ANALYSIS OF MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS 2018 IN CONTEXT OF K. REIF AND H. SCHMITT'S THEORY.

Self-governing regions are a significant place for free decision-making of inhabitants on public affairs and a place where we can decide on the quality of our everyday life. Only strong municipalities, towns and regions create the concept of a strong country. The study is mainly focused on the current topic of municipal elections held on November 2018 in the Slovak Republic. In the light of the nation-wide climate full of tensions the feedback from voters to the political parties and message that the elections would bring were impatiently expected. The content concept of the study primarily focuses on the importance of the participation aspect and points out the obstacles of political participation at the municipal level. The second part of the study focuses on the evaluation and analysis of election results, and points out the conclusions of electoral behaviour denouncing the trend of electoral behaviour in the context of the growing phenomenon of independent candidates and, on the contrary, the decline of trust in the political parties. Based on the analysed election results and electoral behaviour, the ambition is to evaluate the characteristic features of the municipal elections from the view of the second-order elections theory presented by the German political scientists K. Reif and H. Schmitt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]