In this paper we study the voting behavior of the Czech Parliament members. First, we show that low-dimensionality characterizes conflict in the Czech Parliament. The first, and dominant dimension is the classical left-right dimension, whereas the second dimension, when significant, expresses attitude toward European integration. Second, we document the party development in the Czech Parliament and show evidence of convergence to a Western European type parliamentary democracy. We show that this is mainly a result of political parties' use of reward and punishment strategies to discipline their members. Highly disciplined members were awarded with better ranking in the party list for the subsequent elections. We also find that the electors are, though indirectly, interested in roll call voting behavior of their representatives.

We investigate the dimensionality of political conflict in the European Parliament by applying scaling method techniques to all roll-call votes between 1979 and 2001 in the European Parliament. Contrary to most existing studies using scaling methods, we are able to interpret the substantive content of the observed dimensions using exogenous measures of national party policy positions. We find that the main dimension of politics in the EU’s only elected institution is the classic left-right dimension found in domestic politics. A second dimension is also present, although to a lesser extent, which is explained by conflicts between the parties in ‘government’ in the EU Council and Commission and the parties in ‘opposition’ in the Parliament.