CONCLUSIONS

In a 1991 comprehensive sociological survey focusing on values and value orientations [26], 55% of respondents agreed with this statement: “dialogue with authorities is essentially futile, because they are not very interested in the problems of common people”¹². Disagreement with that statement was expressed by 40% of respondents. Perhaps this attitude can be seen as a residuum of the past, but we don’t know to what level this might be the case.

What we do know is that:

• There is a direct proportional link between citizens’ establishing regular contact with authorities in their local self-government, and an overall improvement of public attitudes towards self-government in general, and,

• In spite of the generally negative opinions mentioned above by many citizens, the level of overall public satisfaction with local government and its performance is growing.

Information brought together in this study hopefully provides some useful knowledge about the situation in our country. But it is obvious that serious attitudinal problems remain that demand further study.

4.1 Problems of Citizens’ Influence on the State and Development of Local Government

The ways in which citizens can influence local government can be viewed as a part of a broader vision of effective civil society, especially as it relates to mutual communication between the general public and local self-governments. Effective communication is therefore a necessary condition for the realization of successful local policy. This implies that the analysis of citizens’

influence on the development of self-government cannot be done without keeping that wider context firmly in mind.

The present study is a probe into such problems, trying to sketch some of their important aspects. Besides the survey held at the Mayor 2000 meeting [22], data from existing researches and analyses were used. The resulting picture implies some more general pieces of knowledge:

• In the area of public influence on the state and development of community self-government in the Czech Republic, the procedures and forms in accordance with the law have been respected for the most part. Local councils rarely go beyond the limits of their legal duties.

But even ordinary citizens overwhelmingly take advantage of only a fraction of the legal rights they have at their disposal.

• Mutually helpful rapport between authorities and citizens is rather infrequent. Most communication more closely resembles a struggle (on the one hand the defending citizen and the means of his defense, on the other hand the community authority secluding itself from its public). Attributes of this struggle are significant for the Czech political scene in general. Naturally, these attributes are significant for the development of public-local government interaction, too.

• Citizens use only a few forms to influence the development of local self-government.

Opportunities in this area keep on being untested. It can be said, however, that most of these possibilities are unknown or unappreciated by either the public, or by local representatives of community self-government. This is generally true in spite of the fact that a slowly growing number of people express an interest in local policies and the councilors mention the public influence on their activities as a decisive factor.

• The level of public respect for and confidence in self-government in general is still more of a lofty ideal than a concrete reality. Councils usually undertake no systematic activities

aimed at initiating public influence on community life. Their activities are rather haphazard, and/or dictated by prevailing laws, (i.e., mainly dealing with citizens’ complaints).

• The situation concerning citizens’ general antipathy towards politics in general is strongly supported by popular media, and above all by central political authorities. This corresponds with a predominant conviction that citizens’ activities are in fact the manifestations of political instability and lack of responsibility. This somewhat paranoid suspicion can be explained as a psychological inheritance of the totalitarian recent past.

• This situation is further worsened by the fact that a majority of citizens have not felt psychologically prepared to play any active role in self-government since the transition from socialism. Opportunities to consider the ins and outs of civics have been rare.

In the Czech Republic, there are many obstacles still to be overcome in the area of developing citizen-local self-government rapport. One way of hopefully minimizing these obstacles is a cross-the-board enhancement and enrichment of the public’s awareness of the most important aspects of these lingering problems.

4.2 Research in Communication

Between Citizens and Community Councils

To better understand the problems of citizen-community council’s communication, standard research methods should be used in:

• The analysis based on the “civic potential” (see section 3.2.4) represents a good basis for the subject matter of this study. The “civic potential” procedure could be further elaborated with respect to a more precise operational definition of some criteria, supplemented with accepted methods of empirical analysis of existing data [27].

• In Section 3.2.2 and in the Appendix, an outline of techniques is suggested that can be used for citizens’ influence on the state and development on self-government in the community. It could serve as a source for more detailed and more comprehensive analysis in the future.

• Further analysis of the problems of communication between the public and community councils would be of much help in the Czech Republic, especially if it helped make useful comparisons with neighboring countries easier.

4.3 General Lessons, Suggestions and Noteworthy Methods

Though the study represents only a probe into a wide area of problems, there are many interesting suggestions and methods, which can be widely applied. For example:

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• At present, the Internet is used in a very small minority of communities, but in the near future all community authorities in The Czech Republic should be provided with at least one computer on the Net.

• There are no universal means for exerting public influence on community councils. This is particularly true in smaller communities. Personal contact between councilors with citizens will always be the strongest and most influential means of communication.

• Education in the area of communication is lacking among both citizens and councilors. It is most striking among mayors, who often verbally state that the citizens influence on their decisions and activities, is of overriding importance to them. But in fact, most mayors are not accustomed to taking such influence into consideration as a regular part of their duties.

Councilors should also be more aware of certain basic learn the communication techniques regarding public relations, especially the fact that positive public interaction is a major asset towards mutual understanding.

• The continuation and development of the “Communicating Town” project (see section 3.2.3) represents a concrete step. The project combines instruction about methods for better communication within communities, and their application.

• Towards this objective, it would be advisable to categorize suggestions and methods that have proven over time to be practically useful in various communities, and to publish them in a comprehensive report or reports. The present periodicals (even the specialized ones) still only achieve this at a minimum level.