Have a personal or library account? Click to login

Spatial polarization of Czech Parliamentary voting since 1992: The “V” shaped trend uncovered

Open Access
|Oct 2025

References

  1. Abrams, Samuel J.; Fiorina, Morris P. (2012). “The Big Sort” That Wasn’t: A Skeptical Reexamination. Political Science and Politics. Vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 203–210.
  2. Balík, Stanislav; Hloušek, Vít. (2016). The Development and Transformation of the Czech Party System After 1989. Acta Politologica. Vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 103–117.
  3. Bantel, Ivo (2023). Camps, Not Just Parties. The Dynamic Foundations of Affective Polarization in Multi-Party Systems. Electoral Studies. Vol. 83, pp. 1–11.
  4. Barša, Pavel; Hesová, Zora; Slačálek, Ondřej. (2021). Central European Culture Wars: Beyond Post-Communism and Populism. Praha: Faculty of Arts.
  5. Bauer, Paul C. (2019). Conceptualizing and Measuring Polarization: A Review. Unpublished manuscript.
  6. Bellettini, Giorgio; Ceroni, Carlotta B.; Monfardini, Chiara. (2016). Neighborhood Heterogeneity and Electoral Turnout. Electoral Studies. Vol. 42, pp. 146–156.
  7. Benassi, Federico, et al. (2021). Measuring Residential Segregation in Multi-Ethnic and Unequal European Cities. International Migration. Vol. 61, no. 2, pp. 341–361.
  8. Bishop, Bill; Cushing, Robert G. (2009). The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing us Apart. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
  9. Bitonti, Francesca, et al. (2023). Framing the Residential Patterns of Asian Communities in Three Italian Cities: Evidence from Milan, Rome, and Naples. Social Sciences. Vol. 12, pp. 1–29.
  10. Brunclík, Miloš; Kubát, Michal (2014). The Crisis of the Czech Politics 25 Years after the Velvet Revolution. Politeja. Vol. 2, no. 28, pp. 163–180.
  11. Butters, Ross; Hare, Christopher (2022). Polarized Networks? New Evidence on American Voters’ Political Discussion Networks. Political Behavior. Vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 1079–1103.
  12. Catney, Gemma (2017). Towards an Enhanced Understanding of Ethnic Group Geographies Using Measures of Clustering and Unevenness. The Geographical Journal. Vol. 183, no. 1, pp. 71–83.
  13. Clark, April K. (2015). Rethinking the Decline in Social Capital. American Politics Research. Vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 569–601.
  14. Cortes, Renan X., et al. (2020). PySAL/segregation: Segregation Analysis, Inference, & Decomposition [online; accessed. 2024-10-24]. Available from WWW: <https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3265359>.
  15. ČSÚ. (2024). Otevřená data pro volební výsledky [online; accessed. 2024-06-08]. Available from WWW: <https://www.volby.cz/opendata/opendata.htm>.
  16. Druckman, James N.; Levendusky, Matthew S.; Mclain, Audrey. (2018). No Need to Watch: How the Effects of Partisan Media Can Spread via Interpersonal Discussions. American Journal of Political Science. Vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 99–112.
  17. Efthyvoulou, Georgios; Bove, Vincenzo; Pickard, Harry. (2023). Micromotives and macromoves: political preferences and internal migration in England and Wales. Journal of Economic Geography. Vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 1145–1167.
  18. Fiorina, Morris P.; Abrams, Samuel J. (2008). Political Polarization in the American Public. Annual Review of Political Science. Vol. 11, pp. 563–588.
  19. Gidron, Noam; Adams, James; Will, Horne. (2023). Who Dislikes Whom? Affective Polarization between Pairs of Parties in Western Democracies. British Journal of Political Science. Vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 997–1015.
  20. Gimpel, James; Hui, Iris. (2015). Seeking Politically Compatible Neighbors? The Role of Neighborhood Partisan Composition in Residential Sorting. Political Geography. Vol. 48, pp. 130–142.
  21. Gregor, Kamil. (2014). Přesuny hlasů. In Havlík, Vlastimil. (ed.). Volby do Poslanecké sněmovny 2013. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, pp. 189–214.
  22. Hájek, Lukáš (2020). Dynamic Roll Call Analysis of Parties’ Ideological Positions in the Czech Republic. The Journal of Legislative Studies. Vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 133–157.
  23. Harjunen, Oskari; Saarimaa, Tuukka; Tukianinen, Janne. (2023). Love Thy (Elected) Neighbor? Residential Segregation, Political Representation, and Local Public Goods. The Journal of Politics. Vol. 85, no. 3, pp. 860–875.
  24. Harteveld, Eelco. (2021a). Fragmented Foes: Affective Polarization in the Multiparty Context of the Netherlands. Electoral Studies. Vol. 71, pp. 1–16.
  25. Harteveld, Eelco. (2021b). Ticking all the Boxes? A Comparative Study of Social Sorting and Affective Polarization. Electoral Studies. Vol. 72, 1–11.
  26. Harteveld, Eelco; Van der Brug, Wouter. (2023). Keeping Up With the Joneses? Neighbourhood Effects on the Vote. Political Studies. Vol. 72, no. 4, pp. 1555–1571.
