The Influence of Presidential Systems: Why the Right Is so Weak in Conservative Poland and so Strong in the Egalitarian Czech Republic

Problems of Post-Communism

Volumn 50, Issue 5, 2003, Pages 22-36

  Saxonberg, Steven ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0141872398     PISSN: 10758216     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10758216.2003.11656052     Document Type: Review

References (56)

1. I thus follow Arend Lijphart in classifying Poland as "semi-presidential." See his "Democratization and Constitutional Choices in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland, 1989-1991," Journal of Theoretical Politics 4, no. 2 (1992): 210-11.
2. The term comes from Bo Rothstein, Den korporativa staten: Intresseorganisationer och statförvaltning i svensk politik (The Corporatist State: Interest Organizations and Public Administration in Swedish Politics) (Stockholm: Norstedts, 1992), p. 17.
3. Juan J. Linz, "Presidential or Parliamentary Democracy: Does It Make a Difference?" in The Failure of Presidential Democracy, ed. Juan J. Linz and Arturo Valenzuela (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1994): pp. 3-91; Valerie Bunce, "Comparative Democratization: Big and Bounded Generalizations," Comparative Political Studies 33, no. 6/7 (August/September, 2000): 703-35; and José Antonio Cheibub, "Minority Governments, Deadlock Situations, and the Survival of Presidential Democracies," Comparative Political Studies 35, no. 3 (April 2002): 284-312.
4. Juan J. Linz, "Presidential or Parliamentary Democracy: Does It Make a Difference?" in The Failure of Presidential Democracy, ed. Juan J. Linz and Arturo Valenzuela (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1994): pp. 3-91; Valerie Bunce, "Comparative Democratization: Big and Bounded Generalizations," Comparative Political Studies 33, no. 6/7 (August/September, 2000): 703-35; and José Antonio Cheibub, "Minority Governments, Deadlock Situations, and the Survival of Presidential Democracies," Comparative Political Studies 35, no. 3 (April 2002): 284-312.
5. Juan J. Linz, "Presidential or Parliamentary Democracy: Does It Make a Difference?" in The Failure of Presidential Democracy, ed. Juan J. Linz and Arturo Valenzuela (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1994): pp. 3-91; Valerie Bunce, "Comparative Democratization: Big and Bounded Generalizations," Comparative Political Studies 33, no. 6/7 (August/September, 2000): 703-35; and José Antonio Cheibub, "Minority Governments, Deadlock Situations, and the Survival of Presidential Democracies," Comparative Political Studies 35, no. 3 (April 2002): 284-312.
6. Ezra N. Suleiman, "Presidentialism and Political Stability in France," in The Failure of Presidential Democracy, ed. Juan J. Linz and Arturo Valenzuela (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1994), p. 147.
7. Mathew Soberg Shugart and John M. Carey, Presidents and Assemblies: Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001); Mark P. Jones, Electoral Laws and the Survival of Presidential Democracies (Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1995).
8. Mathew Soberg Shugart and John M. Carey, Presidents and Assemblies: Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001); Mark P. Jones, Electoral Laws and the Survival of Presidential Democracies (Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1995).
9. Herbert Kitschelt, Zdenka Mansfeldova, Radoslaw Markowski, and Gábor Tóka, Post-Communist Party Systems: Competition, Representation, and Inter-Party Cooperation (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 90.
10. Jack Bielasiak, "Substance and Process in the Development of Party Systems in East Central Europe," Communist and Post-Communist Studies 30, no. 1 (1997): 30 ff.
11. Katarzyna Sobelewska-Myslik, Partie i system partyjne Europy Strodkowej po 1989 roku (Parties and Party Systems in Central Europe After 1989) (Krakow: Ksiegarnia Akademicka, 1999), p. 145.
