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The aim of this article is to analyze whether it is appropriate to classify the Norwegian Progress Party as a member of the extreme-right party family. The study first introduces the theoretical approaches to the identification of party families. The origins of parties, ideology, policies & political style are chosen as the most important criteria for the classification of political parties into party families. The article then defines the extreme-right party family on the basis of these criteria. The remainder of the article focuses on the analysis of the Norwegian Progress Party & examines whether the party fulfils the above-defined conditions for being classified as an extreme right-wing party. It concludes that it is appropriate to label the Norwegian Progress Party as a member of the far-right party family even though some of the criteria are not fulfilled or are not fulfilled completely. Thus the party can be considered as either a "diluted" version or a border case of contemporary European radical right. References. Adapted from the source document.

The article seeks to describe & interpret recent trends within the Swedish party system. The point of departure for analysis is twofold: (1) to describe past development of patterns of cooperation & conflict among Swedish political parties, (2) an examination of P. Mair's concepts on the structure of party system competition & party system change, which are applied to the Swedish case. Special attention is given to the process of formation of the right-wing as well as the left-wing blocs. The aim of the article is to explain why & under what circumstances these blocs emerged, considering the fact that these blocs were at times almost invisible, at times only slightly salient. Moreover, party cooperation often took place across bloc lines. This analysis of past trends serves as a basis for understanding up-to-date developments within the right-wing bloc & particularly left-wing parties, which -- for the first time in the Swedish party politics history -- have recently declared their intention to form an election alliance & even a government coalition after the 2010 parliamentary elections. The article also discusses the question of whether these trends might lead to a specific version of the two-party system. Adapted from the source document.

According to the 1867 constitution the Habsburg Monarchy's armed forces consisted
of the common army, the navy, the Austrian Landwehr and the Landsturm. The armed forces
had authority over three ministries and were themselves subject to the rule of three parliamentary
institutions. From the beginning the growth of the armed forces had not kept pace
with that of the population as a whole. There was a low volume of conscripts and poor training
of reservists. This resulted in a relatively small army both in peace time and during war and
meant that by the spring of 1918 Austria-Hungary had practically exhausted its available human
resources. This was exacerbated by the high number of losses, both through death and capture.
On the battlefield the number of deaths is thought to have been between 905,000 and 1,200,000
with 1.8 million injured. At the same time the number of deaths and illness in the hinterland
increased while the rate of fertility dropped. In order to resolve this the government applied
a number of measures: the upper age limit of conscription increased, the necessary standards
for recruitment were lowered, training period was shortened, more use of weapons, factory
workers were replaced with women, prisoners of war and workers from the occupied territories.
However at this time the importance of the "war economy" was also growing which resulted in
an increase in firms requesting the release of their employees from military service. In 1918 the
Habsburg Monarchy had not only exhausted its human resources but was also on the brink of
economic collapse.

In recent years, the issue of political parties' attitudes to European integration has become especially important in political science research. This article focuses on skeptical party attitudes to the European Union & critically evaluates the conceptualization of euroskepticism. First, it discusses the most applicable typologies, especially Taggart & Szczerbiak's distinction between "hard" & "soft" forms of euroskepticism. Second, it points out the insufficient & vague definition of the concept of "soft" euroskepticism. References. Adapted from the source document.

The article deals with the French regional elections in 2004. These elections were interesting for three reasons. Firstly, the majority of regions moved to the left. Secondly, a new mixed system of elections was used. Thirdly, the newly reformed Gaullist party lost its majority in regional councils. The article analyzes the results in each region & explains the patterns of cooperation among political parties. The article also reflects on the results in the departements overseas. 3 Tables, 6 References. Adapted from the source document.

This article tries to analyze the evolution of the Norwegian political and party systems which are considered to be exponents of the so-called Nordic model of political system. Besides describing attributes and trends of the political and party systems in Norway, the author deals with the election to the Stortinget held in September 2005. This electoral contest has brought new elements into the Norwegian political system, e. g. a new form of government composition and possibly new patterns of party competition (restructuring competing party-blocs, reinforcing cooperation between left-wing political parties). Adapted from the source document.

The article explores several reasons why women in Czech politics are underrepresented not only relative to their overall share in the society but also relative to their presence at lower levels of politics. The article tests two principal hypotheses using data from both a unique post-electoral public opinion survey carried out in the Olomouc region in 2010, and from official electoral statistics. First, it concentrates on the structural barriers of female underrepresentation presented by the candidate nomination and selection processes of the political parties. Second, it explores the possibility that more flexible candidate lists are beneficial for female representation. We compare the proportions of preference votes received by women both prior to and after electoral reforms in 2010, which for the first time gave voters the possibility to cast four preference votes and thus made the list structures more flexible. The research design includes both OLS and logistic regression models, which specify the empirical relationships derived from previous theoretical debates. The results suggest that Czech women are heavily disadvantaged by the Czech parties' candidate selection mechanisms, and also that we do not have enough evidence to conclude that flexible lists are more conducive to higher female representation. The article concludes by considering various institutional means of reducing female political underrepresentation, including the introduction of electoral gender quotas. Adapted from the source document.

