The ODS from Klaus to Nečas: British inspirations as a matter of identity, ideology and image

Over last decades, and quite in line with an almost global trend, the Czech party system has been undergoing a shift towards more fragmentation, increasing voter volatility, decreasing party stability, erosion of party-society linkages and ever more personalised politics. As a part of this, ideologies have become vaguer and shallower. The Civic Democratic Party (Občanská demokratická strana, ODS) has probably been the most successful right wing political party in the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. This paper attempts to identify the British inspirations over the various stages of the ODS’s development and follow the changing interplay in the “triple i” triangle of ideology-identity-image.