  27. Havlík, Vlastimil; Kluknavská, Alena. (2022). The Populist Vs Anti-Populist Divide in the Time of Pandemic: The 2021 Czech National Election and its Consequences for European Politics. Journal of Common Market Studies. Vol. 60, pp. 76–87.
  28. Havlík, Vlastimil; Lysek, Jakub. (2022). The Czech 2021 General Election and Its Impact on the Party Systém. Czech Journal of Political Science. Vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 225–238.
  29. Havlík, Vlastimil; Voda, Petr. (2016). The Rise of New Political Parties and Re-Alignment of Party Politics in the Czech Republic. Acta Politologica. Vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 119–144.
  30. Havlík, Vlastimil, et al. (2024). Return of Illiberalism: The Results of the 2023 General Election in Slovakia. Czech Journal of Political Science. Vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 59–86.
  31. Hrbková, Lenka; Macek, Jakub; Macková, Alena. (2023). How Does the “Us” versus “Them” Polarization Work? Capturing Political Antagonism with the Political Antagonism Scale. East European Politics and Societies and Cultures. Vol. 20, no. 10, pp. 1–21.
  32. Hrbková, Lenka; Voda, Petr; Havlík, Vlastimil. (2023). Politically Motivated Interpersonal Biases: Polarizing Effects of Partisanship and Immigration Attitudes. Party Politics. Vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 450–464.
  33. Iyengar, Shanto, et al. (2019). The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States. Annual Review of Political Science. Vol. 22, pp. 129–146.
  34. Jehlička, Petr; Kostelecký, Tomáš; Sýkora, Luděk. (1993). Czechoslovak Parliamentary Elections 1990: Old Patterns, New Trends and Lots of Surprises. In O’loughlin, John; Van der Wusten, Herman (eds.). The New Political Geography of Eastern Europe. London, UK, and New York, NY: Belhaven Press, pp. 235–254.
  35. Johnston, Ron, et al. (2004). Party Support and the Neighbourhood Effect: Spatial Polarisation of the British Electorate, 1991–2001. Political Geography. Vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 367–402.
  36. Johnston, Ron; Manley, David; Jones, Kelvyn. (2016). Spatial Polarization of Presidential Voting in the United States, 1992–2012: The “Big Sort” Revisited. Annals of the American Association of Geographers. Vol. 106, no. 5, pp. 1047–1062.
  37. Kalmoe, Nathan P.; Mason, Lilliana. (2022). Radical American Partisanship: Mapping Violent Hostility, Its Causes, and the Consequences for Democracy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
  38. Kinsella, Chad; Mctague, Colleen; Raleigh, Kevin N. (2015). Unmasking Geographic Polarization and Clustering: A Micro-Scalar Analysis of Partisan Voting Behavior. Applied Geography. Vol. 62, pp. 404–419.
  39. Kostelecký, Tomáš, et al. (2014). Koho volí vaši sousedé? Prostorové vzorce volebního chování na území Česka od roku 1920 do roku 2006, jejich změny a možné příčiny. Praha: Sociologické nakladatelství.
  40. Laniado, David; et al. (2018). The Impact of Geographic Distance on Online Social Interactions. Information Systems Frontiers. Vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 1203–1218.
  41. Lepič, Martin (2017). Limits to Territorial Nationalization in Election Support for an Independence-Aimed Regional Nationalism in Catalonia. Political Geography. Vol. 60, pp. 190–202.
  42. Lieberson, Stanley. (1969). Measuring Population Diversity. American Sociological Review. Vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 850–862.
  43. Linek, Lukáš, et al. (2023). Volební volatilita v postkomunistické Evropě. Praha: Karolinum.
  44. Lysek, Jakub; Macků, Karel. (2022). Continuity in Discontinuity? Spatial Patterns of Electoral Behaviour in the 2021 Czech Parliamentary Elections. Czech Journal of Political Science. Vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 260–280.
  45. Lysek, Jakub; Pánek, Jiří; Lebeda, Tomáš. (2021). Who are the Voters and where are they? Using Spatial Statistics to Analyse Voting Patterns in the Parliamentary Elections of the Czech Republic. Journal of Maps. Vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 33–38.
  46. Martin, Gregory J.; Webster, Steven W. (2020). Does Residential Sorting Explain Geographic Polarization?. Political Science Research and Methods. Vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 215–231.
  47. Martini, Sergio; Torcal, Mariano. (2019). Trust Across Political Conflicts: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Divided Societies. Party Politics. Vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 126–139.
  48. Mason, Lilliana. (2018). Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
  49. Massey, Douglas S.; Denton, Nancy A. (1988). The Dimensions of Racial Segregation. Social Forces. Vol. 67, no. 2, pp. 281–315.
  50. Mastrosavvas, Andreas. (2024). The Geography of Partisan Homophily in the 2020 US Presidential Election. Applied Geography. Vol. 171, p. 103371.
  51. McConnell, Christopher, et al. (2017). The Economic Consequences of Partisanship in a Polarized Era. American Journal of Political Science. Vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 5–18.
