Applying the second-order elections model on the European Parliament elections in the Czech Republic

The bachelor thesis Applying the second-order elections model on the European Parliament elections in the Czech Republic deals with the theory of second-order elections and the possibility of its application to the European Parliament elections in the Czech Republic, which took place in 2004 and 2009. The first part of the work attends to origin and development of theories of second-order elections. The basis of the research of this theory was the first direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979. Based on the analyses of these elections the first comprehensive theory of second order elections was created by Karlheinz Reif and Hermann Schmitt. This theory was subsequently modified in consideration of the increasing elections. The second part of the work analyzes elections to the European Parliament in the Czech Republic in terms of the theory of second-order elections, i.e. verifies hypotheses resulting from this theory to the elections in 2004 and consequently in 2009. The final chapter is the comparison of obtained results, which verifies whether elections in 2004 show the same results as the elections in 2009. The aim is to verify the validity of hypotheses and based on that assess whether the European Parliament elections in the Czech Republic correspond to second-order elections