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As regards the political parties represented in the Chamber of Deputies, citizens classify them from the left to the right as follows: Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM), Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD), Christian and Democratic Union–Czechoslovak People’s Party (KDU-CSL), Freedom Union-Democratic Union (US-DEU), Civil Democratic Party (ODS), with the last three parties lying in the right half of the used scale.

Within a framework of a methodological experiment, a June survey of the Public Opinion Research Centre included a few questions concerning the issue of political systems. The print information analyses the evaluation of political systems that existed in the Czech Republic in the recent past, as well as some generally named variants. We also monitored the significance of some attributes of political systems, such as freedom or equality.

Monitoring public stances on certain general and political issues is commonly included in researches of public opinion. The array of questions included in the June survey of the Public Opinion Research Centre focused primarily on general economic issues, selected aspects of social security and personal responsibility, and on the issue of freedom. The results reveal that, inter alia, the Czech public strongly prefers the maximisation of freedoms and the concept of a state that protects the freedoms and rights of its citizens in the event of their violation to a state that pre-emptively limits their rights and freedoms.

In a June survey of the Public Opinion Research Centre, the citizens polled expressed their views on the issue of women in politics. Almost 44% of them believe that politics would change for the better if more women were involved. 5% of respondents took an anti-feminising attitude towards politics, thinking that politics would change for the worse in the event of more women being involved. 40% of those surveyed are of the opinion that politics would not change if more women participated in it.

In June, the Public Opinion Research Centre conducted a survey dealing with, inter alia, the issue of women in politics. The vast majority of Czech citizens (84%) hold the opinion that the involvement of women in public affairs is beneficial to society. On the other hand, only a tenth of respondents think that it is not beneficial. Less than a quarter of respondents believe that the participation of women in public life is sufficient.

We have long been monitoring the trustworthiness various social institutions enjoy among the public. The last survey investigating this issue was conducted by the Public Opinion Research Centre in March.

People place the greatest trust in persons they know (88% of respondents trust most of them) and in the president (75%). They generally consider the army (61%) and our media, namely television (64%) and newspapers (59%), to be trustworthy.

The Czech public considers unemployment to be the most acute problem now. 84% of those polled believe that the unemployment must be tackled ‘very urgently’ and a further 12% believe that it needs to be tackled ‘quite urgently’. This year, the unemployment is followed by problems in the health sector that are considered even more serious than organised crime and corruption, which jointly ranked at the top of the ‘ladder’ in the year 2002.

In its February survey, the Public Opinion Research Centre examined the public opinion on the activities of Charta 77. The respondents were, as was the case in 1993, asked two closed questions. The first question focused on the overall assessment of the activities of Charta 77, while the other investigated the reasons why people had signed the document.

28% of respondents say that Charta 77 prepared the demise of the communist regime; nearly a third (31%) are of the opinion that the activities of Charta 77 had no impact, 3% think that it endangered other citizens and 38% cannot judge the activities of Charta 77 (it is interesting to note that this figure stood at 51% in 1993).

The general political orientation of the Czech population is one of the topics the Public Opinion Research Centre has been systematically monitoring. In the left-right political spectrum, the Czech population is divided in a way that corresponds with most patterns in the population. The largest group of people shows average figures and their numbers are gradually decreasing towards the edges. In total, the number of left-wing respondents is slightly smaller than the number of right-wing respondents.

People place the greatest trust in persons they know (88% of respondents trust most of them). They generally consider our media, namely television (66%) and newspapers (60%), the president (62%) and the army (58%) to be trustworthy. More than a half of respondents are of the opinion that they can believe the majority of people in our country (55%), whereas roughly two fifths are persuaded to the contrary.