CHARVÁT, Jakub; JUST, Petr. Krize politického stranictví a noví straničtí aktéři v české politice

1st ed. Prague: Metropolitan University Prague Press, 2016. ISBN 978-80-87956-47-2

Events of the past few years have resulted in significant qualitative transformation of the Czech party politics. Political earthquake, the signs of which were evident since the 2010 parliamentary elections and which was (so far) accomplished by the 2013 early elections to the Chamber of Deputies, significantly changed the Czech party system, which was until then considered by a number of both domestic and foreign experts as one of the most stable among the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The 2010 parliamentary elections thus meant a significant change in the dynamics of the Czech party system and can in this sense be regarded as critical election.

The current Czech party politics is therefore undergoing a significant internal transformation. Publicized corruption scandals closely linked with established political parties and their political elites, along with persistent lack of agility of Czech cabinets contributed significantly to the long-term and deepening loss of public confidence in political institutions, including the erosion of electoral support for the established parties, against whom and their leaders voters increasingly mobilized in the 2010 and especially the 2013 parliamentary elections. While the established political parties could rely on fairly stable electorate before 2010, both electorally strongest parties, the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), underwent significant decline in its electoral support after 2010. This development disrupted existing mechanism of party competition based on an electoral competition between ČSSD and ODS.