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The Business Firm Party – Movement ANO 2011. Case from the Czech Republic

Democracy
Elections
Elites
Political Competition
Political Parties
Campaign
Candidate
Michal Klíma
Metropolitan University Prague
Michal Klíma
Metropolitan University Prague

Abstract

Political scientists no longer analyze why the Czech Republic is a stabilized country. Instead, focus is paid to the reasons behind it becoming a turbulent clientelistic democracy. In the post-Communist environment the established political parties fall prey to interest groups from non-transparent businesses producing a vacuum for newcomers subsequently filled by new business firm parties. Among these is the most conspicuous example – the Movement ANO 2011, founded by billionaire businessman Andrej Babiš. This work deploys the case of the Czech Republic's response to the crisis of the established parties; two consecutive electoral earthquakes in 2010 and 2013 led to party system transformation, in which two types of political parties coexist: (1) traditional entities preserving the remains of the features of mass parties and in contrast, (2) new subjects – mainly business firm parties – that completely broke with the era of mass parties. Such new business firm parties were formed as specific elite parties of a managerial type. Therefore, the biggest business firm party, the Movement ANO 2011, is marked by the dominant position of a single party leader – a political entrepreneur, a minimal membership base, underdeveloped and formal organizational structure, limited use of democratic mechanisms in the framework of intra-party decision-making, and an embryonic political program. With these dispositions, it is more flexible on the political and electoral marketplace; nevertheless, as the most non-transparent project it is also more unpredictable, unstable and carries the risk of oligarchization.