CRISIS OF PARTY SYSTEMS AND CARETAKER GOVERMENTS: Czech Republic and Italy

Since 1990s of the twentieth century to the present, the so called caretaker governments have served as a political crisis solution in the Czech Republic as well as in Italy. Caretaker government is an institute of temporary cabinets with a non-partisan prime minister. Other members of this type of government are usually non-partisan as well (but not necessarily all of them). This is the main feature that distinguishes the caretaker government from the traditional government led by political parties. The thesis aims to identify common points and circumstances leading to the establishment of caretaker governments on the example of two relatively close parliamentary republics from the institutional design's point of view. It focuses mainly on the status of political parties as it is their failure that leads to the fall of the previous cabinet and to the situation when it is impossible to form a parliamentary majority in order to establish new government led by political parties. Special attention is also paid to a role of the president of the republic. Face to face with weakened political parties, he executes his powers in a more autonomous way in accordance with a presidential accordion theory described by Mauro Tebaldi, especially his powers to appoint the prime minister which fundamentally works..