Abstract
The aim of this article is to address the question: what are the factors influencing the level of parliamentary party groups’ unity in Czech Chamber of Deputies. Regarding research design (a one-system study) and data analysed, the theoretical explanations used are party specific.
Hypotheses refer to government status, party size, party system fragmentation, differences in parties’ ideological platforms, and political socialization and incumbency. This study is based on roll-call data for the 1993 to 2008 period aggregated to legislative terms.
Using an OLS regression modelling approach this article finds support for the hypothesis that a party’s status in government influences observed legislative party unity. However, legislative party unity declines when the size of a government’s majority increases and the chances of losing a roll call vote decline.
Moreover, there is weaker evidence regarding the influence of party size on party unity.