The European Puzzle: The Political Structuring of Cultural Identities at a Time of Transition
In: Mezinárodní vztahy: Czech journal of international relations, Band 44, Heft 1, S. 118-122
ISSN: 0543-7989, 0323-1844
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In: Mezinárodní vztahy: Czech journal of international relations, Band 44, Heft 1, S. 118-122
ISSN: 0543-7989, 0323-1844
In: Politologický časopis, Band 15, Heft 4, S. 338-358
ISSN: 1211-3247
This article focuses on the transition to democracy in South Korea in 1987. The aim of this work is to explain the causes & processes of this transition, using the theory of transition to democracy as well as the classification of transition in typologies developed by Samuel P. Huntington, Phillippe C. Schmitter, & Terry Lynn Karl. For this purpose, author deals with the role of mass mobilization in the process. Adapted from the source document.
In: Politologický časopis, Band 13, Heft 1, S. 3-26
ISSN: 1211-3247
The article tries to evaluate the Europeanization research agenda from the point of view of a politics-sphere and actor-centered approach. The authors postulate that the concept of Europeanization is lacking in regards to problems of political process and its dominant actors -- political parties and interest/pressure groups. The article consists of several parts. First, a critical examination of existing Europeanization conceptualizations is provided. Second, the impact of democratic transition and consolidation upon Europeanization in new member countries of the EU (and in potential candidate states) is examined. Third, ways of necessary adaptation suitable for analyzing politics in terms of Europeanization are suggested and discussed. The article concludes with sections devoted to agenda-setting for research about the Europeanization of political parties and interest groups. The overall tenor of the article is to point out the necessity of integrating Europeanization-related issues, methodological, and research tasks into a broader framework of comparative politics/comparative government; and that the theoretical basis of actor-oriented Europeanization research should be drawn more from this area of political science than it has been in previous research. Adapted from the source document.
In: Politologický časopis, Band 14, Heft 2, S. 95-109
ISSN: 1211-3247
The process of democratic transition & consolidation has established conditions for important Czech interest groups in which interest groups have begun to face the challenges of Europeanization. The article focuses on changes that trade unions have been undergoing during the Europeanization process in respect to their internal structure, interactions with other political actors both on the Czech & European levels, changes of advocated interests, strategies of action, etc... Appropriate attention is paid also to the reaction of Czech trade unions to new challenges driven by European integration. The authors conclude, using data from original long-term qualitative research, that Europeanization is a proper conceptual tool eligible for the analysis of Trade Union. Adapted from the source document.
In: Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review, Band 38, Heft 5, S. 565-592
Analyzes the historical variation of secondary school tracking in formerly socialist Czechoslovakia, using multinomial logistic regression & focusing on the effects of family background on the odds of making the transition to vocational, technical, or academic secondary schools. I also test various hypotheses regarding trends in educational reproduction, socioeconomic inequality in access to secondary education, & the impact of political status of parents on access to secondary education. Educational expansion, unlike 'communist affirmative action,' dramatically reduced educational reproduction at the secondary level. Positive & negative discrimination on the basis of parental occupation, however, considerably diminished the advantage of higher status children in the transition to vocational & technical schools in the early 1950s & 1970s, but never affected access to academic secondary schools. The consequences of parental political status for their children's education display remarkable variation, which is unmistakably responsive to historical events. The multinomial transition model also reveals the cross-temporal dynamics of tracking in Czechoslovakia. The postwar expansion of the educational system brought about double benefits. While larger numbers of lower-class, rural, & female students enrolled in secondary schools, their higher enrollments were confined to vocational schools. Though a large number of higher status children were enrolled throughout the 1948-1989 period, their enrollments in vocational schools dropped as they began to fill positions in the growing technical & academic schools.
In: Politologický časopis, Band 11, Heft 1, S. 4-26
ISSN: 1211-3247
This article applies classical typologies of totalitarian & authoritarian regimes by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carl Friedrich & Juan Linz to the case of the first Slovak Republic (Slovak State). Its political regime between 1935/1939 & summer 1940 can be classified as organic statism. Organic structures (corporativist structures) & the antiliberal & anticapitalist rhetoric of the Catholic Church in encyclicals like the Rerum Novarum were typical of this type of authoritarian regime. Nevertheless, the Nazi pressure led to the transition of the regime to the "defective" (or "arrested") totalitarian regime, which is, according to Linz's typology, in the "grey" zone between totalitarian & authoritarian regimes. The defeats of the German army & changes inside Slovak's camp resulted in the erosion of the regime base at the end of 1942 & brought about yet another regime change. The end of the stage of "unclear" authoritarian regime was marked by the armed insurrection in August 1944. The totalitarian episode, in which the main role was played by the German occupation forces, characterized the last months of war. 39 References. Adapted from the source document.
