Local politics in small municipalities and its informal aspects

Mgr. Josef Bernard Dizertační práce Local politics in small municipalities and its informal aspects Abstract The subject of the thesis is the analysis of political processes in local government of small municipalities in the Czech Republic. The author focuses particularly on the question how do the activities of local government influence the different aspects of local life. The goals of local government, the negotiation of these goals and the role of different local government members in achieving these goals are examined. The thesis is based on three theoretical approaches - on the theories of local communities and their development, on the social capital theory and on theories of local political leadership. Different types of empirical data are used in the thesis: qualitative interviews and non-standardized observation of political processes in selected municipalities, questionnaire data and census data as well as other accessible statistical data on local communities and municipalities in the Czech Republic. The analyses have proved that local governments in small municipalities can be regarded as specific types of community interaction fields. The existence of this field has a significant impact on the situation in the community, including local citizen participation and social capital of the..