LEADERSHIP AND URBAN AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

There had been many changes in the civil society in the Czech Republic during last 25 years. A discussion concerning partnership principle and participation of the civil society organisations (CSOs) in the political decision-making comes to the fore during recent years. The aim of our study is to find out how are politicians rooted in the civil society and what impact it has on re-election of politicians and on development of the region/municipality. A relationship between activity of CSOs, political representation and local development were tested. The main research questions were, whether local politicians are rooted in the civil society more successful than other politicians and whether local political elites are able to influence the aim of the EU Cohesion Policy? The research was conducted in Prague where one election for the whole city and 57 elections in districts take place every four years. We have data about who was a candidate and who was elected in each election. More detailed information about candidates was obtained by questionnaire survey. Obtained data were compared with the implemented policies in individual municipalities.