ABSTRACT
This chapter will complete the empirical inquiry into die institutionalization of the Czech and Slovak parliaments by focusing on their internal functioning. It aims to substantiate the evidence presented in previous chapters by examining the organization and behavior of parliamentary parties1 - arguably the single most important analytical unit in the internal functioning of Czech and Slovak parliaments. Chapter 4 showed that, within a relatively short period of time, the relations between parliament and government have become dominated by political parties in both countries. This was exhibited in a number of formal institutional features of their executive-legislative systems, but also in the actual interactions between ministers and MPs, which both, one way or the other, forcefully underpin the centrality of parties. Parliamentary parties in the two states have evidently matured into cohesive bodies, leaving cross-party interests, parliamentary committees, individual MPs, and parliamentary agendas contingent on party politics. How has this process occurred? Have the internal procedures of Czech and Slovak parliaments influenced parliamentary party cohesion? Has the parliamentary party leadership been able to sanction disobedience among their own MPs? To what extent is the cohesion of parliamentary parties influenced by their relationship with the external party organizations?
