Possible Outcomes of Introducing a Majority System for Elections to the Czech Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies

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Authors

PINK Michal

Year of publication 2017
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Středoevropské politické studie
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Social Studies

Citation
Web https://journals.muni.cz/cepsr/article/view/8292
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.5817/CEPSR.2017.2.135
Field Political sciences
Keywords Elections; Czech Politics; Electoral System; First-Past-the-Post;Two Round Majority System
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Description This paper explores the possibility of introducingamajority electoral system for the Chamber of Deputies in the Czech Republic, and discusses the virtues and drawbacks of suchasystem. It recalculates the electoral results from two previous elections using majority electoral systems (first-past-the-post and two round majority system) to examine how suchachange could influence the formation ofgovernmental majorities in the chamber and what the possible consequences for the quality ofdemocracy in the Czech Republic could be. The results show that majority system would likely radically simplify the formation of governments with clear majorities, and hinder emerging populist parties as well as weaken the communist party. On the other hand, the adoption ofamajority system would substantially lower barriers to enter the chamber, which could lead to the disintegration of the party system and its increased fragmentation. Combined with the common practice of Czech politiciansto hold various mandates at different levels of the political system at the same time, this could beasignificant risk factor.
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