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The article focuses on the differences in political participation among post-communist countries. First, it explores the variation in the level of political participation among post-communist states. Second, it deals with the differences in the determinants that account for political participation in individual countries. The second objective is met by introducing a three-dimensional explanatory model of political participation: individual resources, motivations, and social networks. In an empirical analysis political participation in nine post-communist countries is examined using data from the International Social Survey Programme 2004. Results show that the countries under study vary in the level of political participation both at the aggregate and individual levels. The most active citizens are in the former East Germany and Slovakia. Polish and Hungarian citizens participate in politics the least. Further, two modes of political participation – protest activity and contacting – are identified and used as dependent variables in further analysis. In the second part of the article, the explanatory model is tested against data from individual countries. The analysis shows that there is a difference in the factors that account for political participation in various post-communist countries. Generally, the three-level model of political participation works best in Hungary, Bulgaria, and East Germany. It explains very little variation in Russia and Poland.

The article focuses on the role of informality in the life of post-communist societies in Central Europe. Its goal is to question the current negative connotation of informal networks in the context of post-communist society. For this purpose it analyses the criteria used in the relevant literature to distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' informal networks. Two main factors (the situational factor and the factor of relationship quality) are analysed from the perspective of their impact on the orientation of informal networks and their ability to predict which networks will have a positive or a negative influence on societal development. The author argues that neither of these two factors alone can fully explain the positive or negative orientation of a particular informal network in a given society. Instead he proposes a solution that combines several dimensions of both factors. In conclusion he identifies five types of informal networks in post-communist society: predatory, redistributory, helping, operating, and participative networks.

The paper focuses on the Latin American perspective on modernity, especially on the Peruvian sociologist Anibal Quijano's notion of coloniality. Coloniality is explained as a theoret- ical framework for critical reflection of modernity with an emphasis on the forms of knowledge (episteme) and on non-Western, more specifically Latin American historical experiences and perspectives. The aim is to introduce some Latin American efforts to critically understand coloniality as the other face of modernity and to develop a distinctive critique of capitalism, globalisation and Eurocentrism in their historical dynamics, In the first part, the paper briefly introduces Latin America as a geocultural place and a object of social research in a historical perspective. Special attention is paid to the question of racial classification and authenticity. In the second part, the paper focuses on the notion of coloniality as it was conceptualised by A. Quijano and by other Latin American authors. In the third and fourth parts, the paper deals with the problem of coloniality in wider epistemic contexts of modern social sciences and in relation to the notion of alterity and to the question of decolonisation of social scientific thinking. The final discussion addresses some of inspirational and problematic points of this conception such as problems of decolonisation, intellectual dependency and critique, and the problem of conceptualisation of differences in scientific discourses.

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.

This study deals with the issue of development relations between China and Africa in the context of the Beijing concensus. It attempts to provide an analysis of Chinese foreign policy since the beginning of the 90's. The text is divided into three basic parts. The first contains discussion on the theories of development, including the main features of the (post)Washington concensus based on liberalism, decentralization and privatization, followed by the Beijing concensus representing the counter-paradigm. The second focuses on the historical roots of bilateral relations since the beginning of the 20th century until the end of the Cold War. TAZARA, the Tanzania-Zambia railway built by China is chosen as the most representative example of Chinese foreign policy during the Cold War period. The last part deals with current relations influenced by Chinese oil diplomacy and the so-called one-China policy. Sudan and Angola are chosen as significant examples of African states in which China is involved. Adapted from the source document.

The increasing levels of electoral abstention across 'new' European democracies can downgrade the legitimacy of these regimes. From this point of view, the basic question 'who does not vote and why?' gains new relevance. My article focuses on the determinants of non-voting from a cross-national perspective. I present two approaches towards explaining electoral abstention. The first, arising from the Michigan model, is based on a solid connection between party choice and participation. This approach considers the lack of party identification as the main reason for non-voting. The second approach emphasizes the role of the decision-making process in abstention itself, without regard to the selection of a preferred party, and is connected with well-known concepts like political efficacy, trust, interest, and satisfaction. These explanations have often been utilized for well-established democracies, yet how do they work in post-Communist space? After a brief theoretical discussion, I investigate the robustness of presented theories by means of empirical analysis of the situation in 11 post-Communist countries. The European Social Survey 2008 is used for the verification of the importance of both approaches. Adapted from the source document.

