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The article focuses on the academic discourse of social cohesion, from general theories of social integration through to the definitions, measurement methods, and basic analytical concepts. The authors identify two degrees of universality with respect to the use of the concept of social cohesion: 1) the creation and preservation of social order in general, and 2) the study of particular mechanisms of social cohesion (civic participation, the effectiveness of cooperation, etc.). The first part differentiates between different general social theories according to how they approach the question of integration (norms/procedures and structures/relations), and the second part reviews the most important empirical approaches to the study of cohesion at the micro- and society-wide levels and the indicators used in these approaches. The authors distinguish between approaches 'integration from the bottom up' (e.g. factors of in-group cohesion) and the enlarged multidimensional, normative/relational 'good society approach' to macro-social cohesion. In conclusion, the authors propose a conceptual framework for studying the social cohesion of Czech society broadly based on the 'good society' approach, which they further elaborate in terms of reciprocity and universally applicable rules. This multidimensional conceptual framework encompasses the vertical dimension of social inequalities and civic rights and the horizontal dimension of collective social capital, especially its bridging form.

This paper aims to review the concepts & theories of political participation. The first part presents classic definitions of political participation offered by Verba, Barnes, & Kaase. Subsequently it shows how the repertoire of political activities has changed since the time these classical concepts were formulated. The paper argues that the transformation of political participation happened in three distinct dimensions, ie., goals, targets, & space. On this basis, drawing on Teorell as well as Rosenstone & Hansen, a new definition of political participation as "action by ordinary citizens directed toward influencing some political outcomes: distribution of social goods & norms" is introduced. The second part of the paper deals with theories of political participation. It presents a three-level explanatory model that corresponds to the level of analysis used by particular theories: micro (individual), meso (intermediary), & macro (structural) levels. Last but not least, the paper focuses on major theories explaining political participation: individual resources & political values (micro), social capital (meso), & modernization & institutional explanation (macro). Adapted from the source document.

While the causes of war constitute one of the most often studied phenomena within the IR discipline, surprisingly little attention has so far been paid to their explanations through either traditional or modern IR theories. This article aims to contribute to our understanding of the causes of war by exploring the major IR theories and attempting to identify what causes of war they prevailingly identify. Primarily, we aspire to present a comprehensive framework for such an analysis, discussing various realist and liberalist approaches so as to follow with the elaboration of views represented by social constructivism and some critical theories. As it turns out, there are significant overlaps in the ways these theories treat the possible causes of wars and their aspects; consequently, we try to identify the possibilities of achieving a synthesis of various theories in terms of their understanding of the causes of war, while taking into account the most recent developments including evolutionary approaches and other influences coming from outside the IR field. Adapted from the source document.

The paper shows the current state of environmental concerns in economic theory. Different economic schools have incorporated the environmental analysis into their theoretical framework. They use different presumptions, focus on different environmental aspects & come to diverse conclusions & political recommendations. However, there are many unclear frontiers between one another. This paper would like to help to understand these differences. It characterizes & compares the main economic schools & theories. The paper focuses on environmental economics, ecological economics, new institutional economics, free market environmentalism, coevolutionary theory in economics & bioeconomics. References. Adapted from the source document.

The problem of linking 'explanation' & 'understanding' remains unresolved -- as Weber left it. This paper challenges the view that their reconciliation is impossible, as some theorists have maintained. Their case is that the entities involved -- subjective meanings & objective relationships -- are too ontologically different to be combined. From the stratified ontology of Social Realism, which acknowledges that different properties & powers pertain to different components & levels of social reality, this is no barrier in principle to their combination. However, in practice Realists have not given an adequate account of how 'subjectivity' & 'objectivity' are linked, which also weakens Realism's solution to the 'problem of structure & agency.' This paper offers a refinement: the human power of reflexivity is viewed as mediating between our subjective concerns & our objective social contexts. Reflexive deliberations account for what agents actually do -- and they do not all do the same thing -- under very similar social circumstances. The introduction of reflexivity enables the (socially) objective & the (personally) subjective to be combined into a single account of socially structured & structuring action.

This paper describes the main theoretical concepts of the competition, which is thought to be the fundamental social process in the economy. The protection of competition (or the competition policy) is the one of the most important parts of economic policy, because the competition ensures the freedom of choice. The theory of competition provides large number of assumptions, which were developed within the frame of various economic schools & approaches. This paper starts with the description of the history of competition policy before the coming of Adam Smith. In the middle part of the work there have been formulated basic ideological theses about economic policy. Represented are, for example, the Classics, Ordo-liberalism or Neo-austrian School. Paper is finalized by the major theses of the Harvard & Chicago school. References. Adapted from the source document.

Panel data are increasingly being used in both macro- & micro-level studies of economic problems. Macro-panel data (i denotes countries) are characteristic by sufficiently long time series to be able to analyze panel spurious regression & panel cointegration. According to the main stream of the economic theory the budget deficits leads to deterioration in the current account balance. The panel long-run causal relation is examined in the case of the four groups of countries. For the Granger causality test the panel cointegration analysis is needed. The panel cointegration relationships were not found in any case. Some similarities in the panels were found in the case of Latin America countries but they are not significant. Tables, Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.

