Turning Left or Class Realignment? Analysis of the Changing Relationship Between Class and Party in the Czech Republic, 1992-96

The electoral success of the Social Democrats in the 1996 Czech parliamentary elections surprised both politicians and political scientists, though the public opinion polls carried out in 1995 and early 1996 showed a steady increase of voting preferences for this clearly left-wing political party. T...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:East European politics and societies 1997-09, Vol.11 (3), p.501-542
Main Authors: Mateju, Petr, Rehakova, Blanka
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Elections
Government/Political systems
Political history
Political parties
Politics and society
Post-Communist Transformation
Social classes
Sociology of Politics
Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
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Summary:The electoral success of the Social Democrats in the 1996 Czech parliamentary elections surprised both politicians and political scientists, though the public opinion polls carried out in 1995 and early 1996 showed a steady increase of voting preferences for this clearly left-wing political party. The Czech Social Democratic party (ČSSD) received 26 percent of the votes, which was exactly four times more than it claimed in the 1992 elections. The Civic Democratic party (ODS), a liberal conservative party, the actual designer of Czech economic reform, and the Social Democrats' main competitor, received slightly less than 30 percent of the votes both in 1992 and 1996. Although it remained the strongest party on the Czech political stage, the electoral success of the Social Democratic party made its position weaker than it was after the 1992 elections. [...]
ISSN:0888-3254
1533-8371
DOI:10.1177/0888325497011003004