Suchergebnisse

Surveys often reveal that the number of children people would like to have is greater than the number they actually have. This article examines the question of why people actually want children and bases its answers on data from the 2006 Value of Children Survey, which reintroduces the value of children concept from the 1970s. The battery of survey questions used identified six dimensions of the value of children (The positives of parenthood; Natural drives and goals; Tradition and social status; Social pressure; Limitations and losses; and Decision inhibitors). The respondents, young people between the ages of 28 and 34, see the main reasons for deciding to have children in the positive feelings associated with raising children and with successful parenthood as a natural part of life. They associate parenthood less with responses about social norms and pressure or with rational considerations about all the pros and cons of having children, and they see parenthood as their own, individual decision. A data analysis based on a multinomial logistic regression shows that declared attitudes to a limited extent influence the preferred number of children and that the Czech population is still dominated by the idea of the two-child family with two biological parents, while declared voluntary childlessness is still a marginal phenomenon.

In many advanced countries housing consumption plays a significant role in the social stratification of households. First, the article sets out to determine whether during the transformation period significant differentiation of housing consumption occurred and social stratification became linked to stratification by housing consumption. In other words, whether alongside the 'standard' criteria (age, education, income, and other socio-economic variables) influencing the stratification of Czech households it is also necessary to take into account the type and quality of housing. Second, in relation to these findings on stratification, Czech households are segmented into 12 segments. The article then makes some general prognoses for each household segment regarding the number of households in selected forms of housing and types of housing development for 2020. These prognoses showed that if 'optimistic' outlooks for economic development are met and Czech citizens' housing preferences remain constant, there could be a substantial increase compared to today in the share of Czech households living in family homes and even to a certain excess of supply of rental flats over demand.

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.

This paper examines the electoral results of two extreme right-wing parties, namely Národní Strana and Právo a Spravedlnost in the 2006 local elections. The basic method chosen is a comparative study of their electoral results at the level of those municipalities where they were present. Local results for the two political parties are also compared and contrasted with their previous performance in parliamentary elections. Additionally, a longer-term analysis of electoral support for Sdružení pro Republiku – Republikánská strana Československa and its successors present in the above elections will be investigated. The distribution of electoral support will be attributed to selected socioeconomic factors, number of young voters, education, nationality, and number of religious people in society. On this basis the presented text will try to show the interdependence of electoral behaviour.

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.

Election laws regulate the number of deputies who are elected in individual electoral districts, and set them in relation to the population, respectively to the number of voters participating in elections in individual regions. Elected deputies could thus be regarded as political representatives of citizens living in electoral districts. However, under systems of proportional representation, current deputies represent the ideology of the party to which they belong rather than the region. Nevertheless, it makes sense to study the spatial distribution of the places of origin and residence of members of parliament and their changes over time, because it suggests much about the political system and the system of representative democracy in the country. The spatial distribution of places of residence of candidates and elected members indicates not only the territorial proportionality and geographic representativeness, but also the shifting centers of political power. The analysis clearly confirms the gradual decentralization and regionalization of political power in the country, which stands in contrast to the centralization of power in the economy, this latter trend apparent from the concentration of economic management and decision-making in the largest cities, especially in Prague.

The number of existing so called Eurofederalists groups and organizations advocating or, at least, having the Eurofederalist idea in their name, leads to a reflection about origins and sense of the existence of these groupings. It is a question if structures nominally advocating European federalism really assert in reality this idea. If the answer is yes, then it is interesting to examine which tools they use for that assertion. The article describes the way of arrangement of some of the Eurofederalist groups with focus on interest promotion description from the policy analysis methodology point of view. ; The number of existing so called Eurofederalists groups and organizations advocating or, at least, having the Eurofederalist idea in their name, leads to a reflection about origins and sense of the existence of these groupings. It is a question if structures nominally advocating European federalism really assert in reality this idea. If the answer is yes, then it is interesting to examine which tools they use for that assertion. The article describes the way of arrangement of some of the Eurofederalist groups with focus on interest promotion description from the policy analysis methodology point of view.

Looking at the security environment and the genesis of military education in Czechoslovakia and the successor states, they point to the harmfulness of the ideologisation of this education, underestimation, insufficient funding and the absence of theoretical teaching and practical training in schools of all levels. The basic mechanism of functioning of the security environment not only in the Czech Republic is a comprehensive connection of military education with the life of society, which is influenced by internal and external vertical and horizontal relationships, where there are a number of friction areas and significant security risks. The main players in security on the threshold of the new decade of the 21st century are facing new challenges and perspectives. © 2022 The Author.

While reading academic papers and books on political regimes in Central Europe, one can become aware of an interesting and remarkable fact: these regimes (forms of government) are classified rather differently. Whereas some scholars tend to approach them as parliamentary regimes, others classify them as semi-presidential ones. The major dividing line between these two perspectives runs between a large group of English-writing scholars based outside Central Europe and those from Central Europe itself. Having reviewed a large number of relevant studies in this field, the authors of this article argue that the key reason for the different assessments of Central European regimes resides mainly in a different theoretical (but also methodological) approach, which has important implications when considering how these regimes are treated in various studies. Whereas the group of English-writing scholars tends to adopt a minimalist institutional definition suggested by Robert Elgie, most Central European scholars prefer an approach (inspired by Duverger or Sartori) that emphasizes presidential powers, which are irrelevant to Elgie's definition. ; While reading academic papers and books on political regimes in Central Europe, one can become aware of an interesting and remarkable fact: these regimes (forms of government) are classified rather differently. Whereas some scholars tend to approach them as parliamentary regimes, others classify them as semi-presidential ones. The major dividing line between these two perspectives runs between a large group of English-writing scholars based outside Central Europe and those from Central Europe itself. Having reviewed a large number of relevant studies in this field, the authors of this article argue that the key reason for the different assessments of Central European regimes resides mainly in a different theoretical (but also methodological) approach, which has important implications when considering how these regimes are treated in various studies. Whereas the group of ...

