Managerial Populism and the Rise of Illiberal Politics: the Case of the Czech Republic

By examination of ANO in the Czech Republic, one of the most successful populist parties in contemporary Central and Eastern Europe (almost 30% of votes in the most recent general election), the paper aims at contributing to answer the following question: Which strategies do political challengers use to legitimize their illiberal “ideology of democracy” within mainstream party competition? Dealing with the case of ANO is important not only from the point of view of understanding of the recent development of politics in the Czech Republic but even more importantly from the point of view of comparative study of populism and party politics in general. Using a mixed method approach of content analysis combining a quantitate analysis of Facebook page and qualitative analysis of interviews and other party sources (supplemented by an overview of the profile of voters of the party), the study shows ANO as an exceptional case of Central European populism based on the virtual absence of a coherent ideological narrative (unlike the national-conservative narrative of PiS or Fidesz) and its replacement by the stress on expert/managerial politics (Campus 2010, Mair 2013). Despite its peculiarities, the detailed understanding of ANO has important comparative implications. First, it contributes to the study of populism by confirming the flexibility of populist ideology (i.a. specifics of the “populist heartland” defined in the narrative of the party). Second, the rise of the party can be placed in a broader trend of a crisis of “standard” party politics, decline of partisanship and the rise of anti-politics. Third, despite being less ideologically rigid, the paper shows that “centrist populist” discourse (and behavior of ANO) share similar illiberal traits as politics of its populist fellows in other Central European countries.