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The aim of the article is to describe theoretical concepts related to the effects of state subsidies on enterprises & to discuss the magnitude & effect of state aid on enterprises during the transformation of the Czech economy. Subsidies to enterprises during transformation were high, often transparent, & above the European Union average. During 1997-2003 registered state aid reached 362 bn. CZK. More than 90 percent of the total registered state aid went to awards the rescue & restructuring of enterprises. It can be roughly estimated that during 1997-2000 state aid was twice as high as officially registered. Share of state aid to enterprises in public debt increased & reached 70 percent by 2003. Non-transparent channels of state aid distribution decrease the efficiency of state aid, as they distort market signals & decrease motivation for fair competition. Tables, Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.

The article documents the development of life satisfaction in four transitional Central European countries since 1991, in comparison with Germany and Austria. After presentation of data sources and the overview of the literature regarding the effect of transition on life satisfaction, surveys of European Values Study 1991, 1999 and 2008 are analysed together with macroeconomic data. First, satisfaction levels are correlated with GDP and then, individual characteristics of income, gender, education and family status are regressed to as explanatory variables of life satisfaction. While the explanatory power of GDP is found as very weak for the entire period, the effect of objective characteristics has peaked in 1999 and the effect of subjective perceptions in 2008. The survey information on trends after 2008 differs but no dramatic change of the life satisfaction due to the economic recession has so far appeared. Adapted from the source document.

The energy security and status of the Caspian Sea is one of the key elements in the whole energy policies of the Caspian states. The different positions of the boarder states on the Caspian Sea undermine the "mega energy projects" from this area towards European markets. There are five Caspian states, and each of them has its own view of how to divide the sea into national sectors, which makes difficult the realization of energy projects, and slows down the development of the region. While researching the status of Caspian Sea we realized the true clash of geopolitical interests of the powers (either superpowers or regional powers) behind the "Caspian game". The main goal of the study is to present the key elements of national interests of the Caspian states in order to understand their influence on European energy policies.

The article analyzes the reasons for two key defeats of the ODS (Civic Democratic Party) in the elections to the Chamber of Deputies in 1998 & 2002. It is proved that the ODS was not a modern right-wing political party at least up to the 2002 election year. For this reason it did not efficiently cover the wide center-right segment of the political spectrum. Public opinion surveys demonstrated that there was a long-term right-wing orientation & a strong center in the Czech Republic. Nevertheless, the ODS did not respond to the demands of the center- right segment by a corresponding offer. The modernization of the 0DS presupposes an overall change of its strategy, which would include not only a conception of people's capitalism but also a whole complex of changes: a more amicable approach to the European Union, to ecological problems, & to social issues, In addition, the party should take a firm stance against non-transparent clientelism & corruption & strengthen pluralism inside the party. 34 References. Adapted from the source document.

The aim of the paper is to discuss the issue of innovation from the perspective of relevant sociological interpretative frameworks. The discussion starts with an assessment of evolutionary and institutional economic studies of innovation, which have contributed to a better understanding of the role of institutional and social factors in the formation of innovation resources and the performance of (innovating) firms and (innovating) nation states. The concepts of a national innovation system (Nelson), the learning firm (Lundvall) and the social system of production (Hollingsworth) are discussed to explain this contribution in more detail. They indicate a set of socio-cultural factors and circumstances that can be identifi ed not only as implications of the techno-economic power of innovation but also as the autonomous factors that shape the performance of innovating actors. The EU Lisabon strategy is faced with a similar challenge: to balance the issue of competitiveness with environmental issues and social cohesion. The current debate over fulfilling its goals (the Kok report) offers good arguments as to how techno-economic and socio-cultural resources of innovation could be theorised and governed. In this article, selected methodological frameworks and databases (EIS 2005, EXIS) are applied in an analysis of the social forms and structures of national innovation systems. The final discussion refers both to the relevant concepts (the learning economy, knowledge societies, reflexive modernisation) and the analytical data in order to suggest a concept of innovation, which understands both economic and social factors to be productive resources of current innovation performance. The suggested interpretative framework is used to assess the structural dependencies and challenges of the innovation system in the Czech Republic.

