Abstract
Local activities of electoral candidates represent one of the key factors influencing voting behaviour. Many studies have shown an elevated electoral support for candidates in the municipality of their residence and the surrounding region. By using the example of mayors who candidated in the 2017 Czech parliamentary elections, this article proves that this voting behaviour is manifested not only through the territorial concentration of preferential votes, but also through higher local electoral support of political parties represented by these candidates. This so-called friends and neighbours effect is stronger in smaller, less populous municipalities. Its spatial extent is not necessarily limited to the respective municipality, but if a well-known and popular mayor appears at the top of the regional candidate list, it can affect voters living many kilometers away, especially in non-metropolitan areas.
Highlights
Territorial differences in the results of the Czech parliamentary elections 2017 at the level of municipalities can be partially explained by heterogeneous population structure, but the majority of spatial variability of electoral support of individual political parties remains unexplained using this compositional approach
The article shows that the voter is an isolated individual, but part of a system in which his voting decisions are influenced by the spatial context of the locality where he lives
The effect is most intense in the municipalities of candidatesresidency, but it can be seen in the adjacent municipalities or even in the wider micro-region
Summary
In recent years, () the Czech political scene has undergone significant changes. Empirical research on the campaign effect (Denver and Hands 1993; Johnston and Pattie 1997) show a significantly higher electoral support of a political party in localities where it spents more finances during the election campaign, and an apparent mobilization of voters, which is reflected in higher overall voter turnout in these areas. In the Czech parliamentary elections, the friends and neighbours effect has two main impacts It manifests itself in the spatial concentration of preferential votes of individual candidates near their place of residence (Voda and Pink 2009), but secondarily in the higher electoral support of political parties in localities where some of their strong leading candidates stand (Bernard, Kostelecký, and Šimon 2014). These authors used very different approaches to measure the relevance and strength of the friends and neighbours effect, so the findings are not comparable with the results of my research
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
