Czech Parliamentary Regime After 1989: Origins, Developments and Challenges
Miloš Brunclík, Michal Kubát
Czech Parliamentary Regime After 1989: Origins, Developments and ChallengesThe article discusses the major trajectories of the developments of the Czech democratic polity after 1989. It also discusses institutional traditions of the Czech parliamentary regimes dating back to the period of the First Czechoslovak Republic in the inter-war period. The article also analyses the major problems which the Czech parliamentary regime now faces. It is argued that the direct election of the president introduced in 2012–2013 was a serious blunder made by Czech political elites. Instead, the authors of the article argue, the desirable reform efforts should focus on rationalizing the regime in terms of strengthening of the prime ministers within the cabinet and the cabinet itself within the parliamentary system. The reform of the Czech democratic polity should also include putting in pace an electoral system that would facilitate making stable and ideologically coherent government majorities.
