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The impact of the local presence of Czech political parties on the results of general election
Tenkl, Miroslav ; Kostelecký, Tomáš (advisor) ; Tomeš, Jiří (referee)
The Master thesis raises three main research questions: (1) whether and eventually how much the presence of political parties at the local level affects results of these parties in elections to the Chamber of Deputies, (2) how much the population size of the municipalities makes a difference in the relationship between local and national level of the politics and (3) how much the electoral behaviour of the Czech population is given by structural factors and by contextual factors respectively. The analytical body of the thesis is structured into four main chapters. In the first part of the research, the power of the relation between elections to the Chamber of Deputies and to the municipal councils is measured. For this purpose, the correlation analysis is used. The relation is watched through two categories of the population. The first chapter is followed by the crucial part, which aims to find out whether and eventually how much the presence of political parties at the local level affects results of these parties in the elections to the Chamber of Deputies. Moreover, this relation is compared with structural factors of the population based on which the electoral behaviour is typically studied. This analysis is divided into three categories of the population. The spatial regression analysis is...
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"The other" geography of alternative food networks: farmers' markets as a travelling concept
Fendrychová, Lenka ; Chromý, Pavel (advisor) ; Kostelecký, Tomáš (referee) ; Pauknerová, Karolína (referee)
Boom of the farmers' markets in 2010 represented a brand new phenomenon in the so far rather calm development of the Czech alternative food networks (AFNs). Unprecedented was the extent of political support at the local and state level as well as the interest of media and consumers. My PhD project originates in the desire to understand this phenomenon. I realized qualitative research of practice and discourse of the farmers' markets in the territory of Prague metropolitan area (PMA) during the years 2011 and 2012. The main research methods included interviews with organizers, observation at the markets, and the content analysis of the mass media. In the course of the research it became obvious that the current academic discourse, rooted primarily in the Anglo-American context, cannot be applied to the Czech reality. Also, the specific features of the farmers' markets in the PMA could only partially be explained by the differences between the Czech post-socialist context and "the West". An interpretation of the boom of farmers' markets in the PMA, consistent with the results of my research, was only enabled by an innovative approach which combines the concept of the travelling theory, postcolonial sensitivity to the mutual relations between source and target contexts, and the findings of the studies...
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Macro-Geographical Analysis of Current European Populism (2018)
Bendl, Tomáš ; Dostál, Petr (advisor) ; Kostelecký, Tomáš (referee)
During the last two decades the European societal environment has undergone crucial political transformation. The electoral support and general influence of populist parties and leaders is on the constant rise. The first results of rising populism can be seen, for example, in the so-called erosion of democracy in Hungary and in the British people's decision to leave the EU. An analytical part of this thesis is based on a theoretical framework which is presented in the beginning of this paper. It mainly elaborates on a definition that builds on Mudde's ideological concept and on possible divisions of populism which are used in the thesis. Useful definition and classification of the complex character of the term populism is crucial and allows proper understanding and also further development of the thesis itself. The conceptualisation of main attributes and causes is mainly based on the current literature and especially on the theory of economic grievance and on the Cultural Backlash theory. The first crucial contribution of this thesis is construction of an empirical model which is able to measure and categorise political parties by their level of populism. Closer look at these results created by factor analysis showed that the current success of European populist parties is highly alarming. In...
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The Friends and Neighbours Effect and Its Relevance to Voting Behaviour in Czech Parliamentary Elections
Pileček, Radek ; Kostelecký, Tomáš (advisor) ; Daněk, Petr (referee)
Voter decision-making about which political party to support in the elections is a very complex process. One of the key factors influencing our voting behaviour is the effect of particular candidates in terms of their local activities. Many Czech and also foreign studies show that candidates gain significantly higher preferences in the municipality of their residence and its surroundings. Within the analyzed parliamentary elections, this is reflected not only by the territorial concentration of preferential votes, but also by higher local electoral support of the political parties or movements represented by these candidates. This diploma thesis examines, among other things, differences in the strength of the described effect (technically called the friends and neighbours effect) between candidates from different political parties and in different regions of Czechia. Quantitative research has shown greater local strength and spatial extent of friends and neighbours effect for leading candidates from non-metropolitan areas who have experiences from local or regional politics, such as mayors or regional councilors. In the 2017 parliamentary elections, the friends and neighbours effect mostly influenced the spatial patterns of electoral support of the KDU-ČSL and the STAN movement and on the other...
