Parliament without the Left: The Future of Representative Democracy?

As decades unfold, it becomes increasingly evident that certain long-standing European political parties boasting sophisticated ideologies are experiencing a decline in political relevance. In contrast, emerging entities, particularly those of a populist nature, are gaining traction with greater electoral success. These dynamics prompt the question of whether the traditional right-left dichotomy has reached its limits. The European left, in particular, is under scrutiny, encountering challenges in countries such as Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Poland, and the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic, in particular, has run ahead of this trend, as members of the left in parliament have been absent since 2021, with only a single senator as an exception. In previous decades, representatives of the established left-wing parties, namely the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia and the Czech Social Democratic Party, were regularly present in parliament. Moreover, since 1993, 5 of the 12 Czech prime ministers have come from the Social Democratic Party. The uniqueness of this situation is further characterized by the fact that after the parliamentary elections in 2021, the parliamentary opposition is composed solely of populist parties, namely Action of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO 2011) and Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD). These groups have consistently positioned themselves against the right-left divide. They share this perspective with the current governing party, the Czech Pirate Party (Piráti), a digital party that also deems the divide outdated. However, insights from lawmakers representing these parties might not provide such a straightforward narrative. The Czech case is valuable in examining the thesis of antagonism between populism and anti-populism (Stavrakakis et al., 2018; Moffit, 2018), which may replace the traditional conflict between right and left (Havlík and Kluknavská, 2022). According to Bickerton and Accetti (2020), the axis of political competition shifts from the horizontal dimension (the traditional ideological struggle between right and left) to the vertical dimension (the struggle between the whole and its parts). With the absence of the left, it might seem that one pole of the traditional dyad has suffered a crushing defeat. However, the left had already experienced significant losses with the fall of communist regimes, yet persisted in parliaments for decades, governing in many countries and still holding executive power in several (for example, in Germany and Slovakia). Thus, the debate between Bobbio (1994) and Anderson (1998) regarding the meaning of the left persists despite the shifting political landscape. The question is – does Bobbio's thesis, positing that the right and left are inseparable, still resonate in the second decade of the 21st century? Can left-leaning ideologies endure in parliament without dedicated left-wing representatives? Who steps in to fill the void left by the absence of left-wing parties? Moreover, does the conventional right-left distinction maintain its relevance in contemporary parliamentary politics? These questions find answers in the research carried out among members of the Czech parliament in 2023 and 2024, with a noteworthy response rate of 91.5% in the lower chamber. Complementary insights stem from public opinion research, shedding light on the right-left perceptions of Czech parliamentary parties.