Electoral System Reform in the Czech Republic (Electoral Reform‪)‬

We can see throughout all of Eastern Europe, and especially in countries with majoritarian electoral systems, a tendency to build systems of personal power and limit the standard rules of democracy and constitutional government. Discussions about the need (possibly radical) to change the electoral system in the Czech Republic have been ongoing since 1996, when the existing stable coalition government of Vaclav Klaus began to crumble. The much admired stability during this period was, however, more of an anomaly. It was a product of the Civic Democrat's (ODS) dominant status as the main successor of the Civic Forum (Obeanske forum), as the declared guarantor of the economic reform (voters were thereby oriented more to the right), and scattered parliamentary opposition. As the citizens' political interests were gradually defined in accordance with newly created splinter groups, socio-economic in particular, voter preferences became more clearly differentiated. Support for the Social Democratic Party (ESSD), the left-of-centre opposition, saw a significant increase in support. This shift explains, in part, the inability of the government to create stable coalitions. The result is that the Czech government has been forced to depend on minimum majorities in the parliament or even rule in the minority. These situations have created the main obstacles to realizing fundamental social reforms.