Why Czech Parliamentary Party Groups Vote Less Unitedly. The Role of Frequent Voting and Big Majorities in Passing Bills

Abstract

The article aims to explain voting unity in the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic based on data from the years 1998-2002. It introduces the basic terminology and theoretical framework used in literature on the behaviour of parties in parliament and the basic institutional rules that should result in the unity of political parties in the Czech parliament. It then presents the data used to measure the unity of Czech parliamentary party groups. The initial assumption that specific institutional factors found in parliament and in political parties would lead to greater PPG unity in the Czech Republic was not confirmed. Although the institutional incentives are similar to those in Western European countries, they do not secure the same level of voting unity in Czech PPGs. The authors conclude that the relatively low party unity is caused by the size of the voting coalitions that pass individual bills. Sociologický casopis/ Czech Sociological Review, 2005, Vol. 41, No. 3: 423-442 There is a tendency to describe contemporary democracies as party governments [e.g. Castles and Wildenmann 1986], where political parties play a key role in organising the election contest, selecting candidates for public office, and forming a government on the basis of a parliamentary majority. These roles are codified and documented in the constitutions and laws that regulate the election contest and the way in which political parties operate. Theories of parliamentary democracy and party government assume the existence of unified voting blocks in parliament, or, more precisely, unified parliamentary party groups (PPGs1). Shaun Bowler, David * The work this article is based on was supported by research project no. AVO Z70280505 'The Sociological Analysis of Long-term Social Processes in Czech Society, 2005-2010'. This article is abbreviated and in places substantially re-worked version of a study, to which the authors sometimes make reference for more detailed description or argumentation [Linek and Rakusanova 2002]. ** Direct all correspondence to: Lukas Linek, Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Jilska 1, Prague, 110 00, Czech Republic, e-mail: Lukas.Linek@soc.cas.cz; Petra Rakusanova, Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Jilska 1, Prague, 110 00, Czech Republic, e-mail: Petra.Rakusanova@soc.cas.cz. 1 Knut Heidar and Ruud Koole [2000b: 249] define parliamentary party groups as an organised group of members of a representative body who were elected either under the same © Sociologický ustav AV CR, Praha 2005