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The article explores the connections between the performance of the Czech regional governments, the economic development of the regions, & the level of social capital in the regions. Analyses suggest that there is no relationship between regional government performance & the economic performance of the regions, & no relationship between regional government performance & the level of social capital in the regions. Government performance does not appear to be dependent on either of these two factors. Some positive statistical relationships do exist between the level of social capital & the economic performance of the regions. This relationship is stronger when the dynamics of the changes are evaluated -- economic growth in the period between 1995 & 2004 was significantly higher in regions with a higher level of social capital. Analyses also revealed the strong effect of another factor -- the level of human capital as measured by the education of the population -- on all the other observed parameters of the regions. The regions with more educated inhabitants recorded more rapid economic growth, a higher level of social capital, & better performing governments.

This paper deals with the issue of building Wales as a unique region in the context of the European Union and its resources. The author focuses on the period after 1999, i.e. the time when devolution took place and when official Welsh representatives emerged via the National Assembly for Wales (NAW). Since then, Wales has entered into cooperation with the EU, in order to gain access to resources provided by the Union. The cooperation is however of a specific kind, since officially, Welsh representatives have to communicate with the EU through the political representation of Great Britain. Nevertheless, by acting informally, Welsh representatives manage to avoid the British government in relevant contexts and communicate with the EU directly. In this way, they are able to exploit the formal and informal rules for their advantage (i.e. for building Wales as a unique region). The main purpose of this text is to show that the case of Wales can be replicated by any region that has official political representation, even if it has only weak representative institutions and has to deal with limitations posed by the existence of a central government.