Czech Journal of Political Science

More than Informal Institutions? A Typology-Based Analysis of Constitutional Conventions

Milos Brunclik — 2025-10-14

This article focuses on a longstanding yet undertheorized concept in political science: constitutional conventions. Traditionally distinguished from laws by their lack of legal enforceability, recent scholarship has challenged this dichotomy, suggesting that conventions can acquire characteristics typical for formal legal rules. By integrating constitutional conventions into institutionalist theory, this article addresses two research questions: Are constitutional conventions only informal institutions? How are they related to constitutional texts? To answer these questions, the article proposes two original typologies. The first classifies conventions by their degree of formalization and sanctioning mechanisms, illustrating how they may evolve along a continuum from purely informal to increasingly formal institutions. The second typology reflects the relationship between constitutional conventions and constitutional texts, distinguishing between interpretative, gap-filling, modifying, and contradicting conventions. Using these typologies, the article argues that conventions are neither homogeneous nor purely informal institutions, but rather diverse and dynamic rules placed along the formal–informal continuum. In general, the article highlights political science’s (through institutional theory) distinctive capacity to analyze conventions as evolving elements of constitutional governance.

Really Independent? Biographies and Typology of Non-Partisan Presidential Candidates in Europe

Michael Drašar — 2025-10-14

This research article examines the relatively unresearched area in political science – the non-partisanship in the presidential election in Europe after 1989. Although the apparent clarity of the concept was shown, the phenomenon of non-partisan candidacy is not so clear, and it largely relates to party politics. The analysis introduces the composition of this group of candidates for the office of the head of state in terms of age, education, previous political skills and gender. At the same time, I identified five main types of non-partisan candidates based on their partisan background and their real status at the time of the election. Combining these two factors, it was proved that the phenomenon cannot be examined as a separate question. The analysis shows the complexity of the phenomenon. At the same time, the heterogeneity of the phenomenon is connected with a different level of the party system institutionalisation (PSI), but not so much as would be expected.

Women’s Protests in Poland in 2015-2021 in the Context of Charles Tilly’s Approach to Social Movements

Małgorzata Madej — 2025-10-14

The paper explores the women’s movement in Poland in the second and third decade of the 21st century. It applies the theoretical framework developed by Charles Tilly to present how the protests of Poles in 2016 and 2020 corresponded to the constituting features of social movements. Based on desk research of documentation of the protests by the protesters themselves, media and researchers, the paper highlights how protesters used the social movement repertoire and WUNC manifestations (worthiness, unity, numbers, commitment) to address the recurring problem of women’s reproductive rights in two latest manifestations of the struggle that has been a major component of Polish feminism since its origins.

Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East. New York, NY: Penguin Press, 2023. 480 pages.

Martial Fanga — 2025-10-14