Suchergebnisse

The article asks whether a paradox of new members comes into being during the EU enlargement. The first chapter defines the paradox of new members & examines its frequency in political communities. The second chapter introduces practical examples of the paradox & specifies voting power indicators in the EU. The third chapter brings empirical results -- frequency of the paradox during EU enlargement. The fourth chapter tests some hypotheses & defines a disproportionality index. The fifth chapter summarizes conclusions. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

The article is concerned with voting indicators in the European Union. The first chapter constructs a model of voting power & defines four indicators: A. Simple relative power, B. Shapley-Shubik index, C. Banzhaf index, D. Coleman index. The second chapter defines data: the voting structure according the Nice Treaty & nine algorithms -- variants of the EU enlargement. The third chapter summarizes empirical results. The fourth chapter discusses statistical relations between voting indicators. The fifth chapter brings conclusions. 11 Tables, 29 References. Adapted from the source document.

This article aims at explaining the success of the center-left coalition in the Italian regional elections in April 2005. Does it express voters real discontent with the government of the House of Freedoms? Or, alternatively, are the results due to the fact that in the so-called second-order elections governing parties are regularly punished & opposition parties preferred? This article takes into consideration the concept of second-order elections & explains on this basis the recent electoral results. References. Adapted from the source document.

The referendum on the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union was the first -- & thus far the only -- national referendum in the history of both the Czech Republic & Czechoslovakia. Although it was obvious that the majority of the Czech population was in favor of joining the European Union, sociologists could not predict the turnout. The polls had shown that at least 70 percent of the population would vote "Yes." However, as there had been no referendum in the country's history before, there were fears of voter apathy. There was no experience concerning the difference between public opinion polls & the actual results. Regardless of these factors, TNS Factum offered a very accurate prediction of voter turnout & of support for accession. The voting pattern in the actual referendum was firmly correlated with & similar to the voting behavior in the 2002 parliamentary elections. A study on electoral data showed a strong correlation between the support for Koalice (Coalition of liberals & Christian democrats) in the 2002 general election & the pro-EU voles in the 2003 referendum. The Czech referendum was not an exception compared to developments in other post-communist states. Nevertheless, there is a clear difference between east European referenda & past EU referenda in Western Europe. The latter were characterized by higher voter turnout & by relatively less enthusiasm concerning EU accession. In this respect, the post-communist referenda were the inverse. They displayed low voter turnout & high support for accession; hence, they demonstrate the differing perceptions of the east European populations & their western counterparts. 8 Tables, 7 Graphs, 14 References. Adapted from the source document.

The article discusses the concept of cleavages in the 21st century. Cleavages are understood as the criteria dividing members of a community or sub-community into groups. The application of the original Lipset & Rokkan cleavage theory on the current socio-political reality can be done only with difficulties, or at the price of considerable simplification (which is the consequence of the defreezing of party systems). Therefore on the basis of the work of Mair & Bartolini, the article looks for the criteria "that makes cleavage a cleavage." Furthermore, using the example of the digital divide concept, it is shown there are at present latent cleavages in society, but their "strength" & importance is dependent on their saliency (in connection with political actor behavior). This leads to the assumption that current cleavages are "dynamic" rather than "static.". Adapted from the source document.

This article focuses on proving some of the earlier published hypotheses that criticized the possibility applying the electoral bonus (bonus seats) to elections to the Chamber of Deputies in the Czech Republic. The results of the Czech parliamentary elections held at the very end of May 2010 provide some empirical data for this analysis and help to prove that the mechanism of the electoral bonus is not useful in the Czech political system. The main reasons for this claim are the hypotheses that the electoral bonus should not reinforce the position of the government coalition and that it erodes the will of the people, whose votes in fact count towards the bonus seat(s) of another party (namely that party which receives the electoral bonus). Adapted from the source document.