12. An exception is A. Antoszewski and R. Herbut, Demokracje Europy Srokowo-Wschodniej w perspektywie porównawczej (East-Central European Democracy in Comparative Perspective) (Wroclaw: Wud. Uniwersytetu Wroclawskiego, 1997), p. 74. They agree with Lijphart that systems that give more power to presidents tend to diminish the role of parties.
13. Sobelewska-Myslik, Partie i system partyjne, p. 74.
14. Marian Grzbowski, "The System of Government in the Constitution," in The Principles of Basic Institutions of the System of Government in Poland, ed. Pawel Sarnecki, Andrzej Szmyt, and Zbigniew Witkowski (Warsaw: Sejm Publishing Office, 1999), p. 148.
15. Adam Przworski Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), chap. 1.
16. As I have noted previously in this journal, the decision of the communists to promote majoritarian rather than proportional elections was not very rational, given the fact that they would clearly have done better in proportional elections. They knew they could not come dose to winning a majority of the votes, and the opposition was united behind one group, Solidarity, which meant that they could not expect to win many seats in a majoritarian system. See Steven Saxonberg "Regime Behavior in 1989: Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland," Problems of Post-Communism 47, no. 4 (July/August 2000): 45-58; idem, The Fall: A Comparative Study of the End of Communism in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary and Poland (London: Routledge, 2001).
17. As I have noted previously in this journal, the decision of the communists to promote majoritarian rather than proportional elections was not very rational, given the fact that they would clearly have done better in proportional elections. They knew they could not come dose to winning a majority of the votes, and the opposition was united behind one group, Solidarity, which meant that they could not expect to win many seats in a majoritarian system. See Steven Saxonberg "Regime Behavior in 1989: Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland," Problems of Post-Communism 47, no. 4 (July/August 2000): 45-58; idem, The Fall: A Comparative Study of the End of Communism in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary and Poland (London: Routledge, 2001).
18. Halina Lisicka et al., System polityczny Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej (The Political System in the Polish Republic) (Wroclaw: Biuro Doradztvw Ekologicznego, 2001), pp. 324 ff. See also Grzbowksi, "System of Government in the Constitution," pp. 159-60.
19. Halina Lisicka et al., System polityczny Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej (The Political System in the Polish Republic) (Wroclaw: Biuro Doradztvw Ekologicznego, 2001), pp. 324 ff. See also Grzbowksi, "System of Government in the Constitution," pp. 159-60.
20. Grzbowski, "System of Government in the Constitution," pp. 161-62.
21. Lisicka et al., System polityczny Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej, p. 237.
22. Ibid., p. 241.
23. Tomáš Kostelecký, Political Parties After Communism (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2002), p. 67.
24. Aleks Szczerbiak, Poles Together? Emergence and Development of Political Parties in Post-Communist Poland (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2001), p. 15.
25. Ibid., p. 16.
26. Ibid., p. 17.
27. Frances Millard, Polish Politics and Society (London: Routledge, 1999), p. 85, table 5.3.
28. Ibid, p. 88.
29. Ibid., p. 89.
30. Statistics based on Szczerbiak, Poles Together? p. 19.
31. Millard, Polish Politics and Society, p. 94.
32. Ibid., p. 98.
33. Frances Millard, "Elections in Poland 2001: Electoral Manipulation and Party Upheaval," Communist and Post-Communist Studies 36 (2003): 73.
34. Kitschelt et al., Post-Communist Party Systems, p. 376.
35. Voytek Zubek, "The Eclipse of Walesa's Political Career," Europe-Asia Studies 49, no. 1 (1997): 107.
