Knowledge and Positions in a Political Space: The Case of the 2017 Czech Parliamentary Elections

The aim of this article is to clarify connections between citizens’ knowledge and their positions in a political space in the Czech Republic. Rather than a political space as a whole, previous studies examined particular issues, values, participation or accuracy of citizens’ positions compared to positions of their preferred candidates in association with the knowledge variable. Thus, this study provides a new piece of the puzzle. The election study 2017 of Centrum pro výzkum veřejného mínění (Public Opinion Research Centre) is a source of the data for this analysis. The results suggest, in contrary to our presumptions, that the knowledge does not significantly influence if a person advocates rather central or clear-cut positions. On the other hand, more knowledgeable citizens are slightly more liberal in the conservative – liberal dimension. The interesting contradiction is seen in the left – right dimension in the Czech specific context. Compared to people with less knowledge, more knowledgeable people tend to be positioned in more right positions in the left-right dimension related to the economy and in more left positions in the dimension related to the transition