Main objective of this article is to analyse political determinants of
the descriptive representation of women at the local level in communal elections (i.e. the position of mayor) in the Czech Republic and Slovakia over the past decade. It focuses on the political opportunity structure (i.e. the structure of relationships that affect social and political behaviour) and questions whether this structure affects also women’s political representation. It shows that women are significantly advantaged in municipalities where women have held a mayoral post in a previous electoral term. In contrast to other studies, previous women’s representation in a municipal council is here found to have only a limited effect. The strong negative effect of the direct election of mayors and the negative effect of municipal size (only in Slovakia) indicate that women’s representation as mayors may be the result of interdependent phenomena that are a combination of institutional structure (e.g. electoral procedure, the mayor’s powers) and political contextual factors (past experience with a female mayor – not necessarily incumbents). This finding challenges earlier studies and it shows that any effort to identify a clear list of determinants of women’s representation as mayors is a complex task, making it difficult to pursue a broader comparative study in a different institutional environment or a different political culture.
The article focuses on representatives of the regional (and most recently established) level of government in the Czech Republic. It describes the context behind the emergence of regional governments and how they differ from the local and national political levels. It notes the close personnel connection between local and regional political elites. Experience gained in local politics helps elites to succeed at the regional level. The presence of local politicians in regional government varies with the level of residential fragmentation and the degree of urbanisation in the given region. Unlike local politics, which is consistently comprised of a significant proportion of independents, regional representatives are almost exclusively members of political parties and movements. This situation on the one hand serves to increase the politicisation of local politics and on the other leads to greater competition within political parties, whose programmes and national leadership regional politicians wish to influence.