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Academics usually look for constitutional conventions in Westminster-style democracies, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, or Australia. Nevertheless, growing evidence from practice shows that constitutional conventions are similarly essential attributes of even substantially different political regimes. This article is the first paper to systematically deal with constitutional conventions in the Czech Republic. To be more specific, I identify eight existing constitutional conventions there: (1) respect for the parliamentary majority, (2) institution of a formateur, (3) simultaneous existence of two prime ministers, (4) new cabinet's statement of policy, (5) delegation of negotiation and ratification of international treaties, (6) appointment of a (vice-)governor of the Czech National Bank without a countersignature, (7) missing signature of the president under laws, and (8) single vice-chairperson of the Supreme Court. On one hand, the scrutiny shows that constitutional conventions play an already established and important role even in a Central European democracy. On the other hand, the lack of political respect for unwritten rules and the relative immaturity of Czech democracy confirm that constitutional conventions are as fragile (or as strong) as political actors allow. Thanks to these facts, the study of constitutional conventions in the post-communist country is a precious laboratory with universal findings even for long-existing democracies.

AbstractThe COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic has affected almost every aspect of our lives. While millions of people fought with the disease, economies, societies and institutions faced side-effects of government measures resisting the spread of the virus. This article describes the effects of the pandemic on the legislative behaviour of MPs in one of the worst-hit countries in the world, the Czech Republic. The results show that the number of bill proposals and roll calls substantially increased during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic times. Since the start of the outbreak, a third of roll calls and a half of bill proposals concerned the pandemic. Nonetheless, the outbreak did not substantially affect the voting unity of parliamentary party groups nor the opposition became more supportive of the cabinet. Still, while the liberal Pirates became more cooperative during the pandemic than the pre-pandemic period, the rightist antisystem party Freedom and Direct Democracy receded from the rest of the parties on the pandemic issues.

There is vast evidence that gender influences the legislative behaviour of MPs. Nonetheless, as most of the findings come from Western Europe, one may ask whether such effects take place similarly also in post-communist parliaments. Since the two regions experienced different gender-related history, a negative answer suggests itself. By contrast, this first complex research on the issue conducted in a post-communist country demonstrates the opposite. It employs parliamentary activity of representatives in the Czech Republic between 1993 and 2017 as a research case. Results of the analysis show that although female MPs speak less, they receive more positions in intra-parliamentary bodies than male deputies. Moreover, a majority of committees are far from being gender-neutral as male and female legislators have significantly different chances of becoming their members. Overall, the results suggest that gender influences MPs' parliamentary behaviour even in post-communist countries, and surprisingly similarly to Western Europe.

Members of parliament (MPs) and parties enjoy mutually beneficial cooperation in a legislature. Nonetheless, representatives often face cross-pressure from more than one principal, which may result in a voting dissent. Since the voting dissent of MPs in the Czech Republic has been scrutinised only on the party level, I present the very first study dealing with individual aspects of voting rebellion. The pioneering results show that between 1993 and 2017 MPs voted against a parliamentary party group (PPG) chairman more often than against the majority of PPG colleagues. The frequency of voting dissent remained the same, on average, during legislative terms regardless of an approaching election. Next, the analyses show that being a male MP, enjoying more parliamentary experience, and holding a ministerial mandate are factors that increase the chances of individual voting dissent. Conversely, voting dissent decreases for MPs from a ruling party, and for PPG (vice-)chairmen. The results imply that voting rebels attend fewer roll calls and abstain more compared to other MPs. As MPs vote against the majority of their party counterparts, they elucidate such a contradiction at plenary sessions. Overall, MPs adjust their parliamentary behaviour more if they vote against the majority of party colleagues than against a PPG chairman.

There is vast evidence that gender influences the legislative behaviour of MPs. Nonetheless, as most of the findings come from Western Europe, one may ask whether such effects take place similarly also in post-communist parliaments. Since the two regions experienced different gender-related history, a negative answer suggests itself. By contrast, this first complex research on the issue conducted in a post-communist country demonstrates the opposite. It employs parliamentary activity of representatives in the Czech Republic between 1993 and 2017 as a research case. Results of the analysis show that although female MPs speak less, they receive more positions in intra-parliamentary bodies than male deputies. Moreover, a majority of committees are far from being gender-neutral as male and female legislators have significantly different chances of becoming their members. Overall, the results suggest that gender influences MPs' parliamentary behaviour even in post-communist countries, and surprisingly similarly to Western Europe. ; Istnieje wiele dowodów na to, że płeć wpływa na ustawodawcze zachowania posłów. Niemniej jednak, jako że większość ustaleń pochodzi z Europy Zachodniej, można zadać pytanie, czy taka zależność zachodzi również w postkomunistycznych parlamentach. Ponieważ oba regiony miały różną historię związaną z płcią, odpowiedź negatywna sugeruje się sama. Natomiast pierwsze kompleksowe badania nad tym zagadnieniem przeprowadzone w państwie postkomunistycznym pokazują coś przeciwnego. Jako przypadek badawczy wykorzystana została działalność parlamentarna przedstawicieli w Czechach w latach 1993–2017. Wyniki analizy pokazują, że choć posłanki mówią mniej, otrzymują więcej stanowisk w organach wewnątrzparlamentarnych niż posłowie płci męskiej. Ponadto większość komisji jest daleka od neutralności płciowej, ponieważ ustawodawcy płci męskiej i żeńskiej mają znacząco różne szanse na to, by zostać ich członkami. Ogólnie rzecz biorąc, wyniki sugerują, że płeć wpływa na zachowanie parlamentarzystów w państwach postkomunistycznych, zaskakująco podobnie jak w Europie Zachodniej.

