Syndrómy volebnej demokracie v kontexte komunálnych volieb starostu na Slovensku Prečítať

SYNDROMES OF ELECTORAL DEMOCRACY IN THE CONTEXT OF MAYOR´S MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS IN SLOVAKIA

Simona Kováčová – Dominika Cevárová

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Politické vedy, Volume 25, Number 1/2022, pages 105-129

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24040/politickevedy.2022.25.1.105-129 

Recommended form for quotation of the article / Odporúčaná forma citácie článku:

KOVÁČOVÁ, S. – CEVÁROVÁ, D. 2022. Syndrómy volebnej demokracie v kontexte komunálnych volieb starostu na Slovensku. In Politické Vedy. Vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 105-129. ISSN 1335 – 2741. Available at: https://doi.org/10.24040/politickevedy.2022.25.1.105-129 

ABSTRACT

The legal regulation for elections to municipal self-government bodies in the conditions of the Slovak Republic does not require a minimum education of the mayor of the municipality, elected by a system of relative majority, the serious consequence of which is the possibility of low legitimacy of the winning candidate. Therefore, the main aim of the article was to identify an alternative electoral mechanism for mayoral election, that would increase the legitimacy of the winning candidate, as well as to propose conditions increasing the gain of seats by educated mayors, without the need to implement minimum education. The proposal for an alternative new electoral system was based on a critical analysis of the effects of the current electoral mechanism and with the aspiration of creating a winner with greater legitimacy without the need for a second round, an alternative voting mechanism was recommended. The second level of research accepted the absence of education as a legal condition for the exercise of the passive suffrage in the mayoral elections, but it was based on the assumption that, in parallel with the growing community in terms of population size, the interest in running for mayor is increasing. This also increases the probability of electing a candidate with the desired prerequisites for such a responsible position. From this point of the view, the results of the study confirmed the relevance of the need to create a defragmented model of local structure as a result of municipal reform.

Key words: Mayor, Electoral System, Alternative Voting, Expertise, Communal Reform