ABSTRACT
This chapter begins exploring processes of parliamentary institutionalization and democratic consolidation by asking how the new Czech and Slovak parliaments and institutions were created and how they evolved during the first three years of the post-communist period. What constitutional system was initially adopted in Czechoslovakia? How did it influence the processes that led to the disintegration of the federal state? Why did Czech and Slovak political elites prefer certain institutional options and configurations rather than others in their new states? By exploring these and related questions, the chapter provides an overview of the key problems in the process of constitution-making in Czechoslovakia and the Czech and Slovak Republics between 1989 and 1992. Although still fresh in our memories, this period already constitutes a part of Czechoslovak history. In a sequence of crucial events, it involves the period of transition-, from the breakdown of the communist regime in November 1989 and the ensuing first round of constitutional bargaining to the first free elections in June 1990. It also covers the beginning of the period of democratic consolidation, between 1990 and the end of 1992, which resulted in the split of Czechoslovakia, and thus the subsequent second round of constitutional bargaining - on the constitutions of both the Czech and Slovak Republics.
