Suchergebnisse

This article presents the initial results of a research project on the politics of local referendums in the Czech Republic, situating the Czech experience in the context of other Visegrad states. Data on Czech local referendums from 20002005 have been compiled from multiple sources -- local and national newspapers, data from municipal, district and regional authorities, interviews, and statistical indicators -- to ensure the completeness and comprehensiveness of the dataset. The article conceptualizes local referendums as the product of often arduous civic campaigns that, in the light of local political opposition, frequently fail to carry out the referendum. The study thus takes a referendum campaign's level of "success" as the dependent variable, and considers a range of demographic, political and civic factors as independent variables. Quantitative as well as case-study evidence is provided. The article finds that of the 114 local referendum campaigns that were initiated from 20002005, 82 referendums were ultimately held, of which about 48 were initiated by environmental NGOs or directly addressed environmental issues. The key variables determining the success of local referendum campaigns are municipal size, referendum theme, and the legal capacities and campaign strategies of the referendum initiators. In that regard, environmental NGOs have demonstrated a high level of organizational and political efficacy in comparison to other actors. Adapted from the source document.

The article investigates the practice of female marriages in 19th century Great Britain and United States and argues that female marriages provided model for more progressive forms of the legal marriage between men and women. Unlike homosexuality in the 20th century, the same-sex relationships between women in the 19th century often enjoyed social recognition and some women in female marriages occupied prominent social positions. Because they were considered to rest on contract, female marriages served as inspiration for the contractual view of marriage advocated by many supporters of the Victorian marriage reform. The contribution of women in female couples to the success of the marriage reform was further underlined by their belonging to influential social networks. The author also argues that while the structuralist anthropology of mid-20th century, represented through the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss, had limited understanding of homosexuality as a socially legitimate phenomenon, the Victorian anthropology of the second half of the 19th century was relatively more open regarding the same-sex relationships. It is contended that authors as diverse as Henry Maine, Johann Bachofen, or Frederick Engels provided impulses in their work both for a positive evaluation of the same-sex relationships and for a more egalitarian understanding of marriage.

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.

The article documents the development of life satisfaction in four transitional Central European countries since 1991, in comparison with Germany and Austria. After presentation of data sources and the overview of the literature regarding the effect of transition on life satisfaction, surveys of European Values Study 1991, 1999 and 2008 are analysed together with macroeconomic data. First, satisfaction levels are correlated with GDP and then, individual characteristics of income, gender, education and family status are regressed to as explanatory variables of life satisfaction. While the explanatory power of GDP is found as very weak for the entire period, the effect of objective characteristics has peaked in 1999 and the effect of subjective perceptions in 2008. The survey information on trends after 2008 differs but no dramatic change of the life satisfaction due to the economic recession has so far appeared. Adapted from the source document.

The referendum on the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union was the first -- & thus far the only -- national referendum in the history of both the Czech Republic & Czechoslovakia. Although it was obvious that the majority of the Czech population was in favor of joining the European Union, sociologists could not predict the turnout. The polls had shown that at least 70 percent of the population would vote "Yes." However, as there had been no referendum in the country's history before, there were fears of voter apathy. There was no experience concerning the difference between public opinion polls & the actual results. Regardless of these factors, TNS Factum offered a very accurate prediction of voter turnout & of support for accession. The voting pattern in the actual referendum was firmly correlated with & similar to the voting behavior in the 2002 parliamentary elections. A study on electoral data showed a strong correlation between the support for Koalice (Coalition of liberals & Christian democrats) in the 2002 general election & the pro-EU voles in the 2003 referendum. The Czech referendum was not an exception compared to developments in other post-communist states. Nevertheless, there is a clear difference between east European referenda & past EU referenda in Western Europe. The latter were characterized by higher voter turnout & by relatively less enthusiasm concerning EU accession. In this respect, the post-communist referenda were the inverse. They displayed low voter turnout & high support for accession; hence, they demonstrate the differing perceptions of the east European populations & their western counterparts. 8 Tables, 7 Graphs, 14 References. Adapted from the source document.

Premysliden ruled over the Czech countries (Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia) more than three hundred years (ca. 930–1306). They cooperated with the ruling houses of the neighboring states (Hungary, Poland, Saxony, Bavaria, Austria etc.) as their political efforts as their marriage policy. The analysis of the Premysliden marriages indicated the existence of the rule of the exogamy, the rule of the preferential matrilateral cross cousin marriage, the rule of the long time systematic exchange of the women among two ruling houses. Example of the Premysliden marriage practice gives the idea of the search of the marriage rules existing in Europe during the early mediaeval centuries.