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Together for a Better City
Sládek, Jan ; Illner, Michal (advisor) ; Kostelecký, Tomáš (referee) ; Bernard, Josef (referee)
The goal of this text is to provide understanding of the role that locally organized citizens have in changing general political behavior of Czech people after 1989. The text combines knowledge of urban sociology, political and urban transformation, and citizen/political participation in post-1989 Czech Republic. Theoretically, the text is based in critical reception of urban sociology showing its rather low rate of understanding when analyzing the role of citizens in urban change. The text works with the concept of transaction activism, using it to analytically evaluate the forms of examined collective local action of citizens. Last but not least, attention is paid to the role of ICTs, notably the Internet, in forms of local citizen engagement. To provide the necessary context, the text reflects on main events in political participation on state level as well as it reflects on main urban changes after 1989. Methodologically, the work is based on data from two representative questionnaire surveys and fifteen interviews with representatives of citizen organizations. The main theses are following: (1) low direct experience with political issues leads to predominance of "the politics" as portrayed by mass media, yet it is rather easily unmasked by direct political experience; (2) Although the public opinion...
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Participation of Vietnamese National Minority in Czech Local Politics
Vitovská, Hana ; Jüptner, Petr (advisor) ; Kubátová, Hana (referee)
This diploma thesis focuses on the participation of the Vietnamese national minority in the Czech Republic, especially at the level of local politics. The main objective of the thesis is to analyze and critically reflect on the motivations, attitudes, and views of the Vietnamese national minority on political and civic participation with an emphasis the local politics. At the same time, the work explores the forms of participation of the Vietnamese community and the factors that influence them. Because the target group of this work is a Vietnamese national minority, the national minority policy is first analyzed at the international level, followed by analysis at the national level. The reason for this approach is that the international environment plays a vital role in examining national minority politics and ethnic minorities. Selected instruments and institutions of national minority politics in the Czech environment are then further analyzed and compared with the German counterpart where minorities, and in particular the Vietnamese minority, have long been a significant part of society. The research part of the thesis is designed as qualitative research, using document analysis and semi- structured interviews as data acquisition techniques. This is a key part of the whole work where the...
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The impact of social networks on the involvement of public in politics: a case study of the first direct presidental election in the Czech republic
Kutálková, Adéla ; Hejlová, Denisa (advisor) ; Švelch, Jaroslav (referee)
Nowadays social networks have millions or some even billions of users who spend most of their free time there. Therefore there is no surprise that the potential impact on society becomes part of many experts research. According to some authors, social networks offer an opportunity for political participation especially for those who generally do not participate. Even politicians start to use these networks to mobilize voters. We can observe this new trend in the first direct presidential elections in the Czech Republic 2013, when some of the candidates tried to reach and mobilize voters through social networks. During presidential campaign 2012/2013, users could have participated in various political activities which enabled sharing political views. The aim of this paper is to determine the impact of using social networks during presidential elections, particularly using of Facebook, on interest in politics between users 18- 35 years. The diploma thesis focuses on the impact of Facebook because it is the most popular and used social network in the Czech Republic and also due to the fact that some experts argue that this social network played an important role in the presidential campaign. This paper will be based on quantitative research in form of a questionnaire survey, which was created on the...
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Attitudes of Czech Political Youth Organizations towards the EU
Kříž, Václav ; Kasáková, Zuzana (advisor) ; Váška, Jan (referee)
The presented diploma thesis focuses on the attitudes of selected youth political organizations in the Czech Republic towards the European Union and the process of European integration. It takes in account the fact that youth political organizations can be identified as agents of political socialization as well as it is possible to study them within the broader term of political participation (to study their influence on attitudes and opinions of their members). The analysis concerns selected eight Czech youth political organizations, Mladí sociální demokraté (the Young Social Democrats), Mladí konzervativci (the Young Conservatives), TOP tým, Mladé ANO, Mladí zelení (the Young Greens), Mladí lidovci, Mladí křesťanští demokraté (the Young Christian Democrats) and mSTAN. The theoretical basis for the analysis is Euroscepticism, specifically the typology of C. Flood and S. Usherwood is used. This typology, with six possible positions, is linked to six scenarios of possible development, based on the five scenarios presented by the European Commission in 2017 as part of the White Paper on the future of Europe and its further direction. Compatibility of both scales is tested. The necessary data collected via questionnaire survey. The thesis concludes that youth political organizations are relevant...