This article presents a critical commentary on the debate between M. Louzek & P. Drulak. First, in direct contradiction to Louzek's position, the article argues that "objectivity" in social science is not based on a dogmatic belief in the ability of a particular theory to seize the "truth" of the world-out-there. Instead, the only way to approach the ideal of objectivity in our varied & complex world is to facilitate an open debate between different theoretical positions. The article then discusses the dichotomy between positivism & normativism introduced by Louzek. This dichotomy is artificial; realism is no less "normatively-oriented" than alternative paradigms in international relations theory. However, there is a relevant distinction between analytically-oriented & normatively-oriented theories that is overlooked by Louzek, who wrongly believes that all nonrealist theories of international relations belong to the group of normative theories. 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.

This text is a polemical contribution to the debate on positivism & postpositivism in the study of international relations. It focuses on four aspects rendering Louzek's defense of positivism rather flimsy: first, the untenability of the positivism-normativism dichotomy. Second, a more detailed analysis of theories incorrectly grouped with normativism. Third is an analogous analysis of positivistic theories, & particularly their claims to an epistemologically neutral access to reality, & fourth, we discuss Louzek's ambivalent attitude to modernity, particularly to the notion of progress. Adapted from the source document.

The article discusses the definition & typology of anti-system parties. It is based on the classical definition by Giovanni Sartori, which is in my opinion not obsolete. On the contrary it is still very usable, but under the condition that we stay on the ground of party theory & party systems, & not transfer it to the field of democratic theory. The next part of the text focuses on Giovanni Capoccia's attempt in 2002 to modify Sartori's theory & create a new typology of anti-system parties is very interesting but not very progressive. It seems that Capoccia makes the same, or at least very similar, propositions as Sartori. I think we should call "anti-system" only those parties which conform to Sartori's rigorous definition. The parties conforming to Sartori's wide definition should not be named "anti-system" but rather "extreme." So, we have two separate categories of opposition parties: 1) anti-system, & 2) extreme. The first one is ideological opposition against the political system. The second is simply extreme, radical opposition against the government, or at the most, against some part of the political system, but not against the system as a whole. The second main proposition of the article concerns the problem of a typology of anti-system parties. According to the view mentioned above & based on Capoccia's typology, I have created a modified typology. It correlates two parameters, ideological & relational. The result is five types of parties: anti-system parties, extreme parties, irrelevant anti-system parties, camouflaged anti-system parties, & pro-system parties. Adapted from the source document.

This study aspires to harness the impulses of the critique of international peace initiatives (IPIs) up to this point for the purposes of improving the practical inquiries into them. In the study, attention is given namely to the questions of the initial normative and epistemological premises of the research. The study argues, in agreement with the precepts of critical political theory, that the inquiry into IPIs should first of all strive to emancipate people in postconflict situations. With respect to the IPIs' general aim of transforming the target countries into stable, independent and prosperous states and societies, the focus is directed at the influence the IPIs exert upon social structures in the postconflict societies. With the aim to conceptualize a basic framework for the research, the contemporary thinking on the IPIs is interpreted with respect to International Relations theories and the fundamental metatheoretical questions of social theories. Consequently, in keeping with the philosophy of scientific realism, a critical constructivist position is formulated for the given purposes. Adapted from the source document.

Simmel's social theory, namely his formal sociology, has long been considered if not dead, then of little relevance for contemporary sociological theories. This study is an attempt at proving the contrary. Our aim is to show that Simmel's social ontology can be seen as a form of semiology, i.e. a complex body capable of integrating seemingly irreconcilable segments of society into a social science of signs, thus showing that his "social grammar" is a true social theory of sign systems. A keystone which helped us span the bridge between society and language, linguistics and sociology, was the concept of value. By dint of Simmel's theory of economic value we try to connect his social theory, on which it lies, with his theory of sign-money, which it supports. Simmel's social theory is based on an unorthodox concept of interaction, whose main qualities are that of perfect synchrony and unity that is dealt with by Simmel on the empirical as well as experience level. The puzzling term of form is revealed as Simmel's attempt to conceptually grasp this synchronic dimension of interaction. Simmel's theory of economic value is seen as an extension of Simmel's formal sociology. Simmel conceives value as a relation between two processes of valuation brought about within the exchange as a form of interaction. Money is the physical representation of this relation. To prove that Simmel's social theory can be regarded as a fully-grown theory of sign systems, as well as to elaborate our analysis of his social theory, we use the conceptual apparatus of Saussure's linguistics showing that not only does Simmel's theory imply all Saussure's key concepts, but it also solves some of its blind spots in contemporary sociology and spans the so far unsurpassable gulf between the individual and society or structure and development.

This article, published in connection with the recent death of Otis Dudley Duncan (16 November 2004), sets out to provide a critical summary of the development - from its beginnings in the 1960s up to its final revision & modification in 1983 - of the socio-psychological model of the status attainment process. The article not only looks at the classic model of the social stratification process of Blau & Duncan, but also examines the influence of one of the founders of the socio-psychological branch of the study of social stratification, W. H. Sewell. Special attention is devoted to the development of the so-called Wisconsin model, primarily the work of William H. Sewell & his student, Robert M. Hauser, who, while as a student of Duncan also, considerably contributed to the use of structural modelling in sociology. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the main critical reactions to the socio-psychological model emphasising the 'allocational' paradigm of interpretation of the reproduction of social inequalities. The article should primarily help students of sociology gain an orientation in the massive amount of often poorly accessible literature on one of the most cited of sociology's 'products'.