Replication Data for: THE DISRUPTIVE EFFECTS OF POLARIZATION ON THE LAW-MAKING PROCESS

The Czech Republic, as a country in Central and Eastern Europe, underwent what Ágh refers to as "parliamentarization" at the onset of the democratization process (Ágh 1997; 1999; 2003). Over three decades, this has changed, and tendencies towards executive expansion can now be observed in new and established democracies. However, this is not universally applicable (Ishiyama 2022), as indicated by the differing functioning of parliaments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Czech society in the last decade has been characterized by extreme political polarization, both at the level of the elites and at the mass level.
The Czech case illustrates that in situations where politics are based on the antagonism of populism and so-called anti-populism, intense polarization may occur, resulting in a blocked parliament. Frequent obstruction in a polarized political environment primarily empowers the legislative branch, as governments face challenges in governing flexibly, even when supported by a solid majority of legislators. In bicameralism, blocking one chamber may even weaken the other chamber, leading to legislative passivity. Another consequence might be frustration among members of the functionally weaker chamber, lower legitimacy, and doubts about its purpose.
Moreover, if legislative inflation had occurred in the Czech Parliament a decade earlier, the preceding parliamentary terms would have been characterised by a legislative decline, undermining the efficiency and responsiveness of the Czech political system. This is caused by intensive polarisation at the elite level, which is accompanied by several additional phenomena. These include an extreme number of plenary meetings, late-night plenary meetings, obstructions, the deterioration of parliamentary culture, personal attacks, and a lack of willingness to seek compromises on long-term issues or in case of revision of the Act on the Rules of Procedure of the Chamber.
As a consequence of these developments, the Parliament debates more than it acts. However, the Czech Parliament has traditionally been more aligned with the ideal model of a working parliament than a talking parliament. In this context, the paper investigates the extent to which the polarisation of the political elite affects the functioning of the Czech Parliament and its parts.
Methodological approach: analysis of publicly available parliamentary documents, research data, statistics, voting records, participant observation and literature analysis, supplemented by expert interviews.