Identification of the level of knowledge of selected representatives of the Capital City of Prague municipal districts on Act No. 131/2000 Coll., on the Capital City of Prague according to selected criteria

The thesis focuses on identifying the level of knowledge of selected representatives of the Capital City of Prague municipal districts on Act No. 131/2000 Coll., on the Capital City of Prague according to selected criteria. The thesis offers completely new insights on the issue of municipal districts through the perspective of their qualifications and answers the question to what extent the municipal representatives are familiar with the law and whether there are any differences between the results obtained among the groups of municipal representatives structured by their age, education or number of election cycles. The theoretical part describes the legislative regulation applicable to the capital city and the concepts and definitions related to the issue under consideration and arising from the Capital City Act, which constitutes the critical instrument for exercising the representative mandate. In the last section, the theory of public choice, the theory of bureaucracy and the theory of rent-seeking are presented and discussed. The practical part of the thesis presents the evaluation of a questionnaire survey attended by 45 municipal representatives of the Capital City of Prague municipal districts and whose questions were based on the valid wording of the Capital City Act. The representatives were asked 25 questions with an average success rate of 60%. Questions focusing on time limits or the periods were the most challenging. At the same time, the best results were achieved for questions focusing on the municipal council. The results were then compared with elements of the sub-analysis based on age, education and number of election cycles. The youngest age groups (18-35 and 36-45 years of age) have demonstrated higher levels of knowledge than the two older age groups. According to the number of election cycles, municipal representatives elected more than three times have achieved better results than first-time municipal representatives. In terms of the results by education groups (secondary and higher education), there were no significant differences in the results; thus, it can be concluded that a higher level of education achieved does not proportionally correlate with higher knowledge of the legislation in question. All the identified groups have scored above 50%; however, none has achieved a success rate above 70%, leaving significant room for improvement.