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The paper deals with the phenomenon of celebrity politics in the Czech Republic, particularly the involvement of celebrities in Czech politics between 1996 and 2013. The authors draw from the celebrity politics' typologies of Paul 't Hart and Karen Tindall, and John Street. Employing a content analysis of newspaper articles from the journals MF Dnes and Blesk during the periods preceding the elections of the Chamber of Deputies, the authors shed light on celebrity involvement in Czech politics. Specifically, they trace three categories mentioned in the media: the celebrity expression of political topics in general, celebrity political endorsement and the candidacy of celebrities. Building upon the collected data, the authors interpret the results within the political and social context of the parliamentary period and indicate more general patterns of celebrity involvement in Czech politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the concept of personalization of politics. The author calls for a redefinition of the original concept that is in some respect outdated. The major issue that needs to be addressed is the emphasis on measuring changes and development in time, which by definition means that all research on personalization needs to be conducted by comparing data from (at least) two moments (e.g. elections in T and T + 1). This approach is correct, but overwhelmingly demanding in terms of data and researcher capacities. Moreover, it creates predictable and obvious results--the larger the time difference between measurements, the bigger the change observed. In addition, there is a conceptual confusion due to an extending amount of (experimental) research on different aspects and effects of candidate's personality traits on voters' behavior and on comparing "personalization" among political actors in one particular election (personalization is seen as a strategic campaign tool). Although, these researches deal with the personal characteristics of candidates and its influence on voting behavior, they cannot be seen as part of the research on personalization. The author shows benefits for researchers if the timecondition in the original definition is left out. Widening of the original concept makes possible keeping all research on individual actors in politics under one conceptual frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the memory of voters and their ability to recall campaigns of candidates after the first-ever direct Czech presidential election. Our main focus is on identifying the campaigns best remembered by the voters. Our results show that, as predicted by the theory, the respondents could recall campaigns of the personalities that they had voted for. On the other hand, we do not confirm that people also remembered the campaigns of the candidates that they considered voting for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on political speeches is often done in countries with strong presidential powers, typically in the USA. However, political speeches by presidents are also a critical method of influencing public opinion in the Czech Republic. Therefore this article is focused on the analysis of speeches of the former President of the Czech Republic, Václav Klaus. Our research is based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative content analysis of Klaus' speeches (thematic units are used as the unit of analysis) found on his website (www.klaus.cz) in the period from 1995 to the end of his presidency, March 2013 (N = 470). We aim to identify the changing structure of political issues in Klaus' speeches and changes in Klaus' position on those issues, and to uncover any characteristic features of his speeches (the use of personal pronouns, the role of the speaker, the tone of the speech, etc.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with electoral support of ethnical parties in Romania in 2000, 2004 and 2008 elections. The aim of the paper is to confirm/falsify the C.-C. Alionescu's view about lackes of the existence of reserved seats for minorities. Alionescu stated that parties of minorities obtain electoral vote by other voters than they declare to represent. Hence these parties can prefer their interests before the interests of their minority. The paper analyse the territories of electoral support and the index of electoral stability for confirmation of falsification of the Alionescu's view. In the analysis it is evident that the minority parties are really supported by voters with difierent etnicity. Therefore the Alionescu's conclusion could be confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines geographical support, through the use of the Gini coefficient, of the seventh Slovak referendum agenda at three territorial levels. The vote distribution among districts was abnormally homogenous at every territorial level and the ratio between Yes and No votes at the regional level also showed no significant fluctuation. A slight divergence in vote distribution can be observed between towns with more than 20,000 inhabitants and villages. In spite of being declared invalid due to low turnout, the referendum campaign promoted Freedom and Solidarity's (Sloboda a solidarita, SaS) policy statements and can be, therefore, regarded as a success. We assert that the SaS was able to mobilize three times more voters than in recent parliamentary elections. This proves that the SaS, despite the opposition of the rest of Slovak political subjects, was able to push its agenda and convey it to non-voters as well as voters of other parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with electoral support of ethical parties in Romania in 2000, 2004 and 2008 elections. The aim of the paper is to confirm/falsify the C.-C. Alionescu's view about lackes of the existence of reserved seats for minorities. Alionescu stated that parties of minorities obtain electoral vote by other voters than they declare to represent. Hence these parties can prefer their interests before the interests of their minority. The paper analyze the territories of electoral support and the index of electoral stability for confirmation of falsification of the Alionescu's view. In the analysis it is evident that the minority parties are really supported by voters with different etnicity. Therefore the Alionescu's conclusion could be confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces CODER, an on-line analytical software and database tool for the study of elections and their results. It contains electoral data from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe from 1990 to the present and allows analyses of three basic types: synchronic, diachronic and a combination of the two. In inputting a multistep query, the user filters the data, thus receiving a highly personalized output which only contains information he requested (the output can be immediately broadened through hyperlinks). The first part of this text consists of a technical description of the application. The second part is dedicated to a simple example: a case study of electoral behaviour of the voters in the Czech Republic, which demonstrates a practical application of the programme, including links to third-party software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]