Political Sociology

The department focuses on the systematic study of the basic processes in the democratic political system of the CzechRepublic and some of its bodies. The main subjects of research are the emergence and stabilisation of a system of parties, deputies and senators in the Parliament of the Czech Republic, the impact of the non-political representation of interests in the area of work and capital (social dialogue), civil society and the relationship between civil society, political parties and the state.

Main topics:

• political parties and party system
• MPs and senators
• elections and electoral behavior
• political attitudes
• civil society and the relation between civil society, political parties and the state

Contact: tel.: +420 210 310 563, +420 210 310 237, e-mail: politika@soc.cas.cz

Current projects:

Dynamics of change in Czech society (This project will examine the process of change in contemporary Czech society by carrying out four waves of a household panel survey. The core themes of the research are family life, education and the labour market, social stratification, housing choices and inequalities and political participation. Principal investigator: Pat Lyons, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.)

Protestors in Context: An Integrated and Comparative Analysis of democratic citizenship in the Czech Republic II. (This project will field Czech waves of two international survey research programme: 'Caught in the Act of Protest: Contextualizing Contestation' in 2013, and the ISSP 'Citizenship module' in 2014. This research will show what differentiates general and protesting citizens in terms of attitudes and behaviour. It will also demonstrate the importance of context for understanding general and protesting citizens' constellation of beliefs and level of activism. Principal investigator: Pat Lyons, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.)

Concluded projects:

SECONOMICS - Socio-Economics meets Security (The goal of SOCONOMICS is to synthesize sociological, economic and security science into a usable, concrete, actionable knowledge for policy makers and social planners responsible for citizen's security. The project is driven by industry case studies and will specifically identify security threats in transport (air, urban and super urban metro) and critical infrastructure. The contribution of the project will be in developing and furthering the state of the art in modelling security problems in a technological and socio economic context and then applying state of the art risk assessments and analysis of the social context to develop optimal policies. Principal investigator: PhDr. Zdenka Mansfeldová, CSc.)

Visiting researchers:

David S. Siroky, PhD (Assistant Professor of Political Science School of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona State University)

Length of research stay: 3 June – 10 August 2015

Aim of research stay:  the purpose of his visit was to pursue research about nationalism in Europe 

Peter Jan Tunkis, M.A. (Visiting Fulbright-Hays Fellow)

Length of research stay: 5 August – 20 December 2015

Peter Tunkis is a Ph.D. Candidate of political science at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio (USA) and a 2014 Fulbright-Hays Fellow, in affiliation with CONSIRT (Cross-National Studies: Interdisciplinary Research and Training Program, consirt.osu.edu). Peter specialises in Comparative Politics and Political Psychology, with research interests in political parties, legislator behaviour, Central and Eastern European politics, as well as European Union politics. His dissertation focuses on the relationship between inter-party mobility (changes in party affiliation) and the nature of group linkages, personal identities, and group dynamics between legislators in new democracies, with a focus on Poland and the Czech Republic since the end of Communism. Peter holds a B.A. in Political Science and European Union Studies from the University of Florida, Gainesville (USA) and a M.A. in Political Science from The Ohio State University.

Aim of research stay: While affiliated with the Institute of Sociology, Peter is conducting fieldwork for his dissertation. This work includes interviews with current and former Czech parliamentarians and the collection of novel data on the activities and affiliations in the parliament (1993-2013). His research is being funded with the help of a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship.