Perception of democracy and conspiracies in Czechia

Over the past few years, the European Union has coped with far-reaching political, economic and social changes and a string of successive and sometimes overlapping crises. The financial and economic crisis, refugee and migration flows and the Covid-19 pandemic all underscore both the extent to which our world is interconnected and the vulnerabilities of modern societies. Globalization, digitalization and an all-encompassing information age are indeed providing an unending challenge to all.

GLOBSEC’s report, Voices of Central and Eastern Europe: Perceptions of democracy & governance in 10 EU countries, provides unique insight into public satisfaction with the functioning of democracy and governance in ten Central and Eastern European countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

This country report focuses specifically on Czechia. The Czech partner within the project, the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI), looked closely on personal characteristics of Czech people who believe in conspiracy theories and analysed how do these beliefs affects their perceptions on politics and society.

Some of the key findings of this report are:

• Czechs who believe in one conspiracy are more likely to believe in other conspiracy theories.
• While middle aged Czechs aged 45-54 years were the most likely to believe in conspiracy theories, this belief is widespread among all age groups.
• Czechs with only elementary or secondary education displayed a greater level of agreement with the tested conspiracy theories. 
• Those who believed in conspiracy theories were more likely to express dissatisfaction with their own life and financial situation.
• Distrust in how democratic system works did not lead to a complete rejection of democracy but rather to disinterest in it. 
• A low level of understanding of the functioning of the media was observed among people who believe in conspiracies. 

Read more in the fact-sheets and reports below (both in English and Czech).

For more information about Czechia, please visit PSSI's website.