Democracy, Civic Society

The poll revealed, inter alia, that the Czech public considers petitions to be an almost generally acceptable form of protest pressure (only 10% of those polled stated they would never sign a petition), and that the majority is not opposed to boycotts or legal demonstrations. On the other hand, harsher methods of expressing dissatisfaction, such as participation in an unofficial strike, are openly supported by only three persons out of ten, while protests involving occupation of buildings are deemed acceptable by just over one tenth of the population.

In a June poll called ‘Czech society 2003’, we paid close attention to the functioning of the public administration and self-administration bodies, and to the public opinion on how legislation and the conduct of politicians can be influenced. The first question generally addressed satisfaction with the functioning of democracy. The following question dealt with satisfaction with personnel employed in the state and public sectors.

90% of those polled agree that, before making major decisions, public administration bodies should be interested in the opinion of citizens, as opposed to 7% who think that public administration bodies are here to make decisions and should not bother citizens and ask for their opinion. To a certain extent, the opinion of citizens is actively sought by local administration bodies only, while citizens are unaware of activities of other bodies of the public administration.

The respondents are of the opinion that no major changes occurred in the country over the course of last year. Primarily, they are convinced that no significant change happened in the sphere of citizen participation in the decision-making process about public issues, and in the observance of human rights. There is also a widespread opinion that the situation in culture and education has not changed.

42% of citizens are satisfied with how democracy functions in the Czech Republic, whereas 46% expressed discontent. Only 1% of those polled believe that elections ensure ‘very good’ harmony between the stances of members of parliament and the opinions of their voters, whereas 22% think that elections ensure at least ‘partial harmony’, 41% hold the opinion that they ensure ‘little harmony’ and 17% ‘no harmony whatsoever’.

The pre-November 1989 political system scored an average rating of 3.82 among respondents. They used an evaluating scale from 1 (the system is functioning very poorly) to 10 (the system is functioning very well). Compared to the pre-November political system, the current system in the Czech Republic fared slightly better, getting an average rating of 4.89. The respondents were also optimistic about the future – the political system they are expecting in the Czech Republic in 10-years time received a rating of 6.

In an April survey, the Public Opinion Research Centre of focused, inter alia, on the involvement of people in the political and economic life of the society, and on membership in various organisations. We first asked the respondents whether they, apart from voting, have been involved in political life during the last ten years. 16% of them were engaged in politics on communal level, as opposed to only 2% participating in politics on higher - regional and nationwide - levels.

Survey results reveal that the Czech public has somewhat ambivalent attitudes towards existing political and economic doctrines. In addition to there being the majority unequivocal approval of general liberal views (‘the state should not limit individuals, it should only create conditions for the exercise of their rights and freedoms’; the state should give businesses as much independence as possible’; ‘the scope of private property must not be limited in any way’), there is also a broad positive consensus.

Survey respondents said that they took the greatest interest in local affairs (two thirds of those polled were very or partly interested), followed by an interest in the economic situation of our country (59.9% of those polled were very or partly interested) and an interest in information from abroad (56.7%). However, this information was not specified as ‘political information’; the question was posed generally.

What do respondents think about the functioning of our political system and how do they evaluate the current political system in comparison with the pre-1989 one? The people polled used an evaluating scale from 1 (the system is functioning very poorly) to 10 (the system is functioning very well) to evaluate individual political systems. The pre-November 1989 political system scored an average rating of 4.