⋅ www.cvvm.cas.cz
Historical Background
The Czechoslovak Research Institute of Public Opinion was founded in 1946 and worked as a part of the Ministry of Information. The Institute was abolished in the Stalinist era (1950). Between 1966 and 1971 the Institute of Public Opinion Research worked as a part of the Academy of Sciences. Due to its activity in the ‘Prague Spring’ in 1968, in the times of ‘normalisation’, it was ‘awarded’ the accusation of supporting ‘anti-socialist forces’ and most of the staff was fired. For the following period, until 1989 the ‘Cabinet’, later the Public Opinion Research Institute (IVVM), was established as a part of the Federal Statistical Office under the ‘leading role of the communist party’. Since the collapse of communism, the Institute became politically independent. It worked as a part of the Federal Statistical Office until the division of Czechoslovakia. Since 1993, IVVM has been functioning as an independent division of the Czech Statistical Office.
On January 2001, IVVM has been again incorporated in the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences as the Public Opinion Research Center (CVVM). It continues its previous activity, mainly in regular surveys, but also adapting itself on scientific standards of work.
Services provided and selected projects
CVVM provides regular surveys concerning public opinion on political, economic and social issues. Political and social research is conducted on political attitudes, party preferences, experienced standard of living, attitudes toward perceived economic development of the country, value orientations, relations between different nationalities in the Czech Republic, welfare and social security. Special attention is paid to public opinion concerning current developments in the society as whole. The surveys are conducted on a national representative sample of about one thousand respondents. Based on the results of these omnibus surveys, CVVM releases between 20 to 25 research bulletins each month, which are distributed to the central government, ministries, scientific institutes, universities and the media. Several assignments were done for the government, e.g. research on how the prospective students evaluate their chances of admission to institutions of higher learning or how the public evaluates available medical care and privatisation of the health system. CVVM has conducted a series of joint projects with the Masaryk University in Brno in the area of social policy, e.g. the condition of retired persons, the situation of the unemployed, citizens’ evaluation of the adequacy of social support and the respondents’ opinion of the effect of the economic transformation on social policy.
List of clients:
- Government of the Czech Republic (e.g. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Local Development, Ministry of Transport and Communications)
- non-governmental organisations (e.g. Czech-Moravian Chamber of Trade Unions, Czech Academy of Agriculture)
- international institutions (e.g. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, International Migration Organisation, Vienna, Prague International Marathon)
- scientific institutes, universities (e.g. Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, Charles University, Prague, Masaryk University, Brno) – regional institutions (e.g. City Hall Prague 7)
- commercial institutions (e.g. Czech Postal Service, Renault)
Number of staff members:
CVVM has 14 employees and about 700 interviewers.
Address:
CVVM SoU AV CR
V Holesovickach 41/94
182 09 Praha 8
e-mail: cvvm@soc.cas.cz
