This research explores and compares basic indicators regarding the participation of young people in political processes in Turkey and Bulgaria between 2011 and 2016. The data used are derived from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems database. The results of the secondary processing of the quantitative data are comparatively analyzed. This paper shows that the youth of Turkey and Bulgaria had some similarities regarding their attitudes toward civic participation but also significant differences. The economic performances of governments shown to be a factor regarding support for ruling parties. However, in the case of Bulgaria, other factors played more significant roles in this respect during the examined period.

Electoral integrity is one of the principle conditions of free political competition among parties and candidates. The electoral processes must be transparent and controllable in all its aspects, so that voters can trust the results of the elections. Representatives of every democratic society must therefore minimize such acts that can lead to questioning the vote and the results of the elections. The main aim of our article is to analyze the various types of electoral malpractice and fraud that occur at the polling stations. Based on quantitative and qualitative research, we have created a set of issues that can be identified in the process of election administration at the level of electoral districts. Part of the article is also a set of proposals which are amendments to legal and subordinate standards and will lead to a higher electoral integrity in the Czech Republic.

The article assesses the ability of Czech President Miloš Zeman to establish political issues in the public discussion. The period investigated in this study covers the latter part of his first term and the early part of his second term in office. We identified the key issues of his public speeches using content analysis. The eight most important issues (Chinese investment in Czechia, support for Israel, sanctions against Russia, the fight against terrorism, budget investments, hospice care, criticism of the European Union and inclusivity) were observed in several major Czech media outlets. Using a quantitative method, we constructed agenda setting graphs for each issue; using qualitative analyses, we described the context and the president’s success rate in issue management. President Zeman successfully established the issues of Chinese investment and support for Israel in the media agenda.

Topics focused on the descriptive representation of elected bodies in the Czech Republic are currently on the rise. The article analyzes the composition of regional councils in the Czech Republic regarding gender, education, occupation, residence, and age from 2000 to 2020. We used the proportionality ratio (residence) and other statistical methods to analyze the composition of regional councils in view of the changing political composition.

Set against the background of the clash between ideal and non-ideal theorising in political philosophy, this review article outlines two complex approaches to the modelling of an ideal of justice. We reconstruct the moderately anti-utopian position championed by Gerald Gaus, who suggests we should give up the efforts to discover a conclusive truth about ideal justice, and confront it with David Estlund’s steadfast belief that unearthing some such ideal is nevertheless a preeminent philosophical goal. Utilising Gaus’s formalised model of what searching for an ideal of justice must encompass, we show why the formulation of the normative ideal depends on the very conditions of and obstacles to the achievement of such an ideal. Under conditions of normative pluralism which is ubiquitous in constitutional democracies, this means that the first desideratum of modelling an ideal should be outlining the ways of productively harnessing the diverse perspectives which populate any reasonably free society. Put bluntly, discovering an ideal requires giving up the philosophical search for the ideal. Ramifications for how best to construe the vocation of political philosophy as such are substantial: Rather than monologically digging deeper and deeper towards an elusive ideal of justice which tells us what we collectively ought to do, we need to figure out how to make cohabitation of contrasting worldviews possible, perhaps even enjoyable. We conclude the article by linking the argument to a defence of convergence public justification we offered in a previous paper.