České strany a jejich kandidáti: Případ voleb do Poslanecké sněmovny v roce 2010
Czech Parties and their Candidates: The Case of Elections to the Chamber of Deputies in 2010

Author(s): Peter Spáč
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, History, Political history, Recent History (1900 till today), Government/Political systems, Electoral systems, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: Czech Republic; Political parties; Government; candidate nomination; Electoral policy; Political systems;
Summary/Abstract: Elections constitute a central component of all democratic political systems. Conventionally, the institute of elections is seen is an instrument of conferring and renewing political legitimacy of state officials, as well as a vehicle for expressing citizens’ preferences regarding the future of their country or some other territorial entity. Their particular shape is specified by electoral systems which translate the voters’ political will into the make-up of the elected body (typically parliaments). On the face of it, such a definition emphasises the “technical” aspect of distributing seats among successful parties; we cannot however ignore the fact that elections have an important personal dimension. Their point is always also to select particular people to elected offices and functions.So understood, elections simultaneously represent the outcome of a distinct organisational process that temporally precedes them. Selection of candidates constitutes an inseparable part of the pre-election period, together with formulating election programmes, planning the election campaign and raising funds for it. As a topic of scholarly research in political science, candidate selection (also preselection) has been gradually gaining ground, and both theoretical and empirical resources have been continually expanded. However, whereas international trends are apparent in this regard, the Czech political-scientific community still treats preselection as a topic of secondary importance. This fact underlines the relevance of the present book, which aims to provide an in-depth inquiry into this issue in the Czech context.

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