political parties; Czech Republic; policy seeking; office seeking; coalition theory; coalition government; ministry; prime minister

The aim of this paper is to capture the participation of political parties in the governments of the Czech Republic in the years 1992 to 2021, the distribution of Seats in the Government, occupation of the Prime Minister’s Office and the type of coalitions formed. The study presented is theoretically grounded in the office-seeking approach to the study of coalitions and uses comparative and statistical methods. The data are analysed and interpreted in relation to the changes and development trends of the participation of political parties in the government. The case study concludes that the dynamics of the transformation of government coalitions can be divided into three stages. The first stage is represented by two decades of alternating dominant parties with a clear right-wing orientation: the ODS and the CSSD, which had a prime minister’s office, a share of more than 50% in the government and their coalition partners were smaller political parties. The second stage since 2010 is characterized by the weakening of the dominant parties and the emergence of more proportional government coalitions, where the strongest parties in the coalitions have less than a 50% share in the governing seats. The third final stage since 2017 is characterized by the arrival of a new dominant party: ANO gaining the position of prime minister, and for the first time by the formation of only a two-member government coalition.

The aim of this paper is to capture the participation of political parties in the governments of the Czech Republic in the years 1992 to 2021, the distribution of Seats in the Government, occupation of the Prime Minister’s Office and the type of coalitions formed. The study presented is theoretically grounded in the office-seeking approach to the study of coalitions and uses comparative and statistical methods. The data are analysed and interpreted in relation to the changes and development trends of the participation of political parties in the government. The case study concludes that the dynamics of the transformation of government coalitions can be divided into three stages. The first stage is represented by two decades of alternating dominant parties with a clear right-wing orientation: the ODS and the CSSD, which had a prime minister’s office, a share of more than 50% in the government and their coalition partners were smaller political parties. The second stage since 2010 is characterized by the weakening of the dominant parties and the emergence of more proportional government coalitions, where the strongest parties in the coalitions have less than a 50% share in the governing seats. The third final stage since 2017 is characterized by the arrival of a new dominant party: ANO gaining the position of prime minister, and for the first time by the formation of only a two-member government coalition.