There is vast evidence that gender influences the legislative behaviour of MPs. Nonetheless, as most of the findings come from Western Europe, one may ask whether such effects take place similarly also in post-communist parliaments. Since the two regions experienced different gender-related history, a negative answer suggests itself. By contrast, this first complex research on the issue conducted in a post-communist country demonstrates the opposite. It employs parliamentary activity of representatives in the Czech Republic between 1993 and 2017 as a research case. Results of the analysis show that although female MPs speak less, they receive more positions in intra-parliamentary bodies than male deputies. Moreover, a majority of committees are far from being gender-neutral as male and female legislators have significantly different chances of becoming their members. Overall, the results suggest that gender influences MPs' parliamentary behaviour even in post-communist countries, and surprisingly similarly to Western Europe. ; Istnieje wiele dowodów na to, że płeć wpływa na ustawodawcze zachowania posłów. Niemniej jednak, jako że większość ustaleń pochodzi z Europy Zachodniej, można zadać pytanie, czy taka zależność zachodzi również w postkomunistycznych parlamentach. Ponieważ oba regiony miały różną historię związaną z płcią, odpowiedź negatywna sugeruje się sama. Natomiast pierwsze kompleksowe badania nad tym zagadnieniem przeprowadzone w państwie postkomunistycznym pokazują coś przeciwnego. Jako przypadek badawczy wykorzystana została działalność parlamentarna przedstawicieli w Czechach w latach 1993–2017. Wyniki analizy pokazują, że choć posłanki mówią mniej, otrzymują więcej stanowisk w organach wewnątrzparlamentarnych niż posłowie płci męskiej. Ponadto większość komisji jest daleka od neutralności płciowej, ponieważ ustawodawcy płci męskiej i żeńskiej mają znacząco różne szanse na to, by zostać ich członkami. Ogólnie rzecz biorąc, wyniki sugerują, że płeć wpływa na zachowanie parlamentarzystów w państwach postkomunistycznych, zaskakująco podobnie jak w Europie Zachodniej.

This article deals with the dimensions of politics in the Czech Republic since the state's establishment in 1993 until 2017. It utilizes MPs' votes by roll call in the Chamber of Deputies, which is the polity's centre of gravity. The analysis suggests that two principal drivers shape Czech politics – an ideological (socio-economic left vs right) dimension and an institutional (government vs opposition) division. Due to the changing forms of the ruling cabinets, the dimensionality oscillates between unidimensional and two-dimensional (with a specific phase of as many as three relevant dimensions between 1998–2002). Periods of right-oriented majority cabinets result in a unidimensional competition composed of a merged ideological dimension and an institutional division. Stages of left-oriented majority cabinets ideologically split the opposition camp and highlight the unique role of the socio-economic dimension separated from the still dominant institutional division. During the rule of both left- and right-oriented minority cabinets, political competition is mainly driven by the ideological cleavage since the conventional institutional patterns diminish.

The paper deals with the ideological position of a newly formed business-firm party called ANO in the contemporary political environment of the Czech Republic. Although the advent of the party was truly rapid and ANO is a fairly unique formation, it is possible to employ some conventional analytical tools to reveal the party's ideological position. Firstly, I show that ANO is a vote-seeking party and it is therefore possible to analyse it in accordance with a Downsian spatial modelling. Next, I describe a roll call analysis method that is able to objectively identify the party's ideological position based on legislators' parliamentary votes. After I form several hypotheses, a data set consisting of 8,559 roll calls of 215 members of the Chamber of Deputies is depicted. Finally, the results show that ANO is located in the ideological centre, closer to social democrats rather than to right-wing parties. Besides this, ANO covers a smaller ideological space compared to traditional political parties. Finally, the results do not anticipate a potential split of ANO in the near future since the party's legislators have acted cohesively in the parliament so far.

The article deals with various aspects of multiple-office holding. Although the phenomenon is especially influential in connection with legislators, the text offers a critical synthesis of recent findings on multiple-office holding on any level of political decision-making, thus providing a general framework for scholarly discussion and further research. The paper first provides a definition of the concept of multiple-office holding, which has been heretofore lacking in the Czech context. Causes of multiple-office holding are then delineated and divided into the three categories of historical reverberations, systemic elements and individual incentives. Both the positive and negative impacts on a political system are discussed as well. Next, three approaches (direct, indirect, and autoregulatory) of dealing with the practice of multiple-office holding, which are employed by particular political systems, are distinguished. Then, the role of a multiple-office holding in the Czech political system is depicted. The final part of the paper discusses a specific controversy linked to the phenomenon and criticises the lack of proper debates and scientific analyses on the practice.