-
Recent posts
Search the blog
Tag Archives: political parties
Czech democracy in the mirror: What the presidential elections tell us
The first direct elections of the Czech president offered a refreshing contrast to the back room manoeuvring and political horse-trading that accompanied the election in parliament of presidents Havel and (especially) Klaus. Despite the nastiness of the Zeman campaign and … Continue reading
Posted in Czech politics
Tagged CSSD, Czech Republic, democracy, election, elections, Karel Schwarzenberg, Milos Zeman, ods, parties, political parties, presidential, schwarzenberg, zeman
Leave a comment
Party government: All we want for Christmas is you…?
At an eye-watering £75 Hans Keman and Ferdinand Müller-Rommel’s new Party Government in the New Europe which came out earlier this year with Routledge is unlikely to have made it to under many people’s Christmas trees this year. It does, … Continue reading
Left with questions
I’m at conference on the Future of the Left in Central Europe in Prague co-organised by CESTA, one of the Czech Republic’s few centre-left thinktanks, and the German SPD’s Ebert Foundation, having been to an academic workshop on a similar … Continue reading
Posted in Czech Republic, Hungary, left-wing politics, political parties
Tagged CESTA, CSSD, Czech Republic, FES, hungary, left, LMP, Poland, political parties, political science, slovakia, Smer, social democracy, Visgrad
Leave a comment
Europe as antipolitics machine
The customers in this Westminster café seem a strange mix of suited civil servants and builders in boots and hi-vis. But it’s worth the early start and the cup of industrial strength tea to beat a path back to the … Continue reading
Posted in academia, EU politics, Ireland, protest, W European politics
Tagged antipolitics, crisis, democracy, ECB, Euro, Europe, European Commission, eurozone, Greece, Ireland, political parties, politics, populism, protest, technocracy, technocrats, UCD
Leave a comment
Is there a Czech Berlusconi in the wings?
A recent report I read suggested that the travails of Public Affairs (VV) party had put voters in the Czech Republic off new political parties: VV, which burst from nowhere onto the political scene in the 2010 elections as an … Continue reading
Posted in Czech Republic, populism
Tagged ano2011, Babis, Berlusconi, Czech, Czech Republic, Okamura, parties, political parties, populism
Leave a comment
Difficult Hungarian lesson
The constitutional and institutional changes pushed through by Hungary’s ruling conservative-national Fidesz party following its emphatic election victory in April 2010 have attracted increasing coverage – and almost enirely negative - from academic and journalistic observers of Central European politic, … Continue reading
Posted in CEE centre-right, CEE far-right, Hungary
Tagged Bulgaria, central and eastern europe, democracy, Eastern Europe, fidesz, GERB, hungary, Poland, political parties, slovakia
Leave a comment
