Parliamentary Opposition in the Czech Republic

The balance of powers is the basic axiom of democratic political regimes. In the Czech case, given the small governing majorities in the Czech Republic, understanding the role of the parliamentary opposition is crucial to understand the nature of Czech governance. The proposed paper will focus on the relationship between the Chamber of Deputies and the government. First, it will outline the position of these two actors in the Czech political system. Second, it will discuss how the government is formed and focus especially on the vote of confidence procedure, as this is the strongest tool of the parliamentary opposition. The role of parliamentary opposition will be demonstrated by combining quantitative and qualitative evidence. The quantitative elements include analyses of legislative data as well as the analysis of unique series of parliamentary surveys of MP attitudes. The paper will analyze MPs’ assessment of the importance of oversight activities conducted by the Chamber of Deputies and the satisfaction of MPs with the performance of the Chamber of Deputies. The qualitative element will include in depth-analysis of the March 24th 2009 vote of confidence in which opposition together with four disenchanted Civic Democratic Party (ODS) MPs led to the fall of Prime Minister M. Topolanek’s second government in the middle of the Czech EU Presidency. The opposition, which in the 2007-2009 periods called the vote of no-confidence repeatedly, was surprised to have succeeded. Thirdly, the last part will summarize the role and types of parliamentary opposition in the Czech Republic, looking at the possibilities available to MPs to exert influence over the government and how MPs make use of those possibilities.