The role of elections in non-democratic regimes: the case of Czechoslovakia before 1989

The theme of this bachelor's thesis is the role of elections in non-democratic regimes, by focusing on the election held in 1971 in communist Czechoslovakia. This work explores the classification of Czechoslovakia on the scale of non-democratic regimes, by using the non-democratic elections theory and acknowledging the specifics of the given period in the analysis of this particular election. The objective of this work is to answer the question of why the regime had to organise non-democratic elections and whether these elections served to legitimise the regime's power or perform more functions. Based on this analysis, the author concludes that the communist regime held the elections in order to finalise its consolidation process in response to the events of the Prague Spring. This was not only to legitimise its power, as it was particularly shown during the pre-election period that several significant functions were serving especially to reinforce the feeling of apathy and hopelessness among the population, which enabled the regime to survive until its collapse in 1989