The aim of this study is to explore the sources of attitude constraints regarding the role of government in the economy, and to find out whether the sources of these constraints are the same as in Western democracies. Use is made of Converse’s approach to conceptualize attitude constraint where an individual’s belief system is seen to be a configuration of attitudes and values characterized by a functional interdependence, or constraint. This constraint may be interpreted in terms of the probability of being able to predict one attitude having knowledge of another. In this study, there is a review of the sources of attitude constraint and related measurement issues. Using ISSP 2006 (Role of Government module) an analysis of attitudinal constraints is presented using two attitudinal scales. This research confirms that the sources of attitude constraint in the Czech Republic are similar to those observed in Western Europe and the USA. Specifically, class, education, and other social-demographic variables are shown to have very limited effects. Moreover, Converse’s contention that attitude constraints are strongly determined by political involvement, political knowledge, or party identification is also shown to be valid for Czech society., Lukáš Linek., 1 obrázek, 4 tabulky, Obsahuje bibliografii, and Anglické resumé
The aim of this study is to explore the sources of attitude constraints regarding the role of government in the economy, and to find out whether the sources of these constraints are the same as in Western democracies. Use is made of Converse’s approach to conceptualize attitude constraint where an individual’s belief system is seen to be a configuration of attitudes and values characterized by a functional interdependence, or constraint. This constraint may be interpreted in terms of the probability of being able to predict one attitude having knowledge of another. In this study, there is a review of the sources of attitude constraint and related measurement issues. Using ISSP 2006 (Role of Government module) an analysis of attitudinal constraints is presented using two attitudinal scales. This research confirms that the sources of attitude constraint in the Czech Republic are similar to those observed in Western Europe and the USA. Specifically, class, education, and other social-demographic variables are shown to have very limited effects. Moreover, Converse’s contention that attitude constraints are strongly determined by political involvement, political knowledge, or party identification is also shown to be valid for Czech society.
This study introduces the concept of political disaffection, its measurement and operationalisation. Theoretically, this article builds on a differentiation between four basic types of orientations towards a political regime and its institutions: legitimacy of the regime, institutional disaffection, individual disaffection, and political dissatisfaction. Political disaffection is composed of two dimensions: institutional disaffection refers to beliefs that political institutions are not responsive to the requirements of the people; and individual disaffection reflects citizens‘ perceptions that they are able and willing to participation in politics. Principal axis factoring, reliability analysis along with internal and external validity analysis are used to examine institutional and individual disaffection using the Czech waves within ISSP (1996, 2000, 2004 and 2006). The results indicate that items used for measuring institutional and individual disaffection do measure the two concepts of interest. Moreover, repeated measurement of political disaffection and the stability of the results obtained provide strong arguments for the usage of these measures in future surveys., Lukáš Linek., and Obsahuje bibliografii a bibliografické odkazy
This study introduces the concept of political disaffection, its measurement and operationalisation. Theoretically, this article builds on a differentiation between four basic types of orientations towards a political regime and its institutions: legitimacy of the regime, institutional disaffection, individual disaffection, and political dissatisfaction. Political disaffection is composed of two dimensions: institutional disaffection refers to beliefs that political institutions are not responsive to the requirements of the people; and individual disaffection reflects citizens‘ perceptions that they are able and willing to participation in politics. Principal axis factoring, reliability analysis along with internal and external validity analysis are used to examine institutional and individual disaffection using the Czech waves within ISSP (1996, 2000, 2004 and 2006). The results indicate that items used for measuring institutional and individual disaffection do measure the two concepts of interest. Moreover, repeated measurement of political disaffection and the stability of the results obtained provide strong arguments for the usage of these measures in future surveys.
This article seeks to examine changes in Czech party competition between 2006 and 2014. Drawing on Sani and Sartori’s concept of party competition, it incorporates later findings on the nature of party competition to facilitate the concept’s application to fluid party systems. It conceptualises party competition as multi-dimensional and according to the (a) salience the individual dimensions used in this analysis have for political parties and (b) the positions that the parties occupy on these dimensions. It distinguishes three types of relations in party competition – non-competitive, defensive and acquisitive competition – and using data from the Chapel Hill questionnaire survey focuses on three dimensions in Czech party competition: socio-economic, European, and social-liberal/conservative. Special attention is devoted to the competition strategies of individual parties while taking into account the duration of their existence (new vs traditional parties). The findings indicate that the nature of party competition has transformed, as changes have occurred in the intensity of the competition, the salience of the dimensions of the competition, the space of the competition, and how much competition occurs in one dimensions as opposed to another. Consistent with previous studies, the analyses reveal, that most of the competitive relationships (which were primarily defensive in nature) observed in this study occurred in the socioeconomic dimension, but they also show that there is very strong potential for intense party competition to develop in the other two dimensions if they become more salient.