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2006:6 Basic Features of the Membership Base of KDU-ČSL |
Lukáš Linek, Štěpán Pecháček |
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This study describes the socio-demographic structure of the membership base of the Christian Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People’s Party (KDU-ČSL) and the party’s voters. It is based on a questionnaire survey carried out among the party’s membership base in the middle of 2005. Only part of the survey’s results is used in this study. The membership base is examined according to when member-respondents joined the party and where they reside – Bohemia or Moravia. The analysis focuses mainly on the members’ basic characteristics: age, education, occupation, place of residence, and the year the person joined the party. Attention is also devoted to the level of religiosity, religious confession, subjective affinity with the party, and family influence on joining the party. The membership base of KDU-ČSL is characterised by a high level of religiosity and by confessional homogeneity. Subjective affinity with the party is also strong. A significant finding is that in KDU-ČSL the turnover of the membership base is not continuous. The aims of the research, the selected methodology, and the representative data set are described in the Appendix.
Keywords
political party, political party members, characteristics of party members
Summary
This study describes the socio-demographic structure of the membership base of the Christian Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People’s Party (KDU-ČSL) and the party’s voters. It is based on a questionnaire survey carried out among the party’s membership base in the middle of 2005. Only part of the survey’s results is used in this study. The membership base is examined according to when member-respondents joined the party and where they reside – Bohemia or Moravia. The analysis focuses mainly on the members’ basic characteristics: age, education, occupation, place of residence, and the year the person joined the party. Attention is also devoted to the level of religiosity, religious confession, subjective affinity with the party, and family influence on joining the party.
KDU-ČSL is the only parliamentary party whose origins date from the time of the First Republic and that, with the exception of the period of Nazi occupation, has existed continuously since then.
As such it provides researchers with a unique opportunity to observe what changes may have occurred in the membership base since 1989. Since then the formal rules for party membership have become increasingly less complicated and fewer obligations are placed on party members. Nevertheless, between 1989 and 2005 the membership base decreased by fifty thousand people.
In order to examine the socio-demographic characteristics of the membership base, it was divided
into old and new members. November 1989 was selected as the dividing point. Old members are those who joined the party before that time, and new members are those who joined after. For research purposes the dividing point is represented by the year 1990.
The majority of the membership base is formed by new members; more than 57% of current members joined KDU-ČSL after 1989. The average age of the member-respondents is 63; according to official party information the average age is 62. Even among new members there is a higher percentage of people from older age groups. The majority of party members have a low level of formal education. Among new members the level of formal education has risen.
A total of 77% of party members have a monthly income of twenty thousand crowns or less, but the majority of members subjectively rank themselves as part of the middle class. To explain this it is necessary to take into account the age structure of the party’s membership base, and the large percentage of members who are pensioners. They rank themselves as part of the middle class on the basis of the occupation they held before they retired. Among new members household income is higher than among old members.
The level of religiosity among members of KDU-ČSL is high. The party is also very homogeneous in terms of religious confession; more than 95% of party members are Roman Catholics. More than 85% of members attend religious services once or more a week, and only 1% never attends.
The authors also examined the differences between members from Bohemia and from Moravia. Based on currently territorial divisions they defined Moravia as the regions of Vysočina, Southern Moravia, Zlín, Olomouc, and Moravia-Silesia. The remaining regions are part of Bohemia. On average there is a larger percentage of women in the membership base in Moravia, while in Bohemia the proportion of men and women members is roughly equal. With regard to age both provinces are very similar, though in Bohemia members are on average slightly older, by almost one year. In Bohemia there are more members with university education and more members have a professional occupation. The differences between members in Bohemia and Moravia in terms of income and in terms of subjective social-class ranking are minor. The biggest difference between party members in Bohemia and Moravia is in the level of religiosity. Only 76% of party members in Bohemia attend religious services once or more a week, while in Moravia the figure is over 90%. Also, among members from Moravia there was no one in the sample who indicated that they never attend religious services, while among members from Bohemia 2% of party members indicated never attending religious services.
The fact that KDU-ČSL has existed continuously since the First Republic also makes it possible to observe the influence of family ties on party membership. The data indicate that there is a difference between old and new members with regard to the family influence on membership. Parental membership in the party had an influence on 58% of old members as opposed to 38% of new members. A comparison of Bohemia and Moravia reveals only minor differences with regard to the influence of parental membership in the party. From an analysis of members in terms of the age at which they joined the party, it is found that among older members of KDU-ČSL family ties had the biggest influence on those members who joined the party while they were very young; three-quarters of them were influenced by family membership. It is necessary to note especially the big increase in the influence of parental membership among members over the age of fifty, and especially among older members. The influence of family background on party membership among individual age groups is similar in Bohemia and Moravia.
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Ceník všech publikací vydaných v Sociologickém ústavu AV ČR, v. v. i. |
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