In: Politologický časopis, Band 17, Heft 4, S. 380-413
ISSN: 1211-3247
In: Politologický časopis, Band 13, Heft 2, S. 214-242
ISSN: 1211-3247
The article compares the formal institutionalization of socio-economic (industrial) relations in Poland and the Czech Republic in the period following their regime changes in 1989. Thus it investigates the validity of the transformation theory assumption, that the way of regime failure (type of transition) influences the forthcoming political processes. It is demonstrated that both countries arrived at the constitution of a tripartite structure, but through different paths. It is argued that the most important factor that shaped the development of institutionalized socio-economic relations in Poland and the Czech Republic is the path-dependent way of regime failure, which determined the position (form, capacities, as well as relative importance) of the relevant actors (the trade unions, the employers' organizations, and the state). Adapted from the source document.
In: Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review, Band 43, Heft 5, S. 945-965
The article aims to identify the development phases in the process of the regional differentiation in the Czech Republic after 1989, & examines whether this differentiation trend is currently changing. The assumption the article's hypothesis is based on is that during recent development the basic 'parameters' of the principal features of the country's regional structure have been stabilized amidst the conditions of parliamentary democracy & a market economy. Unlike the first phases of socio- economic transition, when differentiating trends prevailed, a certain degree of stabilization can now be assumed, alongside the emergence of new trends. The development of regional differences was analyzed using indicators of GDP, the unemployment rate, entrepreneurial activity, & tax revenue from self- employed physical persons. The findings show that over the course of the 1990s regional differences intensified at both the mezo- regional (regional) level & the micro- regional level. It was also confirmed that at the turn of the millennium the phase of divergent regional development ended, & since that time regional differences have hovered around the same level.
In: Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review, Band 45, Heft 1
A specifi c feature of Czech women today, who are timing the motherhood or staying childless after thirty, stems from their socialisation in a different political and demographical regime than they were in at the start of their reproductive period. The changes connected with the transformation of Czech society after 1989 affected their life courses. Instead of following the demographic behaviour of their mothers why do these women postpone motherhood to a later age or remain childless? What do the life courses and reproductive strategies of contemporary women over thirty look like? The qualitative research discussed in this article is based on in-depth interviews with primaparas over thirty and their childless peers conducted in order to examine the dynamics and character of their decision to become a mother. The research applied grounded theory and identifi ed fi ve different types of reproductive strategies: 'to have a child no matter what', 'to have a child with the right partner', 'waiting for the right time', 'hesitating over whether to have a child or not', 'not having a child'. Consequently the specific sources of these strategies were described. Background family experiences combined with the experiences from the period of childlessness in adulthood can lead to the development of an 'individualised habitus', which can block the transition to the motherhood phase. In the Czech context the development of an individualised habitus can be strengthened by the unequal distribution of gender roles in the family of origin as well as in partnerships in adulthood.
In: Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review, Band 44, Heft 2
The article focuses on the changes in the determination of educational aspirations that took place in the Czech Republic during its social, political and economic transformation. The aim of the article is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the changes in the stratification system after 1989, which were significantly influenced by changes in the causal mechanisms behind the formation of educational aspirations. Those changes in the determinants of educational aspirations were themselves largely driven by the expansion of economic returns to education and thus the increasing significance of education for life success. The empirical research is based on a comparison of data from the 'Family '89' (Rodina '89) survey conducted in January 1989 and the Czech module of the longitudinal survey PISA-L 2003. The analyses were carried out with the hypothesis that the social origin of the background family had a much stronger direct impact on the educational aspirations of adolescents in 1989, while in 2003 social origin had a much stronger indirect influence. The stronger direct impact in 1989 was due to the very limited access to higher education under socialism and the role higher education played in the reproduction of the cultural elite. But with the gradual expansion of, and the rapidly increasing returns to, higher education during the transition period, social origin began to have a largely indirect effect on aspirations, particularly through the value pupils began to place on higher education as a means of ensuring a higher degree of life success. The authors' empirical findings confirm the hypothesis about the change from direct to indirect effects and highlight the importance of researching educational aspirations from a historical point of view and in the context of social change.