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Regional differentiation of voting behaviour in Czechia
Mikešová, Renáta ; Kostelecký, Tomáš (advisor) ; Jelen, Libor (referee) ; Madleňák, Tibor (referee)
This thesis explores the regional differentiation of electoral behaviour and other topics in electoral geography in the Czech Republic. Electoral geography, which studies the geographic aspects of the organisation, process, and results of elections, for a long time developed mainly in Western societies given the absence of free elections in other countries. It began to develop in the Czech Republic in the 1990s and its goal was to explore the process of the transformation of society and the stabilisation of democracy, to compare electoral patterns observed in conditions of stable liberal democracies with the patterns found in transforming states, and to adapt them to the specific conditions of transition countries. Electoral geography focuses mainly on the spatial variations of electoral behaviour. It seeks to determine whether different patterns of electoral behaviour are based on the social structure of the population in the region, whether they are influenced by contextual factors, or whether it is a combination of both. Another important subject studied by electoral geography is the spatial patterns of representation, which however are usually studied in majoritarian electoral systems. The thesis is composed of two basic sections. The first section offers a broader theoretical and...
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Territorial identities and religion in Czechia and Central Europe
Reeves, Daniel Vinson ; Havlíček, Tomáš (advisor) ; Kostelecký, Tomáš (referee) ; Majo, Juraj (referee)
Territorial identities are a mosaic of many different cultural elements, from which religion is just one subset. This dissertation explores elements of religion as they are expressed within territorial identities at varying scale levels in Czechia and several neighboring countries. The use of a religiously themed postage stamp or a Christian toponym, the inclusion of a religious site in a hand drawn map of one's hometown or one's position regarding the return of disputed properties to the churches they were taken from years ago, each of these can be an expression of territorial identity. Whether actively practiced or passively acknowledged, religion is bound up in our sense of place. The four separate studies that make up the body of this dissertation present religion's case as an integral ingredient within the territorial identities of Central Europe. In terms of spatial differences, Slovakia and Poland are more likely, as compared to Czechia, to recognize and include elements of religion in their territorial identities. This is true at both national - postage stamps - and local levels - toponyms and cognitive maps. Each of the methods used to explore the presence of religion in expressions of territorial identity - postage stamps, toponyms and cognitive maps - proved effective. The comparative...
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Friends and Neighbours Effect on Voting in the Královéhoradecký Region
Frič, David ; Kostelecký, Tomáš (advisor) ; Daněk, Petr (referee)
David Frič FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS EFFECT ON VOTING IN THE KRÁLOVÉHRADECKÝ REGION Abstract This work deals with one of spatially contextual impacts on electoral behavior, namely the so- called friends and neighbours effect. It consists of influencing a voter's favor by the residence of a candidate around which the candidate usually gains more votes than an average for the whole constituency or more votes than would be expected by other criteria. The work verifies attendance and strength of this effect on the example of three kinds of elections in Královéhradecký Region. It analyzes friends and neighbours effect on voting in the elections to the Chamber of Deputies, the Regional Council and the Senate. The results of potency of the effect are examined separately in each of these elections and then compares results of the analyzes of these elections to each other, thereby provides a unique comparative perspective of this phenomenon in the Czech electoral systems. The significance of the friends and neighbours effect is also compared among selected political actors. The main part of the analysis focuses on their electoral results in individual municipalities as well as in the whole region, with regard to differences in results of candidates' hometowns. To illustrate the significance of the friends and...
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Residential Environment Quality and Residential Satisfaction of Seniors
Dvořáková, Nina ; Ouředníček, Martin (advisor) ; Čermák, Zdeněk (referee) ; Kostelecký, Tomáš (referee)
Researching the quality of life is an interdisciplinary matter. The physical and social environment that man inhabits, we consider to be the basic building blocks of the quality of life. The classical geographic question is what kind of relationship between people and the environment arises. One way we can measure the relationship between man and the environment is to ask how man perceives the environment and how he evaluates it. A suitable tool for understanding these contexts is the concept of residential satisfaction. Residential satisfaction derives from alignment of the needs and abilities of man with the qualities of the environment that he inhabits. This dissertation focuses on the understanding of the meaning of space in the context of aging and its subsequent utility in the research of the residential satisfaction of the aging population. This dissertation contributes to the realization of a highly socially relevant topic and expands knowledge about the quality of the living environment of the senior population. It connects research concerning urban geography and gerontological disciplines. Research on residential satisfaction is performed on the background of urban processes that significantly influence the shape of the current post-socialist cities. The residential environment in the...
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