Political Influence in Communal Elections with Emphasis on the Position of Independent Candidates in Slovakia

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.210902.006How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Election, Electoral system, Municipal policy, Independent candidates

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyse the position and start point of independent candidates in the Slovak elections, with strong emphasis on municipal elections, where independent candidates have gradually gained a significant footing. A further aim of this paper is to show a possible connection between the municipal and general elections, with regard to the electoral system. We assume that in a majoritarian or a mixed system, independent candidates could gain more momentum, which could be beneficial for both the citizens and the state. Based on our previous experience and specific results of analyses, we have formulated a hypothesis: in communal or municipal elections, there is much more emphasis on regional interference than on reference to a political party”. We would like to verify the hypothesis, whether citizens in municipal elections prefer independent candidates, as their mayors or deputies and derived from this, we propose to link the success of independent candidates in municipal policy with government policy, in order to highlight that interconnection of the voter and the respective representative could bring more advantages to the electoral system as a whole. By emphasising the citizens’ leaning towards independent candidates without political affiliation, we would like to show that a more direct approach is needed in general elections as well. The aim of this article is to analyse the current situation of independent candidates in Slovak elections, and to look at the influence the current situation has on the political culture and the respective election results. The paper does not include the results of the 2020 general elections, as they do not show a strong influence of independent candidates, because of the fact that elections to the National Council of the Slovak Republic are still party-based. That is the main reason our research data ended in 2018. As long as specific methods are concerned, in this paper we chose to apply analysis, synthesis, scientific abstraction, mathematical statistics and critical analysis.

Copyright

© 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Xénia Domaracká
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/09/04
TI  - Political Influence in Communal Elections with Emphasis on the Position of Independent Candidates in Slovakia
BT  - Proceedings of 6th International Conference on Contemporary Education, Social Sciences and Humanities. (Philosophy of Being Human as the Core of Interdisciplinary Research) (ICCESSH 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 31
EP  - 41
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.210902.006
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.210902.006
ID  - Domaracká2021
ER  -