What should a member of the regional council be like? Relationship to one’s own region

As ”definitely important” for quality discharge of a regional council member’s office people regard the candidate’s moral qualities, knowledge of the region’s problems, ability to solve conflicts, ability to express ideas and expert knowledge. As ”quite significant” qualifications for successful discharge of a regional council member’s office the respondents also regarded knowledge of foreign languages, good relations with central bodies, experience with work in public administration on municipal level, spirit of enterprise, administrative experience and university education. The Czech public is somewhat ambivalent as for the importance (for the quality of a regional council member’s work) of the fact, whether the person in question collaborated with the pre-November 1989 regime or not. Even though three fifths of the respondents consider this issue as ”rather important” and one quarter even as ”definitely important”, one third views this matter as ”rather” of ”definitely” unimportant. Only few of the respondents think that prospective activity in the non-profit sector has any significant importance on a regional representative’s work performance. As ”unsubstantial” for the work in regional government an absolute majority of the interviewees considers the representative’s party affiliation and religious belief. The survey has also proved that within the relationship between people and the region they live in, positive feelings unambiguously prevail.