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Media as a Factor of Electoral Apathy in the Czech Republic
Vatahová, Jana ; Weiss, Tomáš (advisor) ; Emler, David (referee)
The purpose of this thesis is to explore whether the drop in voter turnout between the 2009 and 2014 European Parliament elections, as well as the general apathy toward the politics of the European Union, in the Czech Republic was contributed to by the mass media. Specifically, this thesis will examine the two most read daily newspapers of both 2009 and 2014, Blesk and Mladá Fronta Dnes, and analyze its articles with the use of search words in order to assess whether any change occurred in the way the European Union, its policies and institutions, were presented immediately prior to the 2009 and 2014 European Parliament elections. This will be achieved through the use of content analysis, both quantitative and qualitative, while evaluating the articles in comparative fashion. The thesis will argue that, given the essential role of the media as intermediary between the world of politics and the electorate, the portrayal, or lack thereof, of the European Union is a factor in explaining the electoral dynamics of the country. Key Words: voter turnout; European Parliament elections; mass media; electoral apathy Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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Local referendum in the Czech Republic
Svobodová, Pavla ; Jüptner, Petr (advisor) ; Just, Petr (referee)
The diploma paper represents a contribution to the research of direct democracy in the Czech Republic, specifically it deals with the most used form of direct citizen participation in governance, local referendum. The paper is mainly empirical - it shows an experience of ten European countries with local referendum as well as the legislative framework and the definition of this instrument in the Czech Republic. The centre point of the whole thesis lies in the real practice and the experience of Czech municipalities with local direct democracy. The data used in this paper come up from research which aimed to collect information on all local referendums in the Czech Republic since 1990. Although this aim has not been fully accomplished, the data allow to study the practice of Czech local referendums. Local referendums are divided into several groups (categories of territorial changes, the environment, issues of internal governance of the municipality and others) within which are further analysed. The aim of the paper is to verify the hypothesis that seeks a relationship among the size of the municipality, subject of voting, quorum and voter turnout. The paper also focuses on the factors that have got fundamental impact on the final result of referendum.
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True reasons which lead people into polling station
Stránská, Veronika ; Knobloch, František (advisor) ; Kotlas, Petr (referee)
Diploma thesis "True reasons which lead people into polling station" is tasked to detect motivation which affects an electoral behaviour of citizens, concretely their active participation in an election of their political representatives, considering the matter of fact that elected incumbents are those who work out all measures of public policy. There is enforced the legitimizing character of election, which displays the decreasing voter turnout as pathological phenomenon destroying the basics of democratic society, and sight on elections as an institution mediating between citizens and shape of implemented public policy. The theoretical part of thesis gives an overview of various concepts interpreting a voter turnout as an effect of endogenous and exogenetic factors. The paradigm are the theory of sources and the theory of representation, accenting on importance of the endogenous factors, and contextual theory, theory of motivation and racional choice theory, referring to key influence of the exogenic element. The empirical part of thesis, making use of personal research, verifies practically the theoretical knowledge and produces factual predication about motivational elements of electoral behaviour in one municipality in district of Hradec Králové. The confrontation of theoretical knowledge and...
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Citizens' participation in public life of rural communities - township Želetava
MAŘÍKOVÁ, Zuzana
The aim is to clarify the functioning of public administration in the selected city in terms of citizen involvement, it is to show to what extent and in what activities are citizens involved in shaping local public policy, community development and public life. Specific objectives included the characterization of socioeconomic factors influencing the development potential of the municipality, identification of local actors in the political process and public life, analysis of forms of political participation and other public activities of citizens.
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Political awareness and participation of university students: case study of Faculty of International Relations, University of Economics in Prague
Outlá, Martina ; Němec, Jan (advisor) ; Müller, Karel (referee)
My thesis deals with political awareness and participation of students of Faculty of International Relations, University of Economics in Prague. In theoretical part I dealt with models of democracy and the significance of political participation in these models. Afterwards I described political participation tools, especially voter turnout, its decline in Czech Republic and its consequences. In connection with voter turnout I dealt with election campaigns in Czech Republic, especially the negative campaigns, and with the role of mass media in politics. Theoretical part is followed by case study. Its aim is to discover and describe, if the students of Faculty of International Relations are interested in faculty affairs, if they are aware of political situation, if they take part in political participation and what are the factors that influence them the most in decision-making and in their long term political preferences.
