2011/2

The electronic version of the second number of the ninth edition of the review Czech Society (Naše společnost). Czech Society issues Center for Public Opinion Research, Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. 

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Media Tenor tracked media coverage of political parties in periods of three months prior to elections to the Chamber of Deputies in 2006 and 2010. Czech Social Democratic Party enjoyed overwhelming media prevalence in a first analyzed period, Civic Democratic Party prevailed in 2010. Neither of instances resulted in a highest voting outcome for the most covered party. The research confirmed private news services to be keeping conservative approaches while (not) presenting new and not well-known political groups. They covered TOP 09 Party and Public Affairs Party (Věci veřejné) rather marginally in 2010. Researchers focused also on a coverage of chairmen of main parties and air-time enjoyed by politicians to quote own party or co-party members. 
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This paper deals with results of a special survey focused on the problem (issue) of historical consciousness of Communist Party voters. The opening part of the article presents a theoretical and methodological framework: there is introduced an operationalization of concepts such as collective memory, historical consciousness, collective identity, and also outlined the position of the Communist Party in the Czech post-communist political system. The empirical part of the text is devoted to the problems of Czech modern history, particularly to the way in which Communist Party electorate in different contexts assesses various historical periods or phenomena prior to 1989 and also how a subsequent systemic change is reflected. 
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This research aims at quantitative analysis of time perspectives in the Czech society. For this purpose, Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory was used. The battery consists of 56 items comprising five time dimensions (orientations): Past Positive, Past Negative, Hedonistic Presence, Fatalistic Presence and Future. The data was gathered from a representative sample of the Czech population in the years 2003 and 2008. The factor analysis showed evidence for a multifactor structure which, in principal, does not differ from the original American version of ZTPI nor its adaptations in other countries. On the basis of item analysis, we adjusted the model to suit the Czech data as much as possible. In the Czech sample, orientations on the positive past and on the future were comparatively the strongest ones. Relations of time orientation with age, gender, level of education and religious faith were observed. 
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Parliamentary elections in May 2010 ended with unexpected and somewhat revolutionary results: they brought heavy losses to all traditional established parties within the Czech party system, which appeared to be relatively stable since the second half of 1990s, two lesser parliamentary parties were eliminated from the Chamber of Deputies, and two new political parties emerged among successful subjects surpassing quite easily the existing electoral clause of five percent. The text analyzes these results, as well as some attitudes of Czech public identified by exit poll and other sociological surveys and post-election development, and it tries to answer the question, whether the elections in 2010 meant any deep and lasting shift in long-term development of the party system in the Czech Republic or whether it was rather an incidental anomaly without persistent impact on the party system, which will gradually restore itself more or less in the shape that characterized it for one and half of decade before the elections in 2010. 
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