Search results

This article deals with contemporary trends within research on extremism research in Germany. Institutionalization of this research in structures of political science is described, including the international impact of this research, with specific attention paid to the situation in East Central Europe. Next, the article analyzes development within the so-called 'theory of extremism,' including new concepts elaborated by scholars (soft and hard extremism, etc.) and developments dealing with the interconnection with terrorism research. Use of results of extremism research by governmental and international institutions is identified. Finally, criticism of the concept of extremism is presented, including criticism of the concept's politicization. Adapted from the source document.

Survey-based measures of subjective well-being are more and more often analyzed cross-culturally. However, international comparison of these measures requires measurement invariance. Therefore, the major goal of this study was to investigate the cross-country comparability of the five-item subjective well-being scales used in the International Social Survey Programme (2011, 2017). This study applied both the traditional exact and the more recent Bayesian approximate approach to assess whether the subjective well-being scales were measurement invariant. The Bayesian approach detected several non‑invariant items that were problematic for cross-national comparison and could be dropped from the scales. Consequently, measurement invariance was established in all countries for the reduced scales, allowing researchers to meaningfully compare their latent mean scores and the relationships with other theoretical constructs of interest. Thus, the study highlighted the advantages of using multiple indicators and the necessity of measurement invariance testing in subjective well-being research.

This article traces the effect of socio-economic, cultural, and gender factors on the reproduction of educational inequalities in access to tertiary education in the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, and Sweden. Single- country analyses conducted to date on the Czech Republic have reached conflicting results both on the development of educational inequalities since the fall of socialism and on the weight of the factors behind those inequalities. Also, no international comparison has been conducted. Thus, the authors pursue two new directions of inquiry: 1) an international comparison, and 2) an update of the development of inequalities in all the mentioned countries since 2002. The authors used multi-dimensional statistical methods (logit models and a log-linear analysis) and the most recent available international data from the European Social Survey. The results revealed that out of all the countries studied it is in the Czech Republic that access to tertiary education is currently determined most by the cultural component of social background (the father's education). The country closest to the Czech Republic in this regard is Switzerland. The educational status of the family is also a crucial factor in educational reproduction in Sweden. Paradoxically, in the countries that historically and geographically are closest to the Czech Republic, namely, Poland and Germany, the crucial determinant in the transmission of educational status is the father's class.

The aim of the article is to otter a theoretically grounded explanation of the long-term continuity of Czech foreign policy. Czech foreign policy displays long-term continuity and consensus at the level of policy, but, at the same time, exhibits deep ideological differences among political and societal elites at the level of politics. The article argues against the mainstream (neo)liberal and (neo)realist theories that explain foreign policy outcomes in pure rationalist and materialist terms. Instead, the text follows the line of the critical constructivist school of International Relations and borrows heavily from post-structuralism. Thus, the article takes into account the ideational background of Czech foreign policy and argues that these deeply seated differences at the level of politics, stemming from mutually contradictory normative, philosophical and political beliefs, are subsequently neutralized by what is called the "hegemonic internationalist discourse". In this context, the article explores the origins, nature and consequences of the power of the hegemonic internationalist discourse. Adapted from the source document.

This study deals with the phenomenon of paradiplomacy, or parallel diplomacy. Paradiplomacy refers to international activities of cities and regions and includes marketing and public diplomacy, cross-border cooperation, functional trans-border cooperation, cultural and educational cooperation, and other activities. Paradiplomacy developed in the last third of the 20th century as a result of economic globalization, state decentralization, nationalism and the strengthening of regional identity, European integration, and the internationalization of cultural, educational, environmental, transport and other topics labelled as "low politics". Thus, we can identify both economic and political foundations of paradiplomacy. The first part of the study presents a review of literature on paradiplomacy; the second part is a case study of foreign policy instituted by the City of Prague in the electoral term 2006-2010. This case study confirmed initial hypotheses: first, that paradiplomacy is influenced by three supra-national factors: economic globalization (a), regional and global political and economic regimes (b), and transnational networks, mainly based in the EU (c); second, that paradiplomacy is influenced by institutional and constitutional relations between the centre and regions; third, that paradiplomacy is influenced by the antagonistic nature of these relations. Adapted from the source document.

