This article puts forward the concept of street-level bureaucrats and their role in public policy in its full complexity. In the first two parts the authors define street-level bureaucrats and the roots of the basic ideologies that determine their behaviour (principles of bureaucracy, professionalism, bureau-professionalism and managerialism). They draw on previous analytical studies they conducted on this theme and present the latest empirical findings on the behavior of street-level bureaucrats who work with unemployed people. In this way they try to demonstrate the importance of principles of bureaucracy, professionalism, and bureau-professionalism in contemporary public policy.
This article presents a possible solution to the problem of the fall of the public in the political thought of Hannah Arendt & Jurgen Habermas. Arendt presents the public as the action of equal people discussing among themselves. Habermas sees it as the discussion of equal people too, but on the pages of newspapers or on radio waves. Both thinkers warn against the fall of the public & propose how to restore it. Arendt considers a system of councils to be a solution, whereas Habermas talks about the institutionalization of corresponding procedures of communication as a new form of the public. This article tries to put these solutions together. It applies Arendt's ideas to the communal or municipal level & those of Habermas to the national level, both in the context of the Czech Republic. One significant difference between a council system & the Czech political communal system is the recall of representatives. Recall can make representatives more responsible to citizens & citizens more engaged in politics so that they become the public, both at the communal & national level. Adapted from the source document.
The paper presents a wide spectrum of the existing theories of sociology, law & political science dealing with the discretion of officials in public & social policy. Concretely, the paper focuses on three different ways of how to understand the existence of discretion (definition perspective), its functions (role perspective), & its use by officials at the state & local levels (structural perspective). These perspectives are presented in order to identify factors that determine officials' discretion & to grasp the concept of discretion as a tool that reveals the limits of officials' behavior. In the end the paper summarizes the constituent factors determining public officials' discretion. 42 References. Adapted from the source document.
In the 1990s, the research of political field was ultimately established as part of German political science. The article describes the development of the research of political field in both the international & the German contexts & overviews the current state of this research in Germany. First, the article introduces important researchers & research institutions. Further, the article discusses the relationship between basic & applied research & between research & politics. The list of sources at the end of the article contains not only available literature, but also Internet links of important researchers & institutions. References. Adapted from the source document.
The paper attempts to interpret the subsidiarity principle as an intervening variable of a policy cycle, one of the models commonly used in the context of a broad policy analysis approach. The text is based on a legal analysis of the subsidiarity principle. Methodologically, the model of a policy cycle facilitates the "transfer" of its results into the framework of European studies & forms a basis for further research of the subsidiarity principle & its role in particular legislative processes in the multilevel political system of the European Union. Adapted from the source document.
This article analyzes the history, development, & continuity of the sociology of law within the context of Czech social & legal science since 1989. The sociology of law is depicted as a branch of both social & legal science that has suffered greatly from different political discontinuities & ideological repression during the communist era. After the 1989 political changes, the weak tradition of the Czech sociology of law had to be reconstituted. This development is mainly typical of the law faculties of different Czech universities, while academics trained in general sociology & social theory rather continue to ignore the importance & social functions of the legal system in the process of the postcommunist transformation of Czech society.
Drawing upon earlier work by the author, the text seeks to help answering the question of the sources of fear regarding the future integration of Slovakia. By looking at the roots & substance of this fear, the author aims to evaluate whether it has become unsubstantiated since the 2002 general election. Even though Dzurinda's 1998 government has fallen short of the voters' expectations, this has never been true in the foreign & security policy where the government delivered on its promises. The first chapter aims to identify the key factors, having the greatest effect on the policy- & decision-making of Slovakia's political elite between 1998 & 2002. These factors have been crucial in extending the country's image as being the most problematic out of the Visegrad group. The second chapter deals with Slovakia's internal political watershed: the 1998 general election. The problems weakening & ultimately threatening the ruling coalition from within are analyzed as well. The third chapter discusses economic & social aspects of Slovakia's post-1998 domestic development. The rather unbalanced performance & the lack of achievements are examined as the causes of doubts about the translation of Slovakia's integration ambitions into practical outcomes. Finally, the last chapter describes the societal perceptions in Slovakia as reflected in public opinion polls prior to the 2002 general election, summing up the election results. In answer to the question posed at the beginning, the author closes his analysis claiming that the current level of preparations for Slovakia's integration into both the European & Trans-Atlantic structures guarantees that the country will successfully join both. Despite the lack of any bulletproof guarantee of the stability of the country's post-2002 political scene, & in spite of potential change of the government or early elections, Slovakia's full integration into the European & Euro-Atlantic institutional structures in mid-2004 cannot be prevented. Slovakia will join along with its Visegrad partners. References. Adapted from the source document.
