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

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.