11.1.5. The Good Soldier Švejk, Mr. Brouček, and Father Kondelík: Self-Interest 11.2. Explaining postcommunist politics 11.2.1. Latent nationalism? 11.2.2. Liberalism temporarily triumphant? 11.2.3. Egalitarians forever 11.2.4. A philosopher king 11.2.5. Naked self-interest and nothing but 11.3. Do these traditions matter? 11.4. Conclusion References Sources Literature List of Abbreviations Tables and Figures Tables Figures