This study deals with the issue of development relations between China and Africa in the context of the Beijing concensus. It attempts to provide an analysis of Chinese foreign policy since the beginning of the 90's. The text is divided into three basic parts. The first contains discussion on the theories of development, including the main features of the (post)Washington concensus based on liberalism, decentralization and privatization, followed by the Beijing concensus representing the counter-paradigm. The second focuses on the historical roots of bilateral relations since the beginning of the 20th century until the end of the Cold War. TAZARA, the Tanzania-Zambia railway built by China is chosen as the most representative example of Chinese foreign policy during the Cold War period. The last part deals with current relations influenced by Chinese oil diplomacy and the so-called one-China policy. Sudan and Angola are chosen as significant examples of African states in which China is involved. Adapted from the source document.

Current demographic trends are calling forth the need to redefine the meaning of old age and its place in society. The concept of active ageing can be seen as a reaction to these efforts to reconceptualise life in old age. This article first briefly describes the context that gave rise to the term 'active ageing' and how this concept is framed as 'ageing well' in national and international documents and in the discourse of gerontology. Based on ethnographic studies of two centres offering leisure activities for seniors (mainly using participant observation and in-depth and informal interviews with clients and employees), the article shows 1) how the idea of active ageing and generally of being active as an desirable or undesirable lifestyle in old age is constructed in the framework of the centre's general operations, and 2) how the clients themselves relate to this idea. The objective of the article is to reveal the significance of active ageing in the formation of a normative image of 'ageing well', which on the one hand helps seniors break away from stereotypical notions of ageing, but on the other hand generates new inequalities based on the ability or willingness to 'age actively'.

The article focuses on the differences in political participation among post-communist countries. First, it explores the variation in the level of political participation among post-communist states. Second, it deals with the differences in the determinants that account for political participation in individual countries. The second objective is met by introducing a three-dimensional explanatory model of political participation: individual resources, motivations, and social networks. In an empirical analysis political participation in nine post-communist countries is examined using data from the International Social Survey Programme 2004. Results show that the countries under study vary in the level of political participation both at the aggregate and individual levels. The most active citizens are in the former East Germany and Slovakia. Polish and Hungarian citizens participate in politics the least. Further, two modes of political participation – protest activity and contacting – are identified and used as dependent variables in further analysis. In the second part of the article, the explanatory model is tested against data from individual countries. The analysis shows that there is a difference in the factors that account for political participation in various post-communist countries. Generally, the three-level model of political participation works best in Hungary, Bulgaria, and East Germany. It explains very little variation in Russia and Poland.

Violent conflict is very old in human society. The development of military technology brought with itself the worst tragedies loss of human live and material devastation in the second half of 20th century in the Horn of Africa. This region is one of the centers of various political violent conflicts in the world, according to length of these violent conflicts, the number of death of people, mainly civilian, refugees and internal displaced persons (IDP). This study elucidates the root causes of long wars in the Horn of Africa focusing mainly on South Sudan and Somalia. It also illustrates how the Super Powers during the Cold War helped their client states to prolong the suffering of people in the region. When Socialist system disappeared from Eastern Europe, Mengistu Haile Mariam's and Siyad Barre's regime ignominiously collapsed. In Ethiopia Amhara power elite, who ruled the Empire state from 1889 to 1991 lost their state power and Tigrian guerrilla fighters captured it through the power of the gun, Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia, South Sudan is emerging from long heinous war to independence. The violent conflict in Somalia transformed after the old regime demise in 1991 and the new leaders unable to build new central government. Somalia is fragmented and became the good example of failed state in the theory of contemporary political sociology. The paper tries to explain these complex violent conflicts in this part of Africa.