In the article, the author presents money as a category of analysis in political science, & briefly embeds research in this field in a broader disciplinary context (economics, sociology, financial geography). Emphasis is stressed on Helleiner's book "The Making of National Money." Helleiner deals with the emergence of territorial currencies in the long-term, & is considered to be the most important & influential author within the field of political science. In the first part, the article focuses on Helleiner's description of the structural-historical conditions for the introduction of territorial currencies, as well as on the ideological motivations that led political elites to introduce territorial currencies. A comprehensive historical description of this process is put aside. At the end, the author critically evaluates Helleiner's contribution to this problem. 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.
Teachings of economic policy were present at the VSE from its inception in 1953 needless to say that most activities were highly influenced by the ruling political climate. Despite all limitations there were some achievements of value, esp. works of prof. Olsovsky and his team in 50s and early 60s. Till the economic reform of Ota Sik was real engagement people from the VSE in economic policy limited (Kurt Rozsypal arrived to the VSE years after his reform was already enacted). 70s were again years of high political influence characterized by creation of Institute of Marxism-Leninism where consisting of all original social science departments 80s were characterized by the hidden duality of teaching when dominating teachings of political economy of socialism was supplemented by teachings of political economy of capitalism mostly in a guise of history of economic theories. In 90s a full renaissance of economic policy as a subject followed. Adapted from the source document.
In recent years, the issue of political parties' attitudes to European integration has become especially important in political science research. This article focuses on skeptical party attitudes to the European Union & critically evaluates the conceptualization of euroskepticism. First, it discusses the most applicable typologies, especially Taggart & Szczerbiak's distinction between "hard" & "soft" forms of euroskepticism. Second, it points out the insufficient & vague definition of the concept of "soft" euroskepticism. References. Adapted from the source document.
The aim of this study is to analyze the current use of public diplomacy in foreign relations. It attempts to show how necessary public diplomacy strategy is for the formation of diplomatic relations. The first part of the study focuses on the analysis of changes in political communication in international relations. Presented are factors such as the transnationalisation or medialisation of foreign policy and the role of soft power in international relations. Then it presents a three dimensional model of public diplomacy that takes into account short-term and long-term goals. The main part of the text presents a change in the operation of today's foreign policy actors. This mainly concerns classical diplomacy, which has transformed its role, primarily by heavily engaging professional public affairs agencies and non-state actors in foreign policy. The article also cites examples from Europe and the United States of America of successful and unsuccessful strategies of public diplomacy. Adapted from the source document.
The question of public finance stability & the economic stability are widely discussed topics, not only in transitive & emerging economies, but also in developed countries. The aim of this paper is to find out & measure connections between the fiscal policy development & external economic stability. This research is based on a quantification of the budget deficit & public debt impact onto exchange rate in chosen countries that have recently experienced some kind of financial crisis. External competitiveness is also assessed by the fiscal policy impact onto current account balance. It is necessary to point out that monetary variables are going to be probably more important but the fiscal sector cannot be omitted. Especially nowadays when there is an integration process in EMU going on, where the fiscal policy is going to play important role in the economic stability. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.
The category of antisystemic actors is employed relatively often in political science. The aim of this article is two-fold. First, it criticizes the contemporary usage of "antisystemicity" as too self-contained an analytical concept. In order to demonstrate this, two key theoretical traditions of the term -- G. Sartori's classification of party systems & world-systemic ("Wallersteinian") research of international political economy & its challengers -- are described, analyzed & mutually compared. Their understanding of antisystemic protest is depicted in order to show some shortcomings & inadequacies of their usage of this category. Second, the article strives to theoretically & formally unfold, integrate & further develop the concept of antisystemic contention in order to clarify the modes of its usages for socio-political reality. This inquiry consists of analyses of three key factors of antisystemic collective action -- ie., its object, subject & relations in-between. The analysis of object is basically grounded in Luhmann's neofunctionalist theory of modernization. Based on a systems theory analysis of society, the article proceeds to grasp the subject-actor as a general & case insensitive category, thus connecting existing concepts of antisystemic political subjects. Further analyzed dimensions of antisystemic protest are its goals & forms of action, but also its penetration by politics & economy. In conclusion, a general three-dimensional typology of antisystemic collective action is drawn from preceding analyses & offered as a methodological tool for empirical research of political contention. Adapted from the source document.
