The Electoral Base of Left-Wing Post-Communist Political Parties in the Former Czechoslovakia

Vol.14,No.2–3(2012)

Abstract
The goal of this article is to discuss the electoral base of left-wing political parties in the Czech Republic and Slovakia after 1993, i.e., after the breakup of the joint federal state. The main focus of research is the distribution of electoral support in these countries, its evolution, and the mutual stability among parties it has shown in elections to the legislatures of both countries. Each country is divided into fairly similar units. In the Czech Republic, these are municipalities with extended powers and, in Slovakia, districts. The election results presented are compared with the demographic structure of selected individual regions and subsequently analyzed. The result addresses whether and to what extent the electoral base of relatively similar left-wing political parties in these neighbouring countries are alike or unalike.

Keywords:
Elections; Electoral Geography; Czech Republic; Czech Social Democratic Party; Slovak Republic; SMER – Social Democracy; Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia;
Author biography

Michal Pink

Contact: Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. E-mail: pink@fss.muni.cz.
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