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.

Every country in the world is currently trying to reduce opportunities for corruption in the country. Fighting corruption is very challenging and difficult. The corruption occurs primarily in the public sector, where the object of interest is funding from public sources. Corruption has a negative impact primarily on the economy of the state in terms of their current, but also potential investors and strategic partners in the area of production. Second, it can not ignore the negative impact on the society, respectively citizens of the state affected by corruption. The paper aims to quantify the interdependence between the Corruption perception index and selected indicators of economic health in selected countries of the European Union. In terms of proven relationship between defined variables can then infer the interdependence of achieved Corruption perception index value in selected EU countries and to determine whether are these states in the problem unified or differentiated.

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.

The aim of the paper is to examine interconnections between the process of state-building and the process of nation-building during a period of post-conflict reconstruction. The specific case of the current reconstruction process in Kosovo is exceptional due to extensive international support expressed through political and economic means. Regardless of efforts towards reform made by powerful members of the international community, future sustainability may be questioned. An alternative to the currently favoured institutional approach is provided by the work of Barry Buzan on the state, which puts an emphasis on the idea of the state, assuming integration between territorial, societal and political aspects. The conclusion presented in this article might be used as a lesson learnt from previous mistakes in work dealing with ethnically divided societies, for which it is not sufficient to provide institutional structures without an adequate socio-political reconstruction of existing conditions. If a society is not adequately adapted to the newly-established situation, the institutional structures will not be able to fulfil their key functions completely. Furthermore, it has to be clear that any possible reconstruction of institutional bases must be attempted only with a deep consideration of specific local conditions; otherwise its sustainability is doubtful. ; The aim of the paper is to examine interconnections between the process of state-building and the process of nation-building during a period of post-conflict reconstruction. The specific case of the current reconstruction process in Kosovo is exceptional due to extensive international support expressed through political and economic means. Regardless of efforts towards reform made by powerful members of the international community, future sustainability may be questioned. An alternative to the currently favoured institutional approach is provided by the work of Barry Buzan on the state, which puts an emphasis on the idea of the state, assuming integration ...

The article analyses the evolution of the Slovak political party "Smer" (Direction) and its position in the party system of Slovak Republic. The article focuses on the shift of the party program from the "Centrist Populism" towards "Social Democracy." According to the first program documents the Party of "Smer" (Direction) was designed as pragmatic, non-ideological party. In the persistent conflict between authoritarianism vs. democracy "Smer" identified itself as the pro-democratic and pro-market force. Party policy before 2002 contained only few social democratic components; it was closer to the conservative or right-wing populist parties. After the parliamentary election 2002 and the failure of non-communist left "Smer" decided to become a member of the Socialist International (SI) and Party of European Socialists (PES). The process of the institutional approach to the international Social Democratic Party structures was accompanied by the substantial changes in the social and economic program of the party. The process was completed on the institutional level in May 2005, when Smer joined both SI and PES, and on the level of political program on the Party Congress in December 2005. In the process of so called "socialdemocratisation" of "Smer" the international factor played crucial role, especially the need to have an international partner in the European Parliament. "Smer" met the standards of the Social Democratic identity only in the social and economic affairs. The other five dimensions - environmental policy, participative democracy, cultural and human-rights dimension, supra-national dimension and the dimension of equality and freedom "Smer" met only partially or not at all, so these process remains unfinished. According to some political declarations "Smer" remains the populist party and the uncompromising critic of the right-wing government of Mikuláš Dzurinda, on the other side the official documents of the party anticipate only the moderate corrections of the economical and social reforms, ...

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.

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.

The paper concentrates on attitudes to the enlargement and the future of EU held by relevant political parties in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia in 2002. With respect to the Czech Republic, three basic approaches to the issue of EU enlargement are identified, thus classifying the Czech political parties as "consistently" pro-European, pro-European "with reservations" and anti-European. It will be argued that in Slovakia the relevant political parties acted as "consistently" pro-European with the exception of the anti-European Slovak National Party (SNS) and the Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS). The dividing line was however rather between the parties whose representatives could be viewed by international partners as an obstacle to Slovakia's admission to EU and the parties that were "acceptable" for foreign countries, which played an important role in rallying voters to opt for "acceptable" political subjects. ; The paper concentrates on attitudes to the enlargement and the future of EU held by relevant political parties in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia in 2002. With respect to the Czech Republic, three basic approaches to the issue of EU enlargement are identified, thus classifying the Czech political parties as "consistently" pro-European, pro-European "with reservations" and anti-European. It will be argued that in Slovakia the relevant political parties acted as "consistently" pro-European with the exception of the anti-European Slovak National Party (SNS) and the Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS). The dividing line was however rather between the parties whose representatives could be viewed by international partners as an obstacle to Slovakia's admission to EU and the parties that were "acceptable" for foreign countries, which played an important role in rallying voters to opt for "acceptable" political subjects.

The article draws on the concept of 'replacement migration', widely presented by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs in 2000 and 2001, which elaborated a concept and conducted a comprehensive analysis of international migration as a solution to the problem of population declines and demographic ageing. This concept was applied as an example to selected countries in the world, the European region, and the European Union as a whole. It involves calculating the number of foreign migrants necessary to completely offset future changes in the size or age structure of the given country's population as a result of the predicted demographic trends. The following article describes the formulation of this concept and looks at its application on a general methodological level and in the specifi c case of the Czech Republic. A detailed description is given not just of the model used but also of its internal and external assumptions. The constructed model is then applied towards determining the, necessary number of 'replacement migrants' in order to prevent a signifi cant change in the Czech Republic in: 1) the total size of the population, 2) the average age of the population, 3) the percentage of people of working age, and 4) the ratio of people of post-productive to productive age. With the aid of the results the authors clearly demonstrate that while international migrants could effectively help maintain the current size of the population, they would not be able to prevent the continued ageing of the population or even have a decisive impact on the course of this process. With these fi ndings the authors hope to contribute to the debate on the topic of the ageing population in the Czech Republic, and they call strongly for more intensive and especially more effective preparations for this real and unavoidable era in the development of Czech society.