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The potential impact of the electronic voting on voter turnout in the Czech republic
Vondráková, Kateřina ; Lechner, Tomáš (advisor) ; Pěkná, Jitka (referee)
The Master's Thesis deals with a potential impact of an introduction of the electronic voting on voter turnout of university students. First section focuses on theoretical foundation and academic debate of this subject. Additionally the current level of implementation of the electronic voting in the Czech Republic, Estonia and worldwide is explored. The hypothesis is formulated as a question whether the introduction of the electronic voting could potentially influence voter turnout of university students. The study is based on a questionnaire survey.
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Stability of Incumbents in the Parliament of the Czech Republic
Mareček, Jan Lukáš ; Němec, Jan (advisor) ; Kuta, Martin (referee)
The thesis deals with the personal stability of the Czech Parliament in the period after 1993 when the Czech Republic was founded. The author assumes a better orientation in both organizational and procedural issues of reelected representatives. The aim of this thesis is to explore what factors have influenced the rate of reelection of MPs and Senators and how these are subsequently reflected in the personal structure of both Chambers. Using a quantitative analysis, the author tests the hypothesis that the rate of reelection will be higher in the Senate due to the majority voting system which is more personalized than the proportional one used in the Chamber of Deputies. The hypothesis was tested in the Committees analogically. Furthermore, the author tests if the current level of voter turnout influences the final election results and the rate of reelection, respectively. The text is divided into three chapters. The thesis is composed of a common structure heading from a theoretical background towards empirical analysis.
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Participation of citizens in public life in rural municipality
NIGLIAZZO, Hana
The title of this bachelor work is The participation of citizens in public life in rural municipality. The work deals with a case study of the village Čížová. The thesis is divided into two parts the theoretical part and the practical part. The theoretical part consists of four chapters that deal specifically with the introduction of rural communities in Bohemia, their legislation and an analysis of the components of the electoral system. In crucial chapter of literature review, the reader learns what the factors that influence voting behaviour and the turnout are. The last chapter discusses civic participation and the possibility of association of citizens under current legislation. The first chapter of the practical part presents the village Čížová from different perspectives. The next chapter analyses the local political system that represent especially candidates without party affiliation in a village with a size like that. The following chapter discusses the turnout in the village. In the village there works a huge variety of federal activities that have a long tradition.
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How unemployment affects the behavior of voters?
Kdolská, Veronika ; Lahvička, Jiří (advisor) ; Brožová, Dagmar (referee)
This thesis deals with the influence of unemployment on the voting behavior of citizens. It mainly focuses on the elections to the Chamber of Deputies of Czech Republic in 2006 and 2010. The fixed effects method was applied to the panel data using 133 territorial units. Through the application of models I found that the increase of unemployment by 1 percentage point will increase the share of votes for left-wing parties by 0.23 percentage point within the valid votes cast, while the increase of the proportion of votes for right-wing parties is 0.48 percentage point. Unemployment decreases the share of votes for the centerist and small parties. That indicates that unemployment polarizes electorate towards large parties. The results show that the unemployment is slightly more advantageous for the right, but has no significant effect on the election results. Its effect on voter turnout was not proven. Other results indicate that "nicer" weather during elections diverts electorate from small and centrist parties.
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The use and the consequences of electronic voting in Estonia
Pelíšková, Dana ; Němec, Jan (advisor) ; Vymětal, Petr (referee)
Europe has faced to the long-term falling voter turnout, particularly of the young generations presenting the most numerous group of absentee voters, and this trend should be changed by electronic voting. Many European states have already introduced pilot projects of electronic elections, but the only state in the world, where the nationwide electronic elections have taken place, is Estonia. The Estonian case became the subject of my thesis. The thesis deals specifically with the political consequences of the introduction of electronic voting and if the arguments for introducing electronic voting were really fulfilled.
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