The article aims to review the political developments in African states throughout their recent post-colonial past. Uprooting political violence & anchoring a stable structure based on a society-wide consensus being just two of the several prerequisites for solving so many other problems which trouble Africa today, this article aims to diagnose at least some root causes & consequences of the generally unsatisfactory political situation on the continent. Having identified a set of political instability symptoms (coups d'etat, civil wars, failed putches etc.) the author first ranks African states according to their political instability rate. On the basis of statistical correlation analysis, the author then investigates the relation between political instability in Africa & a number of quantifiable geographical, demographical, military & economic variables. The author has identified some dispositions increasing -- though with only small statistical significance -- the probability of instability in African states. In order of importance, these include: large territory, high illiteracy rate, low urbanization, high number of ethnic groups living within the territory, & large population. Also, there is a close link between political instability & governmental military spending. It probably has a negative impact on a number of key economic indicators, be it GDP growth, GDP per capita levels, domestic savings, or price level developments. In the final part of his article, the author makes a brief summary of political developments in African countries in the 21st century. Tables, Appendixes, References. Adapted from the source document.

This article discusses the results of the French referendum in May 2005 which was very important for the ratification of the European constitution. It first describes the rules of referendum in the French political system of the Fifth Republic & then goes on to analyze the stances taken by the French political parties & their main representatives in the 2005 referendum. The results of the referendum are analyzed in connection with geographical areas & compared with the results of the referendum in 1992. In selected departments the results of the referendum are also compared with the results of the French presidential elections in 1995 & 2002. Tables, Graphs, 3 Maps, References. Adapted from the source document.

Approximately 100 thousand men of Czech origin died during the wartime operations
in the years 1914 to 1918. The majority were aged between 23 and 35. The reproductive losses have
been estimated at another 610 thousand (550 thousand children that were never born due to the
absence of a man in the household and another 60 thousand civilian dead). In 1914 the population
in the Czech territories numbered 10 million 283 thousand, in 1919 this number decreased
to 9 million 921 thousand. The ratio of men to women decreased (in 1920 there were 92.5 men to
every 100 women). This imbalance in age frequency, a result of the low birth rate, had a long term
effect firstly on the number of marriages, then on the birth rate and eventually on the mortality
rate. These long term effects were evidently still present at the close of the 20th Century.

The theoretical concept of second-order elections has become a useful tool to analyze sub-national and/or supranational elections. This paper tries to apply the concept to the regional elections in the Czech Republic and to challenge the concept by analysis of the personalization of the vote in the regional elections to the assembly of South Moravia in the year 2008. Working with the electoral results (especially with preferential voting), the authors argue that the decisions and preferences of voters were influenced not only by the situation in the main political arena (e.g. by the governing or opposition role of political parties) but also by the composition of party lists, in terms of candidates' connections locally.

A decade ago there emerged the idea that environmental cooperation is able to initiate and sustain a dialogue between the parties of a conflict and facilitates conflict transformation and peacebuilding. This article tests three hypotheses which stipulate conditions and effects of environmental cooperation in conflict-prone areas. The article shows that environmental cooperation can emerge even during a conflict, but only at a time when the intensity of the violence is low. The emergence and development of environmental cooperative projects also depends on the support of external actors, and the intensity of environmental cooperations in conflict-prone areas remains weak even after many years. Adapted from the source document.

The article discusses the outcomes of elections to the European Parliament in Austria in June 2004. Attitudes of relevant Austrian parties towards the European integration project are briefly discussed and placed on the theoretical scale that ranges from "Hard Euroscepticism" and "Identity Europeanism". The presented outcomes of the elections are put into the general context of the Austrian party system and voters' preferences since the middle 1980s. Special attention is given to the phenomenon of Hans-Peter Martin's populist list that won almost 14 % of the vote. Also, relatively low voter turnout is discussed. The Austrian example is very suitable for theorizing European elections as elections of less voters´ attention that is conceptualized at the end of the article.

The current article introduces the issue of race and racism in the United States of America with focus on two specific contemporary concepts that have a big attention and have formed the discussion in the last years. The first one is laissez-faire racism from Lawrence D. Bobo who stresses the reluctance of government and political parties to engage in racial questions. The second one is concept of white privilege of Peggy McIntosh who points at advantages and privileges of white race. Both concepts attempt to raise awareness about still present racial discrimination in the United States of America, although in the last years this topic has begun to be perceived as clichet and for some the problem is considered to be solved.