Suchergebnisse

The Sociological Data Archive (SDA) was founded in 1998, & it is the only institution that systematically provides access to data files from quantitative sociological surveys. The main access to the data library is provided on the Internet. The SDA also pays great attention to promoting secondary analysis & the employment of existing data sources & cooperates in organizing large research projects, especially the Czech participation in the ISSP. The SDA is a member of the CESSDA (Council of European Social Science Data Archives). This also means that the Archive can mediate access to materials stored in other social science data archives in Europe. The full inclusion of the SDA's services into an international network is connected to the adoption of international standards (DDI, XML technology), which is planned for the future. In recent years two qualitative data archives have also been established, the Czech Archive of Qualitative Data & Documents & the Digital Archive of Soft Data MEDARD. The Czech Statistical Office provides data services in the field of official statistics.

This article summarizes the basic theoretical approaches to the study of intelligence & intelligence control in the new Central European democracies. The existing theories are applied to the case of intelligence transformation in the Czech Republic. The Czech intelligence came through a reform similar to that of the intelligence services in neighboring countries, but with some significant exceptions. The Czech Republic's intelligence community consists of three organizations: the Security Information Service, the Office for Foreign Relations & Information, & the Military intelligence (Military intelligence has two relatively independent parts: Military Defense Intelligence & Military Intelligence Service). Only the Security Information Service & the Military Defense Intelligence are under the control of special parliamentary bodies, though at present there are two suggestions about a legislative reform. The article summarizes both of these suggestions, makes critical notes, & presents the author's own suggestion on how to improve democratic control of the Czech intelligence services. References. Adapted from the source document.

This paper deals with the topic of measurement of education services. The main part of output of education services is considered to be non-market in the Czech Republic and it is estimated a sum of related costs. Deflation has been traditionally done using input method i.e. recalculation of each component separately. The main drawback of this method is an assumption of direct correlation between changes in inputs and changes in output. Productivity can not be estimated therefore output methods based on direct volume measurement are now preferred for individual services. Methodology of direct volume measurement of education services has been developed in the paper. This approach is based on number of students in detailed breakdown weighted by costs in order to include changes in the structure of fields of study. Estimates are available since 2004 as data sources are available. Besides estimates of development of non-market output development of all education services is estimated. Adapted from the source document.

The article focuses on new possible approaches of total factor productivity measurement. The standard computation takes into account the number of hours worked as the labour input and net or gross fixed capital stock as the capital input. This article improves the computation by using labour services as the labour input (it is necessary to take into account the skills and efforts of the workers) and capital services as the capital input. Substitution of capital stocks by capital services means that only flow indicators are used for TFP measurement. This issue became more popular in recent time in line with the revision of the manual for national accounts -- SNA2008. This paper concentrates on the development of the Czech economy between the years 2002 and 2008. Adapted from the source document.

The paper explains the theory of bureaucracy developed by William A. Niskanen. While sociologist Max Weber's analysis treats bureaucrats as "eunuchs" or automatic machines responsible for public well-being, Niskanen tries to apply standard neoclassical economic models to explain the behavior of bureaucracy as a whole. With this background, he concludes that the bureaucracy will concentrate on bargaining processes with the sponsor & not on improving the quality of its services to the public. This is a simple explanation of why the bureaucratic organization provides systematically worse products & services to its customers than does the standard private firm operating on the market. 19 References. Adapted from the source document.

Energy efficiency improvements have become a major hope for decoupling the energy demand from economic growth and for achieving environmental goals. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of policies based on promoting energy efficiency may be undermined by behavioral responses. A more efficiently produced energy service becomes cheaper and economic theory then suggests that consumers should demand more of it, which will cause a loss of the potential technological saving. The phenomenon is called the rebound effect and it has become a focus of energy economists since early 80s. However, even today there is no clear consensus on its importance. Quantification of the rebound effect is mainly hampered by poor data availability and the comparison of results is not straightforward due to methodological differences. Our study concentrates right on the economic theory of the demand for energy services, definitions and their applicability to empirical estimation. It summarizes the state of knowledge and elaborates on plausible models for empirical quantification of the rebound effect which should bear consistent results. Adapted from the source document.