"The main topic of the text is the history of the only Czech village in Bulgaria - Vojvodovo. The article covers the whole "Czech" period of this village from the migration of some twenty Protestant families from Banatian Czech village of Svatá Helena to Bulgaria and the foundation of Vojvodovo in 1900, to the post-war period when almost all Czech inhabitants of Vojvodovo left the village and moved to the South-Moravia region in Czechoslovakia. In a rather classic way the author describes the spheres of language, folklore, kinship and economy of the community, and proves that its main core was its religiosity described as the community-differentiating and community-maintaining principle." (author's abstract)

Explores the representation of old age in post-1995 educational literature for the elderly published in the Czech Republic. Educational literature covers handbooks that propose individual strategies & recommend a specific lifestyle for old age. The theoretical framework presents aging as an individual as well as societal experience, which must be understood in a new social & cultural context. The interpretative analysis looks at the themes of general lifestyle, health, & disease, & sexuality on the basis of arguments about the possibility to affect the process of individual aging, emphasizing self-responsibility & health maintenance. Educational literature for elderly people represents a type of social acquisition, which is intended to help people achieve the ideal of a new type of aging.

The aim of the article is to otter a theoretically grounded explanation of the long-term continuity of Czech foreign policy. Czech foreign policy displays long-term continuity and consensus at the level of policy, but, at the same time, exhibits deep ideological differences among political and societal elites at the level of politics. The article argues against the mainstream (neo)liberal and (neo)realist theories that explain foreign policy outcomes in pure rationalist and materialist terms. Instead, the text follows the line of the critical constructivist school of International Relations and borrows heavily from post-structuralism. Thus, the article takes into account the ideational background of Czech foreign policy and argues that these deeply seated differences at the level of politics, stemming from mutually contradictory normative, philosophical and political beliefs, are subsequently neutralized by what is called the "hegemonic internationalist discourse". In this context, the article explores the origins, nature and consequences of the power of the hegemonic internationalist discourse. Adapted from the source document.

In this article the authors describe what forms of political participation, outside the electoral process, the populations of twenty-one European countries tend to employ & to what degree. They identify three types of non-electoral political participation: active-conventional, active-demonstrational, & passive participation. Overall non-electoral political participation is considerably lower in the post-communist & Mediterranean countries than in the Western European & Scandinavian countries. In the latter countries the passive type of political participation is clearly a much stronger form of participation than the other two types. Conversely, in the Mediterranean countries passive participation is weaker & is exceeded in places by the active-conventional type of participation. The Mediterranean area is also notable for the unusually strong presence of the active-demonstrational type of participation. The authors also examine the social micro- & macro-conditions related to these three types of political participation. In conclusion they attempt to address the question of whether there is a connection between political activity & satisfaction with the way democracy works.

These reflections on the state & problems of Czech sociology after twelve years of free development include thoughts on its seven weaknesses that either at present or at least potentially pose a threat to Czech sociology, deprive it of the ability to compete, & lower the level of its prestige in society & the value of its scientific results. These weaknesses include: (1) the division of Czech sociology into qualitative & quantitative sociology, including the intolerance that accompanies this state; (2) the uncritical acceptance of only the most basic & superficial results of sociology by the political sphere in the form of percentages & speculations relating to them; (3) the somber state of under-financing in academic sociology; (4) the difficulties affecting post-secondary school teachers on the one hand & researchers at the Academy of Sciences on the other; (5) the need for cooperation with other sociologists in the region; (6) cooperation with Europe & the world; & (7) morals & integrity, without which, in the author's firm opinion, it is impossible to conduct sociological research.