Civic Forum as an Agency in the Development of the Czech Party System Cover Image

Občanské fórum jako katalysátor vývoje stranického systému ČR
Civic Forum as an Agency in the Development of the Czech Party System

Author(s): Pavel Pšeja
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: Civic Forum; Czech party system; transition; political ideologies; political right.

Summary/Abstract: This article presents a detailed analysis of the Civic Forum as the most important vehicle of changes in the first stage of the development of the Czech party system. It aims at two interrelated goals: first, to describe and adequately elaborate processes within the Civic Forum, which should serve to explain internal divisions in this movement and the emergence of various streams within the Civic Forum as their immediate consequence. Second, it intends to outline ideological positions within the Civic Forum, thus identifying a logic of the future developments in the Czech party system and distribution of its subjects on the left-right scale. Moreover, the article traces back through the history of the Civic Forum influences of ideas of the non-political politics and their permanent clashes with attempts to establish Civic Forum as a hierarchical political party. The article concludes that the Civic Forum significantly contributed both to the establishment of the Czech party system just in the shape it acquired within its further development, and to the emergence of the major Czech parties of the right.

  • Issue Year: XI/2004
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 316-327
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: Czech