Suchergebnisse

The text focuses on one specific aspect of Lukashenko´s nondemocratic regime – the position and function of political parties. These variables are analysed, among others, by the application of classical terms such as competition, competitiveness, and party system. On the one hand, political parties (including anti-system ones) officially exist and, as such, can participate in elections. On the other hand, there is only a minimal chance for (opposition) political parties to win a mandate by means of participating in elections or to gain a share of real political power. The text tries to find the answers to several interrelated questions: What are the consequences of the above mentioned facts in the Belarusian context, in terms of a theory of political parties? Why does the regime tolerate the existence of political parties? Why do political parties themselves participate in this system? Seeking answers to these questions, the article focuses mainly on the period from1995 to 2008, during which four parliamentary elections took place. However previous and current developments are also taken into account.

This article investigates the impact of foreign direct investment, government financial incentives as well as science and research expenditures on different socio-economic development processes in the Czech Republic. These financial flows are important for economic growth of regions and constitute a substantial part of financial flows within national economies. We focus on the effect of these aspects on various indicators concerning the business environment, labor market, population growth and construction activity. The analysis is conducted using OLS regression models. Results indicate that it takes about two years for foreign direct investment to take effect and its influence is relevant for approximately 13 years. We found that foreign direct investment has a considerable influence on the number of small firms in the region, on the number of buildings permits in the region and on the value of residential estates. Our analysis further shows that government investment incentives have an impact on similar areas as foreign direct investment, which is in accordance with the general theory of the functioning of the economy. Science and research expenditures, on the other hand, seem not to have any effect in the first seven years after the expense has been realized. In this case, science and research expenditures show a longer time to respond as far as the studied indicators are concerned. The concrete effects of foreign direct investment and government financial incentives in terms of numerical values have been calculated using the structure of our models. The magnitude and reasons for these effects are discussed. The results of these calculations indicate that foreign direct investment and government investment incentives have significant positive effect on the development processes of regions but in specific areas only.