The article draws on the concept of 'replacement migration', widely presented by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs in 2000 and 2001, which elaborated a concept and conducted a comprehensive analysis of international migration as a solution to the problem of population declines and demographic ageing. This concept was applied as an example to selected countries in the world, the European region, and the European Union as a whole. It involves calculating the number of foreign migrants necessary to completely offset future changes in the size or age structure of the given country's population as a result of the predicted demographic trends. The following article describes the formulation of this concept and looks at its application on a general methodological level and in the specifi c case of the Czech Republic. A detailed description is given not just of the model used but also of its internal and external assumptions. The constructed model is then applied towards determining the, necessary number of 'replacement migrants' in order to prevent a signifi cant change in the Czech Republic in: 1) the total size of the population, 2) the average age of the population, 3) the percentage of people of working age, and 4) the ratio of people of post-productive to productive age. With the aid of the results the authors clearly demonstrate that while international migrants could effectively help maintain the current size of the population, they would not be able to prevent the continued ageing of the population or even have a decisive impact on the course of this process. With these fi ndings the authors hope to contribute to the debate on the topic of the ageing population in the Czech Republic, and they call strongly for more intensive and especially more effective preparations for this real and unavoidable era in the development of Czech society.

This paper is based on a survey among 435 Czech households caring for a dependent senior in the family to inquire into the conditions and circumstances of caring for seniors in the family. The concept of 'care as a labour of love' (Graham) is contrasted with the concept of the 'defamilisation of care' (Glenn) and 'social rights for elderly care' (Fine). The author finds that more demanding family care, measured as the level of IADL or BADL, is reflected in a growing number of hours spent on family care. The author shows the significant differences in the psychological and financial burden experienced by primary caregivers in relation to how demanding the level of care required is. The article presents evidence of the existence of 'collective family care' in situations where demanding personal care for a senior is required. The participation of other family members in providing care for a senior in situations of demanding personal care demonstrates some features of family cohesion.

The Democratic Party (Demokratická strana - DS) was a member of the previous Slovakian government and having been a small but self-confident liberal-conservative party, it had been setting the reformist pace of the entire government. The article below employs Arendt Lijphart's account of the ideological dimensions of party conflicts to frame the analysis of the party programmatics, with a special attention to the pre-election period of the year 2002. The paper also includes a brief discussion of the Democratic Party's position within the Slovakian political system, mainly with regards to the discrepancy between its important role as an active member of the previous government and its popularity among Slovakian voters, which has dropped to 1% over the last few years and resulted in the Democratic Party's decision not to take part in the September's parliamentary election. The author concludes that such type of a political party could prove indispensable to a country in post-communist transition period that still has to undergo a good number of social, economic and legal reforms.

After the fall of communist regimes at the turn of the 1990s, a new era of development began in many countries. The transformation from communism wasn't always successful. It is this unfinished transformation which is, as many authors argue, one of the characteristics of post-communism. Post-communist political culture struggles with a number of problems originating in the institutional structure of collapsed regimes. One of them is the high level of corruption. Corruption is not, of course, specific only to post-communist countries. However, as statistical data provided by various organizations show, corruption flourishes in these countries. Moreover, post-communist corruption takes certain forms which are absent in other countries. We may, therefore, classify these forms as the institutional and cultural heritage of communist regimes. The goal of this paper is to introduce the nature of corruption and the causes behind the high level of corruption in post-communist countries; to identify changes which have taken place since the demise of communist regimes; and to present some of the measures employed to fight corruption, as well as the difficulties related to these measures.

This study offers an analysis of the role of private security companies (PSCs) in the Czech Republic that builds on the model of global security assemblages developed by Abrahamsen and Williams. It applies this model to the Czech experience with the privatization of security since the end of the cold war by utilizing available data, complemented with information derived from structured interviews with the owners of PSCs operating in the Czech Republic. It suggests that the Czech market with commercial security services exhibits several specific characteristics, including the relatively high total number of registered PSCs (7000+) and their professional associations (16), the size of the gray and black markets involving PSC services (30 to 40 percent of the entire market), and the phenomenon of so-called "reverse revolving doors," whereby former owners or top managers of PSCs directly, or through family members, enter into, or establish their own, political party. Overall, however, this study confirms the key conclusions from previous applications of the model regarding the partial disassembly of the Czech state's security functions and the corresponding re-articulation of relations among public and private actors in the provision of security. Adapted from the source document.

One of the fundamental features of liberal democratic systems is the existence of diverse interests that seek to influence government decisions. It is therefore no surprise that the activities of organized interests present a natural and legitimate part of the democratic process. Nevertheless, we regard lobbyists with considerable skepticism, and the concept of lobbying often has negative connotations. This situation is mainly the result of a growth in the diversification and number of organized interests that often act in informal or unfair ways. Trying to distinguish lobbying from corruption or other illegal ways of influencing people in public office has led many countries to make efforts to level the playing field and the processes that take place in it. The result of these efforts is the introduction of the regulation of lobbying, which may be achieved by means of various tools. The aim of this paper is to briefly map the attempts by the Slovak government to establish rules governing the behavior of organized interests in the Slovak Republic and to identify the preferences of the particular actors in the Slovak political system with respect to the issue of regulating lobbying in Slovakia.