2010: Comparing and Contrasting Věci veřejné in the Czech Republic and the Tea Party Movement in the USA Cover Image

2010: Comparing and Contrasting Věci veřejné in the Czech Republic and the Tea Party Movement in the USA
2010: Comparing and Contrasting Věci veřejné in the Czech Republic and the Tea Party Movement in the USA

Author(s): Matthew Ch. Rees
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci
Keywords: Historical Institutionalism; Mobilization; Path Dependency; Rent-Seeking; Tea Party Movement; Věci veřejné

Summary/Abstract: This paper analyzes the development of the Tea Party Movement in the USA and Věci veřejné in the Czech Republic. It argues that historical institutionalism’s twin pillars of path dependency and rational choice theory can help to account for the growth of these two phenomena, and, within this framework, attempts to explain the differences in mobilization strategies and similarities in goals of the two groups. This paper analyzes information technology as a mobilization aid as well, and how this type of mobilization benefi ts diff use anti-rent-seeking coalitions. Ultimately, the paper fi nds that formation and consolidation of the Tea Party Movement and Věci veřejné diff er due to variations in electoral systems of the USA and the Czech Republic; their similarities spring from their corresponding rational-choice calculations concerning governmental financing of services.

  • Issue Year: 2010
  • Issue No: 02
  • Page Range: 17-29
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: English