Both in the Czech and European contexts, the Council of the EU is a relatively frequent subject of interest in political science research. A substantial amount of work (both in the tradition of qualitative and quantitative research) focuses especially on the process of coalition building and the impact and functioning of the different levels of the Council. This theoretical discussion analyzes the possibilities which both the qualitative and quantitative approaches offer concerning research dealing with the coalition behavior of one concrete EU member state. In doing so, it takes into account various specifics which characterize the Council of the EU and which substantially influence the behavior of its member states. The paper concludes that the qualitative approach (while being to a substantial degree complementary to the quantitative tradition) offers better tools for an analysis focusing on the coalition behavior of one member state than its quantitative counterpart. One of the reasons lies in the nature of our research which deals with the process of promoting the interests of the Czech Republic in the EU Council, with a special emphasis on coalition building and searching for compromises. ; Both in the Czech and European contexts, the Council of the EU is a relatively frequent subject of interest in political science research. A substantial amount of work (both in the tradition of qualitative and quantitative research) focuses especially on the process of coalition building and the impact and functioning of the different levels of the Council. This theoretical discussion analyzes the possibilities which both the qualitative and quantitative approaches offer concerning research dealing with the coalition behavior of one concrete EU member state. In doing so, it takes into account various specifics which characterize the Council of the EU and which substantially influence the behavior of its member states. The paper concludes that the qualitative approach (while being to a substantial degree complementary to ...

This article discusses the growing role of China in UN peacekeeping operations since 1989. First, the reasons for the non-engagement of China after its admission to the UN and its Security Council in 1971 are described to stress the difference of the Chinese behavior after the end of the Cold War. Second, the increasing Chinese activity in UN peacekeeping is shown by describing China's gradually changing behavior in three areas: voting in the Security Council, personnel contributions to peacekeeping operations and financial contributions to the UN peacekeeping budget. In the end, the article suggests that China's growing role in UN PKO could be understood as an important part of China's peaceful rise policy. Adapted from the source document.

A pre-election analysis is going to describe the role of self-candidates in the 2006 Czech parliamentary election. The article is focused on the basic characteristics of ballots. The various ballots are compared from different views -- the number of candidates, the demographic representation, the role of local political authorities, & the candidacy of former parliament members. Adapted from the source document.

Max Weber, Clifford Geertz, & Rudolf Bultmann are often cited by anthropologists & sociologists who are trying to determine the essence of human sciences through a deep analysis of the subjective meanings that the actor sets to his/her behavior. This article provides an analysis of theoretical & epistemological conceptions of the three thinkers mentioned above, & the author concludes that each of them uses the construction of subjective justification in a different way. Weber distinguishes behavior itself from its meaning, which is constituted by a subjective reference to the values of the actor, & also of the recipient (or researcher). In Weber's point of view, someone else's meaning of behavior is eventually undeterminable, & the researcher can only come close to the subjective meaning through an ideal-typical construction, although Weber eventually does not refuse such ideal-typical constructions behind the cognitive possibilities of the actor. Geertz's attempt at an orientation of a description according to the actor primarily leads to the view of cultural & social facts from a bird's eye perspective, to a presumably deeper understanding than the actor is able to have. In this article the author argues that the differences between Weber's & Geertz's theoretical constructions originate in their contrasting conceptions of the nature of culture. Another such case is Bultmann, owing to the fact that he does not concentrate on the subjective meaning of action in a narrow sense, while he aims at, in his eyes, all human existential experience of reality.

This paper analyses the effect of turnout on the support of different parties in the Czech Republic. It tests hypotheses derived from American & Western European literature concerning the advantage/disadvantage of higher turnout for particular parties, especially for left-wing parties. The text introduces the main theories & research strategies concerning the partisan effects of voter turnout, & then tests several hypotheses concerning this issue. The analysis uses both aggregate & individual level data. The results show that higher turnout is advantageous for the parties whose voters lack strong party identification (CSSD & the Green Party). On the other hand, it brings lower gains to parties with a disciplined electorate (ODS, KDU-CSL & partly also for KSCM). The case of KSCM points to the curvilinearity of the relationship between turnout & party support. More sophisticated statistical analysis should be used in future research. Adapted from the source document.