Articles

Petr Jüptner, Blanka Říchová		Editorial



Daniel Klimovský		The classification means creation of basic municipal authorities in a European perspective

Abstract:		Basically, there are two polity systems at a local level in Europe. The first one is typical for a continental part of Europe – e.g. Austria, France, Germany or Italy – and might be called as municipal self-government. The second one which has been developed especially in the Anglo-Saxon conditions might be called as local government. Both these systems differ from each other in several points of view. However, this classification is not the final one, and also the countries that belong to one of the mentioned two groups differ a lot if one looks at one/a few feature/s of those systems. This article is centered on different countries’ approaches to the methods of creation of two fundamental local politico-administrative bodies – i.e. local councils and mayors. A main goal is to point out those methods, and to make an attempt on classification of European countries in terms of them. Obviously, a few selected examples and some relevant secondary data are utilized for the research purposes.

Kamil Švec		Cases of inter-cooperation in European countries: Estonia, Finland, France and the Netherlands

Abstract:		The decentralization trend that pervades the countries of Western Europe since the second half of last century is still more power-transmitted to the lower administrative, self-governing units respectively – regions and municipalities. In Europe, however, we find considerable diversity of local structures. One of the factors influencing the function of local government is the settlement structure. This article intends to outline the two basic models, which are applied in Europe to increase the effectiveness of the function of municipalities, and in the cases of Estonia, France, Finland and the Netherlands.

Jaroslav Čmejrek, Jan Čopík		Continuity and discontinuity in the development of local political representation

Abstract:		The paper deals with the development of the local political representation in three Czech municipalities. Two of them are rural villages with less than 1 000 inhabitants, the third municipality is a town with 10 000 inhabitants. The paper focuses on three aspects of continuity and discontinuity in local politics: (1) structure of the local council and duration of representatives’ activity in the council, (2) continuity of the local political parties and (3) personalities and families in the local politics. Two periods of change and stabilization of the local politics are compared: the period of the pre-war Czechoslovakia and the period after 1989.

Petr Jüptner		Ministerial discussions on the possible introduction of direct elections of mayors: very low priority?

Abstract:		Author of this article presents and analyses (through content analysis) a content of document „Analysis of a possibility to implement the direct mayor vote” which was elaborated by the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic. Author formulates two hypotheses – relevant political actors have in fact no interest to implement a direct mayor vote in the Czech Republic, and a revision and amending of legislation on local government system has low priority in the Czech Republic – and he tries to find out relevant points in the mentioned document in order to prove or disprove those hypotheses. The most important finding is a fact that there are several methodical shortages that had influenced analyzed document in terms of its quality.

Tomáš Lebeda		Municipal elections are misleading. Short stop the problematic aspects of the electoral system for municipal

Abstract:		This article is focused on the problematic characteristics of the Czech electoral system applied for the local council elections. We can recognize three different problems. First off, Czech voters largely do not understand the mechanism of electoral system well. They assume that they can vote for individual candidates but in reality this kind of vote is the vote for their party not for particular candidates. This misunderstanding leads to contradiction between voters expectations of electoral system way of working on the one hand and the real process of seats allocation on the other hand. Second problem is based on specific rules of the seats allocation inside party list. Current electoral system allows candidate who receives less votes than other candidates to gain a seat. More over the weakest candidate inside the party list can be elected unlike of all stronger party mates. Third problem is connected with electoral result interpretation. Beside the results inside every single local community politicians and media also pay attention to national result of local elections. They deduce conclusions from it about party support and chances to win general elections. But national result of local elections is not easy interpretable. Voters have different number of votes depending on the number of their local council deputies. It means for example that voter in capital Prague has 70 votes unlike of another voter living in a small village with only 7 votes. This article also answers how to interpret the national result of local elections correctly.

Jakub Šedo		Preferential votes in municipal elections - the source of variations or stability of elected representatives?

Abstract:		The article is focused on the municipal elections in the Czech Republic in eight cities. The main goal of the research is the evaluation influence of the free list system of the municipal councils on the re-election of the city councilors. There are identified two potential tendencies: preferential voting could strengthen stability (personal continuity) or change (personal discontinuity). The question is whether former city councilors are via preferential votes more supported than new candidates (voters and preferential voting support stability) or less (voters and voting prefer change). Analysis is focused on the former city councilors of eight cities on the list which got at least one seat in the municipal elections. Than it is pointed out if the reelection or failure of the former councilor was caused by the position on the list, preferential voting, or combination of both factors. Reelection from the lower position on the list via preferential votes or the failure caused only by the position on the list (candidates need to meet the limit 10 % over the mean of the list to advance from their original position on the list) is the sign of the tendency to the stability. Failure due to low number of preferential votes or reelection only thanks to the advantageous position on the list indicates the tendency to the change. Outcomes of the research were not significant the number of cases which supports the stabilization tendency was higher, but only slightly.

Vol. 1, No. 3

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