Příspěvek přednesený profesorem Hubou, současným předsedou výboru pre pôdohospodárstvo a životné prostredie Národní rady SR, na česko-slovenské Konferenci o udržitelném rozvoji a ústupu v Olomouci (8.11. 2012) hodnotí vývoj v oblasti životního prostředí z perspektivy uplynulých 25 let (od r. 1987, kdy vznikla Zpráva komise OSN pro životní prostředí a rozvoj s názvem Naše společná budoucnost, tzv. Zpráva Brundtlandové), či dokonce 40 let (v r. 1972 se konala Stockholmská konference o životním prostředí člověka). Rekapituluje jeho nejdůležitější milníky, kterých byl autor aktivním účastníkem, a to na úrovni globální, evropské, a v rámci Slovenska – v období jeho významných celospolečenských proměn. Kam tento vývoj směřuje – to je řečnická otázka, jejíž odpověď stále méně ovlivňují ti, kterým na budoucnosti opravdu záleží.(Z príspevku na česko-slovenskej konferencii o udržateľnom rozvoji a ústupe v Olomouci, 8.11. 2012) ; This paper, presented by Professor Huba, the current Chairman of the Committee for Agriculture and the Environment of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, at the Czecho-Slovak Conference on Sustainable Development and Retreat in Olomouc (8 Nov 2012), evaluates the development in the environmental sphere from the perspective of the past 25 years (since 1987, when the report Our Common Future from the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, known as the Brundtland Report, was published), or even 40 years (Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment was held in 1972). It recapitulates its major milestones, in which the author was actively involved at the global, European and Slovak levels at the time of a major society-wide transformation in Slovakia. Where this development leads is a rhetorical question the answer to which is less and less influenced by those to whom future really matters.

Obálka -- OBSAH -- 1. SOCIÁLNÍ LÉKAŘSTVÍ A VEŘEJNÉ ZDRAVOTNICTVÍ -- 1.1 Počátky oboru sociální lékařství -- 1.2 Obsah a zaměření sociálního lékařství a veřejného zdravotnictví -- 1.3 Mezinárodní návaznost sociálního lékařství a veřejného zdravotnictví -- 2. ZDRAVÍ A NEMOC -- 2.1 Definice zdraví -- 2.2 Modely zdraví -- 2.3 Zdraví jako hodnota -- 2.4 Zdraví jako norma -- 2.5 Obecné vnímání zdraví -- 2.6 Nemoc jako objektivní stav, vnímaný jev i předmět zdravotnické praxe -- 2.7 Zdraví na populační úrovni -- 3. SOCIÁLNÍ DETERMINANTY ZDRAVÍ -- 4. MEZINÁRODNÍ SPOLUPRÁCE A EVROPSKÁ ZDRAVOTNÍ POLITIKA -- 4.1 Evropská unie (European Union - EU) -- 4.2 Organizace pro hospodářskou spolupráci a rozvoj (OECD) -- 4.3 Světová zdravotnická organizace -- 4.3.1 Struktura WHO -- 4.3.2 Zaměření a metody práce WHO -- 4.4 Základ evropské zdravotní politiky - program Zdraví 2020 -- 4.4.1 Zaměření programu Zdraví 2020 -- 4.4.2 Realizační nástroje programu -- 4.4.2.1 Důmyslné a odborné řízení -- 4.4.2.2 Posílení role ministerstva zdravotnictví -- 4.4.2.3 Rozvoj všestranné spolupráce -- 4.4.2.4 Veřejné zdravotnictví, výzkumný, organizační i výukový obor -- 5. ZDRAVOTNÍ GRAMOTNOST -- 5.1 Co je to zdravotní gramotnost? -- 5.2 Základní struktura zdravotní gramotnosti -- 5.3 Mezinárodní srovnání úrovně zdravotní gramotnosti -- 5.4 Zdravotní gramotnost je důležitá a ovlivnitelná determinanta zdraví -- 5.5 Zdravotní gramotnost je prioritou rozvoje zdravotních systémů -- 5.6 Zdravotní gramotnost v péči o orální zdraví -- 6. SYSTÉMY ZDRAVOTNÍ PÉČE -- 6.1 Stručné historické poznámky -- 6.2 Financování zdravotnictví prostřednictvím pojištění -- 6.2.1 Veřejnoprávní (statutární) pojištění -- 6.2.2 Soukromoprávní (privátní) pojištění -- 6.2.3 Smíšené systémy a jejich kombinace -- 6.3 Formy úhrad za zdravotnické služby -- 6.4 Možnosti zlepšení systému zdravotní péče

