Vanishing Partisanship at the Local Level in the Czech Republic

This paper focuses on the decline of partisanship at the municipal level in the Czech Republic. Independent candidates are playing an increasingly important role in local elections as elsewhere in Europe. At the same time, the Czech Republic has a very fragmented settlement structure. More than a quarter of municipalities have fewer than 200 inhabitants. In these municipalities councillors affiliated to a political party are rather the exception. The paper discusses at first the decline in the number of candidates representing a political party in local elections in the smallest municipalities. Several forms of political party involvement at the local level were identified, ranging from a stand-alone political party candidate list to an independent local list of candidates nominated by a political party but without party affiliation. Through an analysis of in-depth interviews with representatives of political parties and local authorities, the paper tries to find answers to questions such as: What role does a political party play now at the local level in the smallest municipalities? How has this role changed in recent years? What is the future of political parties at the local level in these small municipalities?