Political

In April 2009 CVVM investigated, whether, according to Czech citizens, values such as democracy, equality, cooperation, toleration, justice and solidarity are applied in European Union. The largest proportion of Czechs answered on this subject positively in connection with democracy and cooperation (74 % and 68 %) and by contrast equality obtained least agreeing answers (39 %).

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In May 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.

In February 2009 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 (63 %), after that follows EU with 60 % and NATO with 53 %. The same order is also in the context of satisfaction with membership in these organizations. 72 % of Czechs feel satisfaction with UN, in related to EU it is 67 % and finally with NATO 58 % of citizens are satisfied.

In March 2009 CVVM focused on public opinion about politicians and factors influencing a decision-making process. Czech people believe that corruption, lobbying and special interest groups have the biggest influence on decisions of politicians. On the contrary, many people think that scientists, researchers and citizens do not play an important role in the decision-making process.

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In April survey CVVM was also concerned on evaluation of some social conditions of life in the Czech Republic. Majority was satisfied with an access to education (77 % „very + fairly good“) and access to health care (65 %). With the rest of chosen areas most of informants were dissatisfied: chance to work or to be employed (26 % „very + fairly good“), chance to get a flat (23 %),...

In April 2009 CVVM investigated on the membership of the Czech republic in the European union. Informants were asked to evaluate positive and negative efects of membership and the impact of membership on chosen areas of public life.

76 % agreed that EU membership helped Czechs to work, live and study in other EU countries. 75 % said that membership increased the level of bureaucracy in Czech republic.

In March survey, the 44 % of Czech citizens expressed their opinion that mass media mainly influence decisions of politicians. Respondents also talked about influence of some monitored media upon decisions of politicians - Czech Television and Nova TV have the biggest influence upon decisions of politicians. According to respondents´ opinion daily MF Dnes has strong influence upon decisions of politicians.

In April survey the Public Opinion Research Centre focused on topic of the presidency of the European Union. The Czech Republic has assumed the presidency of the EU on 1 January 2009. The respondents were asked if they are interested in this topic or if they have a lot of informations about the presidency. The survey also investigated citizens’ evaluation of the Czech Republic’s preparations for the presidency.

Popularity of Party Representatives

In April 2009 CVVM SOÚ AV ČR investigated whether respondents trust to selected politicians. They were given a list with 27 names of top politicians who represent political parties present in Chamber of Deputies.

In March 2009 CVVM focused on political culture and political Parties in Czech Republic.

According to major part of czech citizens (81%) arguments, problems and scandals are common and occur in other democracies, although major part of addressed respondents (82%) expressed their opinion that these argumentations and scandals discredit us abroad.

Almost all respondents (90%) agreed that there is need to inform public about the problems, argumentations and scandals, because czech politicians need to be under control of public.