Abstract: Programs of political parties offer important material for political science research. According to the parties’ positions stated in their programs we can define and quantify positions of political parties in their mutual competition. This is highly significant in situations when political parties compete for the same segment of the electorate. This situation occurred in the 2010 parliamentary elections in June of that year. The Czech electoral race faced the content of three parties in the same part of the political spectrum. These were ODS, TOP 09 and KDU-CSL. In my contribution we analyzed electoral programs of these parties with the aim to distinguish common and distinct elementary features that influenced their mutual competition. For my inquiry I used the method of content analysis adapted by MRG/CMP of European Consortium for Political Research.

Keywords: Electoral programs, ideology, electoral competition, Czech republic, elections 2010