Representative Democracy in Czechia : a disconnect between the national and EU level

KOVÁŘ, Jan, Petr KRATOCHVÍL and Zdeněk SYCHRA. Representative Democracy in Czechia : a disconnect between the national and EU level. Online. In Steven Blockmans, Sophia Russack. Representative Democracy in the EU : Recovering Legitimacy. Brussels: CEPS, 2019, p. 107-127. ISBN 978-1-78661-339-4.

Basic information

Original name

Representative Democracy in Czechia : a disconnect between the national and EU level

Authors

KOVÁŘ, Jan, Petr KRATOCHVÍL and Zdeněk SYCHRA

Edition

Brussels, Representative Democracy in the EU : Recovering Legitimacy, p. 107-127, 21 pp. 2019

Publisher

CEPS

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Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Kapitola resp. kapitoly v odborné knize

Field of Study

50601 Political science

Country of publisher

Belgium

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Publication form

electronic version available online

References:

kniha

Organization unit

Faculty of Social Studies

ISBN

978-1-78661-339-4

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Abstract

V originále

Until recently, Czechia’s party system revolved around the two strongest parties. However, this system collapsed when it was replaced by the government of Andrej Babiš’s ANO movement, which represents the most recent embodiment of a series of populist parties in the last decade. Parliamentary control of the executive is theoretically strong, but many instruments are used ineffectively and even parliament’s strongest power (the no confidence vote) is rarely used successfully. The Czech Parliament has functional structures to deal with the EU agenda, but EU issues remain second-order ones. Moreover, when the EU agenda is debated, it is predominantly framed in domestic political terms. Political parties do not build systematic structures to ensure intra-party EU expertise and have only a limited number of expert staff at their disposal. There is relatively strong cohesion among Czech MEPs within political groups. However, they are often perceived as autonomous units within their parties. Overall, the Czech representative model is relatively functional at the national level, but it is clearly separate from the European level, and its ability to intervene in the EU’s dynamics is limited.