  52. McCoy, Jennifer; Rahman, Tahmina; Murat, Somer. (2018). Polarization and the Global Crisis of Democracy: Common Patterns, Dynamics, and Pernicious Consequences for Democratic Polities. American Behavioral Scientist. Vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 16–42.
  53. McCoy, Jennifer; Somer, Murat. (2019). Toward a Theory of Pernicious Polarization and How It Harms Democracies: Comparative Evidence and Possible Remedies. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Vol. 681, pp. 234–271.
  54. Mummolo, Jonathan; Nall, Clayton (2016). Why Partisans Do Not Sort: The Constraints on Political Segregation. The Journal of Politics. Vol. 79, no. 1, pp. 45–59.
  55. Mutz, Diana (2002). Cross-Cutting Social Networks: Testing Democratic Theory in Practice. American Political Science Review. Vol. 96, no. 1, pp. 111–126.
  56. Nel·lo, Oriol; Gomà, Aina. (2018). Geographies of Discontent: Urban Segregation, Political Attitudes and Electoral Behaviour in Catalonia. City, Territory and Architecture. Vol. 5, pp. 1–12.
  57. Ouředníček, Martin; Temelová, Jana (2011). Nové sociálně prostorové nerovnosti, lokální rozvoj a kvalita života. Sociologický časopis. Vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 625–631.
  58. Paasi, Anssi (2004). Place and Region: Looking Through the Prism of Scale. Progress in Human Geography. Vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 536–546.
  59. Pattie, Charles; Johnston, Ron. (2000). “People Who Talk Together Vote Together”: An Exploration of Contextual Effects in Great Britain. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Vol. 90, no. 1, pp. 41–66.
  60. Putnam, Robert D. (2000). Bowling Alone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon and Schuster.
  61. Reardon, Sean F.; Firebaugh, Glenn (2002). Measures of Multigroup Segregation. Sociological Methodology. Vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 33–67.
  62. Reardon, Sean F.; O’Sullivan, David (2004). Measures of Spatial Segregation. Sociological Methodology. Vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 121–162.
  63. Rohla, Ryne, et al. (2018). Spatial Scale and the Geographical Polarization of the American Electorate. Political Geography. Vol. 65, pp. 117–122.
  64. Sartori, Giovanni. (1976). Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  65. Schnell, Steven M. (2013). Deliberate Identities: Becoming Local in America in a Global Age. Journal of Cultural Geography. Vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 55–89.
  66. Smolík, Josef. (2022). New Political Parties in the Czech Republic Since 2010 In Kancik-Kołtun, Ewelina; Smolik, Josef (eds.). New Political Parties in the Party Systems of the Czech Republic. Frankfurt a.M: Peter Lang.
  67. Stauber, Jakub. (2017). Institutionalization of Nationalized Party System: he Czech Case. Acta Politologica. Vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 46–65.
  68. Suchánek, Jonáš; Hasman, Jiří. (2023). Geografie nespokojenosti a odporu: časoprostorová analýza volebních výsledků populistické radikální pravice v Česku mezi lety 1992 a 2021. Geografie. Vol. 128, no. 2, pp. 203–219.
  69. Theil, Henri; Finezza, Anthony (1971). A note on the Measurement of Racional Integration of Schools by Means of Informational Concepts. The Journal of Mathematical Sociology. Vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 187–193.
  70. Tilley, James; Hobolt, Sara B. (2024). The Effect of Politically Homogenous Neighbourhoods on Affective Polarization: Evidence from Britain. European Journal of Political Research. Vol 64, pp. 930–942.
  71. Valentine, Gill (2008). Living with Difference: Reflections on Geographies of Encounter. Progress in Human Geography. Vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 323–337.
  72. V-Dem. (2023). Political polarization [online; accessed. 2024-06-08]. Available from WWW: <https://v-dem.net/data_analysis/VariableGraph/>.
  73. Wagner, Markus. (2021). Affective Polarization in Multiparty Systems. Electoral Studies. Vol. 69, 1–13.
  74. White, Michael J. (1986). Segregation and Diversity Measures in Population Distribution. Population Index. Vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 198–221.
  75. Winkler, Richelle L.; Johnson, Kenneth M. (2016). Moving Toward Integration? Effects of Migration on Ethnoracial Segregation Across the Rural-Urban Continuum. Demography. Vol. 53, pp. 1027–1049.
  76. Zarycki, Tomasz. (2015). The Electoral Geography of Poland: Between Stable Spatial Structures and Their Changing Interpretations. Erdkunde. Vol. 69, no. 2, pp. 107–124.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/acpo-2025-0005 | Journal eISSN: 1803-8220 | Journal ISSN: 1804-1302
Language: English
Page range: 36 - 47
Submitted on: Dec 25, 2024
Accepted on: Sep 5, 2025
Published on: Oct 3, 2025
Published by: Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 2 issues per year

© 2025 Pavel Cihlář, Martin Lepič, published by Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.