Current Research
Comparative Electoral Systems
The Origins of the Project
A few years ago, a mathematician visited our faculty to present his voting system at an event attended mostly by political scientists. The discussion that followed revealed not only surprising resistance but also criticism of features that are common to many other voting methods, which struck me as particularly unfair. I even heard someone say that no mathematician would tell us how to vote. That moment stayed with me and sparked my interest in researching alternative voting methods.
Our Work
At the Election Research unit at the Institute H21, we study electoral systems from a comparative perspective, with a particular focus on the D21 voting method. Our analytical framework draws on social choice theory, proportionality and representativeness, as well as electoral integrity. We work with data from public sources, surveys, and simulation-based analyses.
The Meaning Crisis of Democracy
The Origins of the Project
When I joined Institute H21, I engaged in long discussions with the then director, Adam Růžička, together with Jan Hořeňovský and later other colleagues, and we began to integrate our perspectives in an effort to explore the deeper challenges facing modern democracy. I brought perspectives from political science and its limitations, while Adam, as a cognitive scientist, offered insights into individual behaviour and decision-making. By combining our viewpoints, we created an exciting project that examines the underlying issues democracy must address to remain resilient and meaningful.
Our Work
We have been developing a theoretical framework, drawing heavily on the work of John Vervaeke, that identifies what we call the Hamlet‘s problem of democracy: the tension between constant critical openness and the need for stable shared frames. This tension stems from the cognitive limitations of individual agents, who struggle to create frameworks that determine what is relevant and stabilise meaning in an increasingly complex world. Until recently, our work was largely theoretical. With the integration of survey data, we are now moving into the phase of empirically testing our hypotheses.
Vote Recount Practices Across Europe
The Origins of the Project
The Czech Supreme Administrative Court once defended randomized checks in verifying presidential petition signatures by asserting that they were common practice across Europe and the United States. This statement was later shown to be false. A more recent example of problematic recount procedures comes from Romania, where the Constitutional Court initially required a full vote recount within just one day during the 2024 presidential election. These situations led me to look into how vote recounts are actually carried out, yet I was unable to find not only any best practices but even a clear picture of mainstream practice. Therefore, I asked my colleague Patrik Mikóczi to join me in piloting the data accessibility work, and that is how the project began.
Our Work
We focus on collecting data across Europe to understand the practices used by relevant authorities in vote recount procedures. In the absence of existing analyses and reliable data sources, we approach the topic inductively, mapping who is responsible for recounting, under what circumstances recounts take place, and how they are carried out in practice.
Completed Projects
Study of Parliamentary Speeches and Their Effects on Outputs of MPs’ Work in the Czech Republic
2020-2022
Researcher, project spported by The Czech Science Foundation (GAČR), realized at the University of Hradec Králové
Values and Identities of Visegrad Countries' Capitals
2019-2020
Principal investigator, international project supported by the International Visegrad Fund, realized at the Institute for evaluations and social anayses (INESAN) in cooperation with Eötvös Loránd University, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, and Institute for Sociology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
Disinformation and Science
2019-2020
Analyst, project supported by the European Parliament, partially realized at the Institute for evaluations and social analyses (INESAN)
Electoral integrity
2015
Researcher, subproject of the specific research project “Recent problems of political science research” realized at the Department of Political Science on the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic