Political Aspects of Local Government. Elections and Voting Behaviour of the Residents of the Town Kopidlno

The thesis is conceived as a case study. The main goal is to verify the applicability of the theory of voting behaviour in a specific sample of municipality voters in the Czech Republic. The object of the research is to determine which factors influenced the decision of voters in the municipal elections for the Town Council of Kopidlno in 2010 and 2014. The theoretical part deals with a description of the basic concepts primarily related to democracy, with a specific emphasis on the local character. The theoretical perspective further concerns with the issues of elections including characteristics of different kinds of electoral systems and accessible theories of voting behaviour. The practical part primarily characterizes the town of Kopidlno in historical, demographic and political perspective. Further, the study focuses on the local political entities. The following chapters summarize and analyze the results of the municipal elections in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. The final part summarizes the results obtained in an independent questionnaire survey used as a research tool to analyse voting behaviour of the residents of Kopidlno