36. However, it should be noted that Zubek considers the liberal intellectuals, who founded Democratic Union to be on the Left, while I would label them more as center-right, even though some members, such as Jacek Kuron, had a leftist past and Social Democratic sympathies. Still, by 1989 the majority of these intellectuals had begun to support market-liberal policies.
37. Zubek, "Eclipse of Walesa's Political Career," p. 110.
38. Ibid., p. 111.
39. Ibid., p. 112.
40. Ibid., p. 113.
41. Eric Stein, Czecholslovakia: Ethnic Conflict, Constitutional Fissure, Negotiated Breakup (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997), p. 50, n. 56.
42. For dates, see Martin Hodný, Českoslovenští politici 1918/1991. Stručné Životopisy (Czechoslovak Politics 1918-1991: A Brief Biography) (Prague: Nakladatelství M. Hodný, 1991), pp. 53 and 81-85.
43. Eva Broklová, Československá demokracie. Politický systém ČSR 1918-1938 (Czechoslovak Democracy: The Political System of the Czechoslovak Republic, 1918-38) (Prague: Sociologické nakladatelství, 1992), pp. 34-46.
44. Sharon Wolchik makes a similar point, "A dissident playwright who was jailed numerous times for his decades-long championship of human rights, Havel has emerged as the symbol of the country's hopes for democracy and a better future. As was the case with the country's presidents during the interwar period, particularly President Masaryk, he has become the dominant political figure in Czechoslovakia. Given his moral authority, which derives from his refusal to compromise with the previous regime, and the high regard in which the public holds him, his influence on policy-making far outstrips the formal power of his office. In the early months of 1990, in particular, very few political decisions could be taken without his approval." See her Czechoslovakia in Transition (London: Pinter, 1991), p. 65.
45. Stein, CzecholSlovakia, pp. 288-89.
46. Steven Saxonberg, "Václav Klaus: The Rise and Fall of and Re-Emergence of a Charismatic Leader," East European Politics and Society 13, no. 2 (spring 1999); idem, The Czech Republic Before the New Millennium (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), esp. chaps. 2-4.
47. Steven Saxonberg, "Václav Klaus: The Rise and Fall of and Re-Emergence of a Charismatic Leader," East European Politics and Society 13, no. 2 (spring 1999); idem, The Czech Republic Before the New Millennium (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), esp. chaps. 2-4.
48. See, for example, Kåre Dahl Martinsen, "Václav Klaus und die politische Stabilität in der Tschechischen Republik" (Vaclav Klaus and Political Stability in the Czech Republic), Osteuropa 44, no. 11 (1994): 1058. This was also a major theme of many of the interviews done for Saxonberg, "Václav Klaus."
49. Thus, Jiří Kunc notes that Klaus won the chair of Civic Forum by obtaining the support of regional delegates and managers. See his "Stranické systémy v re/konstrukci II" (The Party System in (Re) Construction II), Politologická revue, no. 2 (1996): 21 and Stranické systémy v relkonstrukci (Prague: Slon, 2000), p. 203.
50. Thus, Jiří Kunc notes that Klaus won the chair of Civic Forum by obtaining the support of regional delegates and managers. See his "Stranické systémy v re/konstrukci II" (The Party System in (Re) Construction II), Politologická revue, no. 2 (1996): 21 and Stranické systémy v relkonstrukci (Prague: Slon, 2000), p. 203.
51. For a more in-depth discussion of the agreement, see Saxonberg, Czech Republic, chaps. 1 and 2, as well as Steven Saxonberg, "A New Phase in Czech Politics" Journal of Democracy 10, no. 1 (January 1999): 96-111.
52. For a more in-depth discussion of the agreement, see Saxonberg, Czech Republic, chaps. 1 and 2, as well as Steven Saxonberg, "A New Phase in Czech Politics" Journal of Democracy 10, no. 1 (January 1999): 96-111.
53. See www.volby.cz.
54. Klaus enjoyed reminding the public of Zeman's communist past See, for example, his interview in Jana Klusákové, "Neózute, kdy? jde o budoucnost," Týden 50 (1997).
55. Alexandr Mitrofanov, Za fasádou lidového domu (Behind the Façade of the House of the People) (Prague: Aurora, 1998), p. 32.
56. Ibid., p. 70.