The Disintegration of Czech Parliamentary Parties: The Network Analysis of Co-Voting Strategies of the Parliamentary Party ‘Renegades’

The main objective of this study is to capture and analyse the dynamics of the co-voting ties among the members of the parliamentary political party groups in two specific Czech cases, where some members of these parliamentary groups left their former party and joined new political entities. The study is of a quantitative nature, but the main findings are connected to qualitative insights as well. Network approach and methods were used for the analysis. The emphasis was put on the detection of possible rivalling communities in the constructed network of co-voting between deputies belonging to the analysed parliamentary party groups in respective periods. The co-voting was treated as a proxy indicator of possible relationship indicating either co-operation or rivalry between the deputies belonging to the political party suffering from an internal crisis. The primary outcome of the study was the identification of the co-voting strategies and dynamics of the co-voting between deputies who stayed in their former party, and renegades who switched.