Suchergebnisse

The last electoral reform in the Czech Republic opened up space for new quantitative and qualitative analysis. The main objective of this case study is to determine whether the constitutional reform of the mechanism for converting electoral votes into parliamentary seats, which came into effect on 1 June 2021, met the requirements of the ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic which requires, among other things, the provision of more proportional allocation of parliamentary seats among political entities. For this purpose were quantified and compared the effects of the old (original) and new (current) electoral systems in the two parliamentary elections held in 2017 and 2021. The core quantifier is a group of standardized indices to determine the degree of disproportionality of the election results. Results of the research suggested ambivalent behavior of the new voting mechanism. On the one hand, it strengthens the proportionality of the allocation of redistributed seats in the Chamber of Deputies and tends to increase mandate gains in favor of small parties. On the other hand, this phenomenon occurs only when a number of conditions, universality of which cannot be guaranteed in advance, is met. These conditions are then highly volatile, so in comparison to the older electoral mechanism, the new electoral system lacks the ability to generate lower values of disproportionality. This finding reinforces the controversy about the appropriateness of the configuration of the new electoral system and opens a discussion about the motives of the various actors involved in the process of electoral reform. The limits of the study can be seen primarily in the low number of analyzed parliamentary elections, but this fact does not reduce the relevance of the research conclusions.

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PurposeThe paper deals with the child benefits system in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Sweden.Design/methodology/approachThe authors describe the systems as the key baseline for subsequent qualitative and quantitative comparison. An essential element is the quantitative comparison of child benefits using their statistically stationarised values.FindingsThe Czech and Slovak systems provide a comparable rate of coverage as the Swedish system regarding the payment of both types of benefits, i.e. child benefits and tax allowances, for the first and second child; however, from the third child, the individual differences are considerable. Albeit the concepts of Czech and Slovak systems are framed by the same historical origins and conceptual approach, they differ significantly, with Slovakia providing the lowest aggregate level of child benefits.Originality/valueThe paper provides insight into the child benefit systems in the respective countries. These systems are at the centre of attention of policymakers who are attempting to maintain birth rates and reduce child poverty. The Czech Republic has the lowest level of at-risk-of-poverty rates for persons under 16 years of age, while natality rates are comparable.