Role politicky relevantních hodnot ve volebním rozhodování v České republice

Voting behaviour is generally not so much a matter of choosing one party 
out of a list of all parties on a ballot paper, but rather a choice between a much 
smaller number of acceptable parties. Typical voting behaviour may be supposed to 
be a choice between two parties. It is not a matter of a single important or dominant political attitude or value, but rather a complex process involving many different factors, some of which reinforce each other, while others are in contrast or even conflict. This article tries to identify the role of politically relevant values and attitudes in voting behaviour in the Czech Republic. As the results of earlier analysis show that there has been a process of intensive crystallisation of left-right political orientations, this article concentrates primarily on declared left-right orientation (selfpositioning on the left-right axis) and on value-based left-right orientation (as measured by a series of indicators). The analysis of data from research carried out at the end of 1996 showed that declared left-right orientation is a far stronger influence on voting behaviour than is left-right orientation based on socio-economic values. This difference also indicates that an increasing inclination towards left-wing values and the paternalistic state currently presents a certain barrier to open (declared) support for left-wing political parties.