Načo nám je opozícia? Inštitucionálne práva parlamentnej opozície v Česku a na Slovensku
What the Opposition is for? Institutional rights of the parliamentary opposition in Czechia and Slovakia

Author(s): Katarína Doboš Chovancová
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Government/Political systems
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: Slovakia; parliamentary opposition; Czechia; government; political systems;parliamentary democracy;development of parliamentarianism; opposition parties;
Summary/Abstract: It was Robert Dahl, more than fifty years ago, who noted the importance of parliamentary opposition and established a framework for studying it. Since the publication of his ground -breaking Political Opposition in Western Democracies in 1966, many scholars, drawing on his work, have pointed out the importance of the opposition for parliamentary democracies. One contemporary author is Helms (2004), who emphasises that limiting the power of the government is a crucial step during the emergence of new democracies. The opposition is the only actor that can exercise influence on the government directly in the parliament where it works. This is why, for instance, Christiansen and Daamgaard (2008) note that opposition parties are the essence of parliamentary democracy. As far as empirical studies are concerned: contemporary political scientists do focus extensively on opposition forces, but they tend to examine non -parliamentary forms of opposition more often. However, there is no gainsaying that some authors have analysed parliaments and their relationships with governments. The research lens is often held to the overall development of parliamentarianism in individual countries, or comparatively across several (see e.g. Ilonszki, 2008; Kopecký, 2005); or authors analyse legislature -executive relations largely on the basis of King’s classic typology of these relations (e.g. Millard, 2008; Pettai and Madise 2006, Kopecký and Spirová, 2008).

• Details
• Contents