Abstract
The quality of democracy depends on both politicians and citizens. While most attention has focused on politicians, this paper looks at citizens. There has been some scepticism about whether the postcommunist public is prepared to rule their countries. The legacies of communism and the rigours of the transition may have produced citizens whose opinions are unstable and ill-informed and therefore a poor basis for democratic policy making. This paper tests this proposition by considering the nature of public opinion in the Czech Republic. Its main conclusion is that postcommunist public opinion is more reasonable than conventional wisdom suggests. Opinions on most policies change slowly if at all and when they do change the changes are prompted more by gradual shifts in mores than by political manipulation. This suggests that citizens in the region are prepared to have a significant voice in policy making.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 925-944 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Europe - Asia Studies |
| Volume | 66 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2014 |
Funding
Czechs have long been viewed as tolerant in matters of sexual morality, particularly by Eastern European standards. Same-sex intercourse was legalised in 1962, though persecution of gays was common under the communist regime. Since the revolution, there has been greater acceptance of same-sex relationships, though laws to create civil partnerships were narrowly rejected by parliament in 1998, 2001, 2003, and 2005, before being passed in 2006. The partnership bill was supported by the Cˇ SSD, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (Komunistická strana Cˇ ech a Moravy—KSCˇ M) and US, and opposed by the ODS and KDU–CˇSL.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Geography, Planning and Development
- History
- Sociology and Political Science
- Economics and Econometrics