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One face, two masks: The parliamentary behaviour of anti-establishment parties in the Czech Republic

Europe (Central and Eastern)
Institutions
Parliaments
Political Competition
Political Parties
Representation
Cartel
Jan Nemec
University of Leipzig
Jan Nemec
University of Leipzig

Abstract

Like some other Central European countries, Czech Republic is to some extent experiencing political turbulences. For two decades stable system of political parties has been shaken after 2010 and even more 2013 elections with new political parties entering parliamentary arena and the traditional ones recording their lowest scores ever. In both cases, anti-corruption platform was used by newly established political parties (e.g. Public Affairs, ANO 2011, Dawn of the Direct Democracy). In this paper, the author will focus on the role of these new parties in the Czech parliamentary arena and pay attention to their transformation from extra-parliamentary and anti-establishment actors to parliamentary one. Given the fact that in two cases these parties even became parties of government, the paper would focus on the question whether and how the MPs elected with the anti-establishment campaign maintained and cultivated their anti-establishment image oriented towards their electorate. The analysis would use data from roll-call votes and records of speeches during parliamentary debates and question time.