Koncept polarizace stranického systému a polarizace politických elit před volbami do Poslanecké sněmovny v roce 2013

The phenomenon of party system polarization has been relatively neglected in the Czech political science literature so far. Thus, one of the objectives of this article is to present a concise summary of theoretical approaches, analytical practices and research methodology towards party polarization. To analyse party polarization the authors use one of the possible methods, party elite polarization, which Sartori and Sani introduced (1983). The study measures party elite polarization via questions on value self-placement on the L-R scale of the Czech party leaders of the established parties during the General Election Campaign in 2013. Evaluation of the commonly used self-identification techniques and presentation of quantitative results of the party elite polarization during the Czech election in 2013 is therefore the main motive of this article. Using statistical methods the authors fi nd out that not all commonly perceived polarizing issues really prove to polarize party elites.