The transformation of the German armed forces is one of the topics of the current security policy of Germany. The position of the German anned forces has deteriorated in recent years when compared to the situation that existed several decades ago. This fact is reflected in such things as the growth of difficulties with recruitment, increase in the number of young people preferring civilian service to military service accompanied by the growth of the positive evaluation of civilian service, and in particular in dwindling financial resources of Bundeswehr. Despite these tendencies, Bundeswehr is not as yet perceived by German society as an institution a priory incompatible with democracy. The analysis of the reform of German armedforces shows that that the changes in this institution are taking place against the background of trends generating the "revolution in military affairs", even though, naturally, within the boundaries given by the Bundeswehr's limited access to the resources of German society. The German armed forces of the future should be more mobile, with improved capability for strategic lift and strategic reconnaissance, more flexible organizational structure and command, better signals and communication equipment, aha better equipment for automated command. The improvements of the German armedforces are aimed at areas that can help them to increase their effectiveness in missions taking place outside of the territory of Germany, while the capabilities that were in the focus in the past, i.e. the high intensity warfare capability in the battlefield of Central Europe, are currently being scaled down. The only specificity of the reform of the German armed forces in comparison with the reforms taking place in other European countries is the continuation of universal conscription, probably due to the belief of German political -- and partly also military -- elites that universal conscription has democratizing effects. Adapted from the source document.

Foreword by the Editors -- General Introduction -- 1. Status of Religious Communities -- 2. Relations between the State and Islam -- 3. State Support for Islamic Religious Communities -- 4. The Islamic Community of the Czech Republic -- 5. Muslims and the Law on Issues of Social Integration -- 6. Mosques and Prayer Houses -- 7. Burial and Cemeteries -- 8. Education and Schools -- 9. Further and Higher (Tertiary) Education -- 10. Islamic Chaplaincy in Public Institutions -- 11. Employment and Social Law -- 12. Islamic Slaughter and Food Regulation -- 13. Islamic Goods and Services -- 14. Islamic Dress -- 15. Criminal Law -- 16. Family Law -- Bibliography -- Index.

The Czech Language Instit provides consulting services, viz, questions about current usage, to a wide audience, from curious laypeople to scholars, in an institutional (ie, academic) setting. The institute, represented by the Prague Linguistic Council of the Czech Academy of Sciences' Instit for the Czech Language, is accessible by phone, mail, & drop-in appointment to any interested speaker of Czech needing information on pronunciation, orthography, semantics, etymology, usage, et al. A staff of linguists is on hand to answer all relevant questions. The requests received & characteristics of those who have contacted the institute are described.

Using the case of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, the article deals with the phenomenon of the governance of non-state armed groups in failing states and the conditions for its emergence. It argues that one of the key requirements for the emergence and long-term preservation of a non-state armed group's authority is its fulfillment of functions usually associated with the state (such as the provision of security, public goods and services and the legitimation of its authority) that the failing state is not able to provide. The study specifically shows how Hezbollah is able to substitute for or complement the Lebanese state in each of its functions and consecutively use the wide network of its governance institutions for strengthening its political authority. As a result of Hezbollah's practices and strategies of governance, the forms of political control of the territory are being gradually changed and hybridized. Adapted from the source document.

The article focuses on the institutional reforms of the European Union's foreign policy from the perspective of input and output legitimacy. It aims at two objectives: to analyse the potential contribution of the establishment of the European External Action Service headed by the Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy for the legitimacy of the EU's international activity, and to tentatively evaluate to what extent the potential is being fulfilled in practice. It concludes that the new institutions have the potential to raise the output legitimacy of the EU, but only if the member states are considered constitutive actors of the EU and if the institutions manage to keep a high level of input legitimacy. Nevertheless, it is too soon to decide whether this will be possible in practice. Adapted from the source document.

This article centres around the Czechoslovakian perception of holiday travel to
Yugoslavia in the 1920s with particular attention to the typology of Czech tourists. It has been
shown that travel to Yugoslavia was very popular among the middle classes who had enough
time and money. The wealthier classes preferred France. The main selling points travel agents
and hotel owners used to promote travel to Yugoslavia were affordability, service targeted to
Czechs and Pan-slavism. The idea of a mutual Slavonic tradition had been in existence since the
19th century. Evidence would seem to show that the most significant factor for repeat travel was
affordability. Conservative Czech tourists remained loyal guests of Yugoslavia during the 1920s
and 1930s.

This paper seeks to find out to what extent the process of EU accession has influenced legal regulations concerning the creation & functioning of social & political actors. Through the analysis of various statutes & changes made to them, the paper tries to determine the role the EU plays in amending assembly legislation. The actors under scrutiny include political parties, professional organizations, labor unions, & civil society organizations. The paper concludes that the most influenced field of actors was the area of chambers of professionals which was obliged to conform to requirements for the free movement of people & services in the European Union in order to comply with European law. The Czech Republic was quite leisurely in their harmonization of statutes, with the majority of them passed just before accession to the EU. An interesting part of the problem concerns the question of political party membership, which is still reserved only for Czech citizens. However, European citizenship, with its voting rights to the European Parliament & local magistrates, is arguably going to push slowly for change even in this domain. Adapted from the source document.