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Czech Republic - Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD)

The dominant axis of the Czech political system is the classical socio-economic dimension of left-right. This means that the main political conflicts in society are over the economy, the role of the state in the economy and social inequality, i.e. the conflict between redistribution and the market.

A robust social democratic party did not come to existence for several years after the fall of communist, strengthened the political right. Political-right parties, such as Vaclav Klaus's Civic Democratic party (ODS) pursued the ideology of economic liberalism but in reality were hampered by the old socialist habits. While in Poland and Hungary, the post-communist political right parties were confronted with strong democratic left parties, in Czechoslovakia (and later the Czech Republic), the democratic left parties were long unable to offer any real "mirror" to the policies of the ODS and its allies. This had rather devastating effects on the quality of Czech political culture. The old "communist" ways of thinking, based on slogans such as "Who is not with us is against us" quickly made their way back into the political mainstream.

There were major development in the Czech parliamentary political spectrum since the 1992 elections to the Lower House (at that time still the Czech National Assembly). Of the parties which won parliamentary seats in 1992 - the ODS-KDS coalition, ODA, KDU-CSL, CSSD, LSU, LB (the Left Block - a coalition of the KSCM and SDL), HSDSMS and the SPR-RSC - some have been shown to be strong, stable and significant, while others have undergone changes [Kopecký, Hubácek and Plecitý 1996], becoming less important, merging, splitting or disappearing. The fact that unstable parties did not win seats in the 1996 elections was a positive sign of the stabilisation of the political system, since if they did not have a firm organisational base they could not offer lasting political success and really represent their voters.

The considerable flow of voters towards the left of centre CSSD began in the increasingly mature political system between the 1992 and 1996 parliamentary elections and it reached a peak during the 1996 electoral campaign. The CSSD now seemed acceptable not only for left-wing voters but also for many who had previously voted for right-of-centre parties. It gained many votes that would otherwise have gone to those olitical parties which had little chance of gaining seats in parliament, but also attracted voters from the larger political parties. The number of CSSD voters gradually approached that of ODS voters (see Figure 1). This gain helped the CSSD become the main opposition to the right, which was and is primarily represented by the ODS.

The early elections in June 1998 produced a political stalemate again. Although the Social Democrats (CSSD) won, they were unable to form a majority coalition. In July, the CSSD and the ODS signed the so-called opposition agreement, under which the CSSD was able to form a minority government in exchange for giving the ODS top posts in the parliament.