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...

FRÖHLICHOVÁ, Jana. Analysis of Bipolar Tendencies of the Party System in the Czech Republic Electoral Competition Focusing on the Situation of Smaller Parties in Parliament. Prague, 2011. 120 pp. Thesis. Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science. Thesis Supervisor Doc. PhDr. Tomáš Lebeda, Ph.D. Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyze the multifactory aspect of the influence the modern election competitions impose on a party's structure. More specifically, it describes how the standing of small parties is affected during ongoing gradual bipolarization. There are two approaches to the research. First, the paper examines the effect the electoral mechanism on the party's system have in the Czech Republic focusing on the parliament elections to the Chamber of Deputies in years 2002-2010. The mechanical and psychological elements of the elections influencing the profits of small parliament parties are analyzed. Second, the thesis addresses other factors concerning the election competitions that affect the standing of small parliament parties. The election campaigns in the 21st century are being professionalized and there is bipolarization of the election competitions. The party's structure is not influenced merely by the election rules. Other factors like use...

The objective of the thesis is a detailed analysis of overhang seats, the peculiarity of the German electoral system. The theoretical part of this thesis focuses on research of the electoral systems and their political consequences. The second chapter devoted to the German electoral system explains his mechanical functioning and discuses his influence on the degree of proportionality and the party system. The analytical part tries to clear the phenomenon of overhang seats, his origins by means of testing presented variables using the electoral results data from 1990 - 2009. The current electoral reform is also discussed.

Analysis of the TOP 09 Election Strategy in the Regional Elections 2012 - Region of Pardubice Diploma thesis "Analysis of the TOP 09 Election Strategy in the Regional Elections 2012 - Region of Pardubice" deals with the election campaign TOP 09 in the elections to the Assembly of the Pardubice Region in 2012. TOP 09 is a political party in the Czech political scene first appeared in 2009. Regional elections in 2012 for the political party represented the first major challenge since its entry into the Chamber of Deputies in 2010 and the opportunity to establish themselves at the regional level. The thesis examines the elections in the Pardubice region in terms of the theory of second-order elections. The research of this theory was made in terms of the first direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979. The aim of this thesis is to introduce the theory of second order elections and to analyze the election strategy of TOP 09 before the elections to the regional council in 2012 in Region of Pardubice. Based on this theory will be find out if it is possible to apply this theory on the election strategy of TOP 09 and if the election managers of TOP 09 reflect this theory or the election strategy is created independently on this phenomenon. Keywords The election to the Assembly of the Pardubice...

- Elections to Municipal Councils in the Czech Republic The topic of my Master'degree thesis are the elections to municipal councils in the Czech Republic. I chose this topic mainly because these elections receive considerably less attention of professional literature and the media than other kinds of elections, particularly the elections to the Chamber of Deputies. It is so, although the decisions made by the municipal councils often have the biggest impact on the lives of ordinary people. Also this year, there were some interesting cases related to the elections to municipal councils that the Constitutional Court had to decide and that only made my interest greater. The aim of this thesis is to give a complex description of the legislation concerning the elections to municipal councils, to try to give some evaluation of this legislation and to suggest some possible changes to this legislation. This thesis consists of introduction, eight chapters and conclusion and its structure is essentially based on the structure of the Act No. 491/2001 Sb., on Elections to Representative Bodies of Municipalities and on Amendments to Certain Other Laws as amended. The introduction pursues the reasons why the elections to municipal councils receive such relatively small attention and the problems which the...

This diploma thesis deals with the political-geographical analysis of the Czech extreme rights, its voters and electoral support in the period after 1990. The paper aims to evaluate the development of the Czech extreme rights in the period 1990-2010 in terms of its importance in the Czech political system, and especially from the perspective of regional differentiation of its electoral support, and to identify possible influencing factors that conduce the voters to support this political stream. The objective is to answer the question whether there are significant regional differences in the support of right-wing extremist parties and, if so, whether these differences are stable over time. Just monitoring of a longer period (1990-2010) will specify whether the regions with above-average support of far-right parties are stable, or whether the extraordinary support of these parties during the reported period varies regionally and some shifts occur for example, due to the social-economic changes in the transformation period. The thesis also examines the factors that could explain the regional differences in electoral support of the far rights. The aim here is to use the social- demographic and economic characteristics expressing the structure of the population as well as the influence of the local...

The aim of this master thesis is to compare electoral systems of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic and the Bundestag of the Federal Republic of Germany. Firstly, basic terms regarding substance and types of elections, suffrage and primary classification of electoral systems are briefly characterized with the help of literature. Secondly, electoral system of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, its form in the context of the political system of the Czech Republic as a whole, its development over time and its impact on the results of elections in the last twenty years is described in detail. Furthermore, the Bundestag of the Federal Republic of Germany is analysed in the same way, too. At the end of this thesis, advantages and disadvantages of both electoral systems are compared and their possible changes are outlined. Keywords: elections, electoral system, Parliament, Bundestag, Chamber of Deputies, comparison

Diploma thesis "Media campaigns of Silvio Berlusconi during general elections from 1994 to 2008" deals with the election campaigns and their cover in mass media. It summarizes style of campaign of the Berlusconi's political party Forza Italia and his coalition. The thesis compares these campaigns with those of main opposition, left- central coalition. The beginning of the thesis devotes to the résumé of Berlusconi's biography and to his entry to the politics. Further chapters summarize political situation between single campaign and they describe these campaign including their media cover. Significant space is devoted to potential influence on voter's decision because of the Berlusconi's media empire and because of his control over dominant commercial television stations Mediaset.

This theses deals with analysis of cases that were held mainly before the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic with regard to the election process and political parties. It focuses mainly on the analysis of topics that are often criticised by small political parties as harmful to the free and fair election process. Specifically, these topics include election threshold, setting electoral districts, methods for allocating seats, subsidising political parties from the national budget, financial restrictions on candidacy, and access to media. The thesis briefly summarizes relevant theoretical premises, which is followed be presenting the bases of criticism of the specific institutes, and finally the courts' opinions are analysed as well. With each of the institute, the main goal of the theses is to show how the courts interpret them. Specifically, it focuses on finding a line between what courts still deem acceptable, and what is perceived by them as too damaging to the fair and free election process.

Hungary has struggled with budget problems throughout its post-socialist history. With knowledge of economic theory it is possible to analyze the evolution of Hungary's debt after 1989 and thus deduce its weaknesses. Populism and fiscal irresponsibility have characterized majority of Hungarian governments to some extent. Hence, the key to understanding the debt of Hungary may be found on the political level of budgetary policy. With regard to the economic situation, Hungary was forced to implement significant cost-saving measures in recent years. These measures are evaluated at the end of the work. They can be crucial not only in terms of the budgetary situation but also with respect to the perspective on the future economic development and competitiveness of the entire economy.