The Legitimacy of Democracy and Trust in the Political Institutions in the Czech Republic

Abstract

: This article deals with legitimacy of democracy and its relationship to trust in political institutions in the Czech Republic. The introduction includes a re- capitulation of the theories concerning the legitimacy of democracy, and on the con- ditions necessary for this legitimacy, which is what the subject of this article is then built upon. The author distinguishes between support for democracy as a form of government, and satisfaction with the development of democracy in a (particular) country, and searches for the factors which this depends on. As explanatory factors, the author first tests trust in institutions, then political culture and personal charac- teristics. The analysis showed that the legitimacy of democracy and the evaluation of the development of democracy are not in the Czech Republic mutually independ- ent, and that they depend more on political culture than on trust in the institutions being researched. For the legitimacy of democracy, a significant effect was traced only in the case of trust in NATO - an institution that also became a value in the po- litical culture. With the evaluation of the development of democracy, trust in institu- tions was more strongly felt - a significant effect was revealed by an analysis of the social welfare system, the army and the media. It is clear that the evaluation of the performance of institutions is rather more reflected in the system efficacy of the de- mocracy than in the legitimacy of democracy as a system of governmen