Confidence in constitutional institutions and satisfaction with political situation in April 2008

In April 2008 within the regular survey CVVM SOÚ AV ČR, v.v.i., questioned respondents about their confidence in constitutional institutions. In this month there was a question about their trust to Chambers of Parliament, Government, President, Local and Regional Councils.

As a part of the CVVM surveys there is a question about public satisfaction with current political situation in the Czech Republic.

In April survey CVVM investigated how people trust to political Parties and whether they are willing to take part in elections to Chamber of Deputies. In the press release there are two different types of information : Party preference and a model of voting behaviour.

Party preferences give us information about public sympathy with political Parties in the group of citizens who have voting right and there is also included a part of citizens who will not take part in elections or they do not knot who to vote for.

Public attitude to form of political system

As a part of February survey made by CVVM SOÚ AV ČR, v.v.i. there were some questions about respondents´ opinions of form of political system.

March survey of CVVM investigated attitudes of Czech public to some national groups that are living in the Czech Republic in significant number.

In March 2008 CVVM in its survey focused on moral acceptability of some kinds of behavior within Czech society. Czechs evaluated 24 different sorts by help of 10 points scale, where 1 meant that this behavior is never acceptable and on the other hand 10 represented “always acceptable”. The largest proportion of Czech citizens is able to accept osculation in public. On the contrary the most critical is Czech public opinion to driving under the influence of alcohol.

Another question on the prision system topic, posed in march 2008 CVVM survey concern on the causes of crime. As a major factors influencing criminal behavior were chosen tendency to agressive behavior (82 % mark it as a „fundamental“ or „important“) and reluctance to work (81 %). Followed by mental disorder (40 %), race and nationality (30 %) and exaggerated ambitions (30 %). Another possibilities was low education (26 %), region (19 %), low parent‘s education (17 %), lack of talent (14 %), to be from poor familly (13 %), being agnostic (13 %), and gender (10 %).

March survey of CVVM was dealing with a situation related to recent unilateral declaration of independence of Serbian province of Kosovo. In retrospect just 19 % of Czechs agree with NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia nine years ago, 49 % disagree and 32 % are undecided. 34 % of citizens approve Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence, 36 % oppose it. According to 36 % of respondents Czech government should have recognized Kosovo diplomatically, 34 % are against official recognition of Kosovo's independence.

In march 2008 CVVM focused on prision system. Informants were asked to decide which facilities should be availiable for prisioners. People are willing to allow medical service (95 % agree on that it should be availiable for all prisioners), 92 % have the same opinion on clean clothes, 83 % agree on books for all (additional 14 % only for minor offenses) and 72 % thought that cooked meal should be accessible for each prisioner (18 % minor offenses).

In february survey made by CVVM there were some questions about public attitudes to smoking. The respondents were asked to say if and how many cigarettes they smoke. They were also asked to rate their personal attitude toward the prohibition of smoking in public places or in the restaurants. CVVM could compare results of public opinion surveys in Hungary and Slovakia.

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In February 2008 CVVM probed situation in Czech society concerning trust and satisfaction with some international institutions – concretely United Nations, European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Most Czechs trust to UN (59 %), after that follows EU with 55 % of believing citizens and NATO with 44 %. The same order is also in context of satisfaction with membership in these organizations.