Suchergebnisse

The aim of the presented paper is to frame specific alternatives for the regional reform of the second chamber of the Czech legislature on the basis of a comparative analysis of regional second chambers in Western Europe. The similarities and differences between second chambers of parliament in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and France are identified (with respect to their historical origin, the method of election, size, political composition, constitutional powers, relation to the first chamber and relation to the executive branch of power). Also the strength of the second chambers is analyzed and the chambers are put on Lijphart's typological scale according to the criteria of congruence and symmetry. The analysis is then the source for two main alternatives for the possible regional reform of the Czech Senate - representative regional reform and functional regional reform. Adapted from the source document.

This study concentrates on the analysis of social structure of medieval society and accordingly on the acquisition of knowledge (1) about their orderliness, (2) inner processes (3) and least partially their influence on the process of formation of West civilization. In the next sequence article deals with development medieval structure in the context Elias civilization's theory as well as and closely knots on the inquiry of distinguished contemporary medievalists, mainly G. Duby, J. le Goff, A. Gurevič, F. Cardini, M. Bloch, etc. In addition, submitted study focuses on deeply understanding specific structure of medieval society through application binary and dichotomous approaches, theory of three orders, also theory of feudalization. In the end the research is attending on the phenomena of knighthood and the process of formation of the courtly society.

In the current issue of international relations we bring readers an interview with Professor Peter Drulak. It follows on interviews with important figures in the field of international relations, which we published in 2010 and 2011 Petr Drulak is a researcher at the Institute of International Relations (DPE), where from 2004-2013 he worked as a director. He teaches at the Department of International Relations at the Institute of Political Studies Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University. Monograph is the author of several textbooks including the first Czech Theories of International Relations (Drulak 2003) and political research methodology (Drulak 2008a). He published many scientific articles and chapters focusing on international relations theory, European integration and the Czech foreign policy. In his last book, Politics disinterest (Drulak 2012) is devoted crisis policy in the Czech Republic and the West. In 2000-2004 he was chief editor of International Relations, is currently a member of the editorial board. Adapted from the source document.

The paper deals with the organizational model of political parties created by Italian political scientist Angelo Panebianco. For presentation of this, outside Italian academic discourse, an 'unknown' model is necessary to briefly describe the whole organizational theory and to introduce the review of this model. After that we examine the applicability of Panebianco's scheme on the structural transformation of communist political parties at the end of 1980s. This suitability will be measured on the case example of the Italian Communist Party (PCI). The PCI was historically the strongest and most influential communist party outside the Soviet bloc and that is why it is convenient to apply the organizational model to the organizational changes of the PCI during its transformation. We also define five main criteria of these changes and their compatibility with the Panebianco's model. Thus the main aim of this paper is to prove the suitability of the organizational model not only to the structural transformation of the Italian communists but using this case example also to the universal transformation of the communist parties in the western world. Adapted from the source document.

The aim of this article is to explore the various ways in which people represent social groups. The author shows that a prominent role in such processes is played by psychological essentialism. People represent some of their social identities as inherent qualities that are based on the sharing of a presumed 'essence': something unobservable, diffi cult to remove, irreversible, and causally responsible for overt behaviours. Empirical evidence suggests that no particular causal process of essence acquisition is constitutive for essentialism in folk models of society. Some authors believe that folk essentialism is necessarily connected with the presumed innateness of an essence (its biological transmission across generations). Innate potential and biological inheritance, however powerful they may be for the human cognitive mind in the domain of folk models for biology, are far from necessary in essentialist folksociological classifications. Essentialism in folk sociology is not defined by any particular causal process of essence acquisition. Even when it is possible to detect that a given group of people claim the innate essence of a particular folk sociology, it is always necessary to look for other features of essentialism (inherence, sharp boundaries, the immutability of identity, etc.). The article reviews some influential cognitive proposals concerning folk models of society (Astuti, Gil-White, Hirschfeld) and ethnicity, and provides arguments and empirical evidence collected in Western Ukraine in support of the claim that presumed innateness is not the constitutive part of folk models of society, let alone of psychological essentialism.