SAVS/TACR THE LEVEL OF DIGITALIZATION

3 RESEARCH AMONG CZECH CITIZENS This chapter examines the issue of digitalization from the perspective of Czech citizens. The aim of the research was to determine which public services should be digitalized as a matter of priority from the point of view of their experience and opinions. The data collection comprised a combination of an online survey of 611 people to interview the Internet population and a face-to-face survey of 1,002 people for the general population. The obtained data represent the adult population of the Czech Republic; it was a quota selection by gender, age, education, size of municipality and region. The survey was conducted from October to November 2019. 3.1 Sample of the general population First, let us focus on the survey whose respondents came from the general population. Overall, it can be said that the digitalization of public administration and services is of interest to citizens (supported by 67% of respondents). Support is, of course, more crucial for those respondents who actively use the Internet (80% of respondents, while 43% of respondents for those who use the Internet minimally or not at all). In relation to gender, digitalization is slightly more popular with men (71% of male respondents vs. 62% of female respondents). In this respect, the subjective assessment of the level of awareness of Czech citizens about the current possibilities and e-government tools can be considered a negative finding, where only 21% of respondents consider themselves well- informed, and 34% of respondents consider themselves very poorly informed . If we look at this question from the point of view of respondents’ education, university graduates are considered better informed (35% of respondents compared to 13% of respondents with basic education). In terms of age, the age range of 30–44 years can be considered the best informed (26% of respondents), whereas in the senior category 60+, only 17% of respondents feel this way. Respondents usually perceive the long reaction time of the authorities (36% of respondents) and the reluctance of officials (22% of respondents) as the main communication issue with the public administration . The absence of an electronicmeans of communication (10% of respondents) and inappropriate office hours (7% of respondents) can be considered minor. Therefore, it was found out how the respondents evaluate the benefit that online handling of official matters can have for themselves. Seventy-two percent (72%) of respondents consider this step to be beneficial – according to the age spectrum, these are people not classified within the senior age range. (Among the population aged 18–45, 81% of respondents perceive the digitalization of public administration positively, while in the senior category 60+, 44% of respondents perceive it negatively and even as detrimental.) The support of digitalization is also influenced by those with the highest level of completed education and material security. Digitalization is assessed positively by 87% of respondents with a university degree (compared

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