First, the author examines European & world lessons for the study of Czech transformation. Then, he describes legacies of the (mostly communist) past & the risks of transformation: atomization, demoralization, & materialization. The main topic is the failure of the social sciences, which isolated themselves instead of engaging in the reform process, verbally governed by mainstream neoclassical economics. In particular, sociology failed to show the moral dimension & embeddedness of economic processes in the social structure. Most tasks have thus remained for the future, which will stream transformation research towards (1) multidisciplinarity & complexity, (2) the replacement of unidimensional & static conceptual apparatus with a multidimensional & dynamic one, & (3) the understanding of endogeneity of social research & the explicit acknowledgment of its policy dimension.

The long-term sustainability of the public finance in the context of population ageing is becoming a hot topic in most of the European countries including the Czech Republic. Moreover the Czech population will be one of the oldest in the world according to the forecasts of different institutions (UN, OECD, etc.). It poses challenge for the Czech pension security scheme. This paper presents possible scenarios of the future development & illustrates future fiscal impacts of the ageing assuming a preservation of the current Czech pension security scheme in the period up to 2050. The analysis is based on a detailed one-year age structure. This allows us to simulate the influence of the changes in component parameters of the current scheme on its future situation (for example, changes in retirement age limits). The main conclusion is that there is a rather small impact of these parameters changes on the expected future imbalance of the Czech pension system. Therefore a more fundamental reform of the current pension system should be considered. Tables, Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.

The following paper focuses on the theoretical concept of the catch-all party developed by Kirchheimer and examines possibilities of its application in analyses of the political parties in the new Central-East European democracies. The paper is the case study of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). Through detailed analyses of the two core elements of the original catch-all party concept – intra-party organisation and character of the ideological appeal – article questions the scientific adequacy of frequent labelling of ODS as catch-all party. The argument points out that neither intra-organisational processes, nor ideological shifts of ODS provide a clear picture of the catch-all party. The case of ODS seems to be much more complex. Moreover, the paper points out that frequent usage of the catch-all label in the case of ODS is misleading also from a methodological point of view. Critique reveals that these works loose original concept too much. They ignore that theoretical concepts of all party types were designed for relatively long periods of time and should not be used as contingent categories describing a year or two in the party life. Paper is concluded with the proposition that analyses of political parties in Central-East Europe need complex revision of existing theoretical party types or development of the new ones based on detailed and precise case studies of individual parties in the region.

This article concerns the position of Magyar minority political parties in the Slovak party system. An analysis of the Magyar minority position in the Slovak society in terms of Slovak-Magyar relations development is included. The Magyars are the largest ethnic minority in several Central European countries. Almost 2.5 million Magyars live in the countries adjacent to Hungary. Their highest population share, at nearly 10 %, is in Slovakia. Unlike in adjacent countries, the Magyar minority in Slovakia has far more options for political self-fulfilment. Thanks to the Magyar share in the Slovak population, the Magyar parties regularly take one-tenth of the seats in the Slovak parliament. To characterize the role of the Magyar parties in the current Slovak party system, it is necessary to understand their behaviour in interwar Czechoslovakia. The Hungarian party sub-system is fundamentally influenced by election legislation. This forces minority parties to cooperate in coalition and integrate. Coalition or even consolidation of like-oriented minority and majority parties is out of the question in Slovakia. An electoral coalition between the Slovak and Magyar parties took place just once, in 1990. Since 1998, all relevant Magyar political parties have been integrated into the Party of the Hungarian Coalition (SMK). The electoral gains of the party have been increasing to date. Owing to its firm electoral base, the party has profited, one of the few to do so, from decreasing participation in elections. Although three former parties representing three different political streams have been integrated into the SMK, it has always acted as a single unit. The party has a solid position in the Slovak party system and it seems apparent that it will remain the sole political representative of Slovak Magyars in the future.