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Participation of supporters of the civic association Million Moments in the democratic process
Vlčková, Adéla ; Císař, Ondřej (advisor) ; Dvořák, Tomáš (referee)
Engagement and proactivity of the general public in democratic process is essential for a stable and functional democracy. Participation of citizens in the political environment can be expressed by either elections or by other forms of political involvement. Current research shows that political participation requires skills, motivation to get involved and support of a group of public actors. Million Moments for Democracy is a civic organisation who support and cultivate political culture in Czechia. This work examines the supporters of the civic movement. The results show that the supporters is a group that has higher individual resources, higher political interest and distrust of the government. The supporters of the civic organisation more politically participate, especially in the activities that the organization emphasizes. The model of belonging to the association showed that the fact that the organisation was originally a protest movement cannot be ignored. Keywords political participation, electoral and non-electoral participation, civic movement, active citizens, demonstrations, petition, politics Title Participation of supporters of the civic association Million Moments in the democratic process
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Contextual Determinants of the Age Gap in Voter Turnout across Europe
Kamatayeva, Ayauzhan ; Lago, Ignacio (advisor) ; Shaev, Brian (referee)
A common interpretation of the age gap in electoral turnout is that younger cohorts are apathetic and part of a generation that is absent from political life. Still, youth political participation differs across European countries, and cross- national variation in the age gap has been rarely examined in the literature. This paper, therefore, argues that unequal voting in Europe is due not to a lack of interest in the public good but rather to a combination of contextual and individual factors. This study examines young and older individuals' engagement with electoral politics in 26 European countries using the European Social Survey data between 2008 and 2018. Specifically, this study addresses the questions of (1) what context-related factors determine the age gap in voting between old and young citizens and (2) why the age gap in voting is smaller in some countries than in others. The results show that the age gap varies considerably across countries. The OLS and FE regressions results suggest that government expenditure, the share of migrants, and the age of democracy influence the level of age gap in voting. The findings on macroeconomic and immigration factors raise methodological concerns.
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The Media Image of the Political Protests Organised by the Society Milion Chvilek
Sehnalová, Anna ; Tuček, Milan (advisor) ; Dvořák, Tomáš (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to analyze the influence of media ownership on media depiction of anti-government protests in 2019 organized by a civic organization Milion Chvilek (Million Moments for Democracy) in daily newspapers Lidové noviny and Hospodářské noviny through a comparative content analysis. Lidové noviny is a part of MAFRA media group owned by current Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš with his ownership share placed in a trust managed by his wife and other close associates. Daily newsprint and other publications in this media group found themselves in a situation where they had to report about protests focused on their de facto owner. A public debate centered around Andrej Babiš's possible conflict of interest has been ongoing since his entry into politics. Babiš's strong position in the media industry is one of the debate's focal points. According to his critics, this position could enable him to manipulate public mood which would provide him with an unfair advantage in the political arena. On a selected sample of articles about 2019 protests published in the above-mentioned newspapers, this media analysis strives to unveil to what extent the coverage, tone and space for commentaries from politicians and other public actors in Lidové noviny differ from Hospodářské noviny, which is deemed most...
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Political participation of indigenous peoples - recent developments in MAS Era Bolivia
Laine, Siru Pauliina
This thesis examines the impact of the actions of the current Bolivian government on the country's indigenous population and their opportunities for political participation. The theoretical part defines factors affecting political participation in general and presents political theories that have had an important role in both, the formation and the current policy of the ruling party, Moviemiento al Socialismo (MAS). The analytical part concentrates on various factors influencing the position of the indigenous peoples and their political role in Bolivia and on the legislative changes that have shaped the situation bringing it to its current state. In the discussion, the different aspects of the issues are combined in order to understand the challenges that the indigenous people face in the present context, after which possible future actions are suggested. The thesis concludes by arguing that the legislative changes and the other actions of the MAS government have affected the indigenous people of Bolivia in positive and negative ways. Their political participation has increased and the situation of human development has improved, but at the same time, issues exist because of incomplete rights to autonomy and problems with protecting indigenous territories from natural resource extraction.
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Czech Political Satire on Social Networks
Amiridis, Marek ; Křeček, Jan (advisor) ; Soukup, Martin (referee)
This thesis focuses on the topic of Czech political satire on Facebook. It presents an overview of most followed Facebook pages covering the topic and analyses the degree to which their content can be considered a political satire, how the authors use satire and to what impulses they usually react. The theoretical part introduces the concept of satire as a genre and the criteria it should meet in order to be considered as such. Next part of the thesis introduces theories focusing on political satire and their historic development in the Czech Republic. The thesis also presents expert opinions on the question of to what degree can sharing and interacting with political satire content on Facebook be considered as political participation. The analytical part describes the selected Facebook pages in a certain time period and evaluates their content, activity and authorship of its posts. After selecting a representative sample of the pages, three pivotal socio-political events of 2019 were chosen. The thematic focus of the posts and methods the content authors use to achieve satire is analysed for the period these events took place. For each of the events, a sample posts are provided as well as the most commonly satirised public personas and the context in which they are satirised. The goal of the...
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Political Participation of National Minorities in the Czech Repbulic
Větrovec, Lukáš ; Švec, Kamil (advisor) ; Charvát, Jan (referee)
This diploma thesis deals with the political participation of national minorities in the Czech Republic. The main aim of this thesis is to find out what the possibilities of national minorities are to enter the political process in order to articulate their specific minority interests and how effective these possibilities are from their perspective. The emphasis is placed on ethnic political parties, minority interest groups, advisory bodies such as the Government Council for National Minorities and committees for national minorities at all political levels. At the same time, these selected minority institutions and bodies are also examined at the international level, which makes it possible to gain an overview of the attitudes of some states to national minority policy and their comparison, or even inspiration for the Czech Republic. The analysis was carried out on a group of five national minorities: German, Polish, Roma, Slovak and Vietnamese. The author also tried to find out how these selected national minorities are politically active, what factors influence their political participation and what is the interest in the issue of national minorities among the majority political parties. The author chose a qualitative research method for the research project and the technique of...
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