Suchergebnisse

The paper tries to show that the East enlargement was realized under partly changed conditions and strategies. It is focused on the enlargement waves formation including the European Commission position. The paper analyzes the classical method of EU enlargement and compares these principles with the undergoing EU expansion. In the end the attention is devoted to the special conditions in common agricultural policy they were offer to the candidate countries as the result of financial costs of the enlargement to the East.

The paper comments on issues of conceptualisation and typology of regional parties in Europe. Regional parties could be defined briefly as independent formations with regional identity, region–based legitimacy and region–based electoral resources. The territorial aspect of their identity and of their modus operandi is the crucial one in this respect. It should be reminded that a number of heterogeneous party phenomena could be subsumed under the label of regional parties. The existence of a genuine regional party family, which could be, eventually, included into the classic familles spirituelles scheme, is not obvious. It seems that recent attempts to conceptualise the regional (and/or ethno–regional) party family have only small chance to success. Moreover, it should not be taken for granted that invention of such party family would enhance the capacity for comparative research into the European regional party phenomena. It could be a counter–productive move. There is an implicit danger to be avoided: that of conceiving of the differences between regional parties and non–regional parties as the differences between party families. However, these differences are not of the same kind. The paper proposes to distinguish several types of regional parties according to their origins (genuine regional autonomist parties, regionalized branches of state–wide parties etc.) which could allow for a sophisticated explanation of their heterogeneity and of various combinations of the systemic properties of regional parties. It is also suitable to pay more attention to the differing opportunity structures and to the compounded nature of territorial–political operational space of regional parties. ; The paper comments on issues of conceptualisation and typology of regional parties in Europe. Regional parties could be defined briefly as independent formations with regional identity, region–based legitimacy and region–based electoral resources. The territorial aspect of their identity and of their modus operandi is the crucial one ...

The image of the social scientist as a stranger is well known. However, there are different approaches to the notion of the stranger in sociology. A comparison of Schutz's & Simmel's conceptions of the stranger enables us to distinguish two forms of fieldwork used in the project Transitional Processes. The social anthropological approach strives to avoid intrusive interventions into the research area. The so-called heuristic investigation uses intentional interventions. Both approaches bring some opportunities & threats especially in the case of cooperation with a scholar who is native to the studied locality. The local researcher can overstep his ethnocentrism thanks to the teamwork. On the other hand, collaboration with strangers may disrupt his loyalty to his ingroup.

A common initiative of the European Parliament and the European Commission resulted in the unification of the rules governing lobbyists at EU level in June 2011. The aim of this paper is to fill the gap in the literature as regards evaluation of the new system of the EU Transparency Register using the CPI methodology and to generate a numerical value for the scheme for further comparative purposes. Detailed analysis of relevant documents indicates that the current EU scheme's index is 26, which mirrors its supposed low level of stringency. Thorough comparison with past regulatory schemes of the Parliament and Commission reveals that, surprisingly, it is the European Parliament which has made greater steps in lobby regulation, especially towards enhancing transparency in lobbying. Although the new scheme represents a compromise between both institutional approaches, regarding its individual elements, there is a clear dominance of the Commission's approach, which can be regarded as the true leader of reform. ; A common initiative of the European Parliament and the European Commission resulted in the unification of the rules governing lobbyists at EU level in June 2011. The aim of this paper is to fill the gap in the literature as regards evaluation of the new system of the EU Transparency Register using the CPI methodology and to generate a numerical value for the scheme for further comparative purposes. Detailed analysis of relevant documents indicates that the current EU scheme's index is 26, which mirrors its supposed low level of stringency. Thorough comparison with past regulatory schemes of the Parliament and Commission reveals that, surprisingly, it is the European Parliament which has made greater steps in lobby regulation, especially towards enhancing transparency in lobbying. Although the new scheme represents a compromise between both institutional approaches, regarding its individual elements, there is a clear dominance of the Commission's approach, which can be regarded as the true leader of reform.

Europeanization Research is a dynamic area of political sciences both internationally & in the Czech Republic. However, despite the popularity of the concept & the still-growing number of conference papers, articles & books devoted to its various aspects, there are several gaps & shortcomings regarding its conceptualization & methodology of theoretical as well as empirical Europeanization studies. The aim of the paper is to present an overview of the most important theoretical issues surrounding Europeanization Research, including the definition of the term & the danger of concept stretching, the question of causality & various explanations of Europeanization mechanisms with a special emphasis on the identification of their weak points. Simultaneously, it aims to evaluate the current state of Czech Europeanization research with several recommendations for developing it further. Adapted from the source document.

This paper provides a framework for the analysis of social movements, drawing on political process theory (PPT). The author argues that the concept of political opportunity structure is still adequate, although it has to be re-conceptualized at various points. Firstly, when analyzing contentious politics or collective action, it is much more suitable to handle the social movement as the unit of analysis rather then the protest event. Attention should also be paid to how the concept is applied. Finally, cultural aspects & the context of multilevel governance are implemented into PPT. This framework is used in the second part of the paper to analyze the Czech women's movement between 1989 & 2006. Adapted from the source document.