Karolína Šurda Malcová
Malé místní samosprávy na území Velké Británie?
Small local governments in the United Kingdom?
The article provides a case study about the lowest level of local government in England. It does not mention so-called principal councils that are legal term for counties, districts and unitaries. It does not question a deeply rooted knowledge on large local authorities in the Great Britain, but the text tries to bring a different perspective on the British local government. It is focused on the parish/town councils in England. Territories of Wales, Scotland and the North Ireland are not included because of there was a different development, especially after devolution process. The parishes form the most local level of government and their overwhelming majority represents populations of less than 5,000. Parishes suffer from two difficulties. They do not cover the whole territory of England and they are not obliged to providing particular services and facilities by law. They have no statutory duties, but they possess some statutory rights. The scope of services depends on their own decision. During the time parishes have gained stronger support from central government and currently they strengthen their position thanks promoting the radical decentralisation of power by coalition government. This happened on the backdrop of long-lasting and continuous local government restructuration and merging to greater and greater local authorities.
Jan Čopík
Proměny lokálních politických mechanismů v prostředí české územní samosprávy
Transformations of local political mechanisms in the Czech local government environment
Modern local administration in the Czech Republic was established more than 160 years ago. Throughout the decades that followed, the form of this local administration was influenced by changes of political regime at the national level. However, long-term continuity is evident in many municipal administrations – both on a personal level, and in terms of cleavage lines. Using the example of several municipalities, the article focuses on the transformation of local political mechanisms – particularly in the Cisleithan period and the interwar Czechoslovakia period. Specifically, it mainly deals with the establishment of local government bodies and polemic transformations within local governments.
Kateřina Vojtíšková
Rozvoj kultury v malé obci Středočeského kraje
Cultural development in a small village in the Central Bohemian Region
This study attempts to understand a local development in one rural village in the Central Bohemian region of the Czech Republic. A case study has been conducted in small municipality called Zelená (N=300) in order to investigate the role of a mayor as a local authority and examine more closely her role and role of local government in local development, particularly in the field of culture (library, museum, social events) since the village is characterized by unusual public expenditures on culture. The analysis focuses on political process from 1989 and examines budgeting in the last decade. The result of the study shows significant promotion of cultural events and genesis of minor rural tourist site managed by mayor. However this achievement has not been adequately negotiated with citizens and improvement of local quality of life or citizen participation can be disputed.
Ilona Kruntorádová
Regionální patron jako fenomén reprezentace zájmů
The regional patron as a phenomenon of interest representation
Way of promoting the municipal actors´ interests differs across Europe. Southern European model based on the accumulation of mandates, strong personal relationships and the position of mayor as a local leader and northern European model based on indirect interest through interest association can be considered in conformity with classic vertical typology of Page and Goldsmith as the end points of the continuum. The aim of this paper is (1.) to reveal specific way of promoting the interests of Czech municipalities through the phenomenon of „regional patron“ based on empirical research and (2.) to define the position of the Czech Republic as outlined in the continuum.
Jaroslav Čmejrek
Demokratický deficit v lokálním politickém prostoru ČR: možnosti a meze analýzy
Democratic deficit in the local political arena of the Czech Republic: possibilities and limitations of analysis
Democratic deficit belongs to the most discussed topics in Czech political science arena. Usually, it is being perceived as aproblem of the institutional development of the European Union. This article focuses on the democratic deficit and its problems of legitimacy in the context of local governance and strives to indicate research possibilities of this phenomenon in the development process of the local public administration in theCzech Republic.
Petr Šašek, Alice N. Tejkalová
Framing the topic of government debt in the agendas of MF DNES and Právo prior to the 2010 elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic
The analysis of framing of the topic of national indebtedness in Mladá fronta DNES and Právo before the election to the Chamber of Deputies 2010 shows noticeable differences between both Czech newspapers. Frames are well visible, especially in commentaries. The analysis confirms MF DNES is focused more on right-wing voters, Právo is focused more on the left-wing ones. According to MF DNES, the national indebtedness is a real problem and it is necessary to solve it. The left-wing parties are responsible for the growing national debt of the Czech Republic and the right-wing parties can fight against this problem. On the contrary, according to Právo, national indebtedness is not a big problem. The right-wing parties just use this topic to threaten the voters and they cannot solve this problem better than the left-wing parties, although they claim it. Právo also offers more various framing than MF DNES.
Jan Němec
Koaliční vládnutí v prezidentských systémech: případ Brazílie
Coalition government in presidential systems: the case of Brazil
The article focuses on the newly studied format of government, the so-called coalitional presidentialism, with special emphasis on the Brazilian case. The author argues that the tradition of coalitional governments in this country contributes to the survival of extreme pluralism of party system which, in the first plan, it tries to overcome. After a brief overview of coalitional presidentialism in the Latin American regional context, where this pattern of government is rather common, he proceeds to the analysis of the Brazilian party system which is characterized as an extremely pluralist but with a low level of polarization. The author identifies poles established around two parties dominant on the left and right and a bloc of “volatile” parties which are able to make electoral and/or government coalition with both poles. The office-seeking character of these parties enables to make alliance regardless the policy orientation of respective government. Taking into account that these “volatile” parties belong to the best institutionalized ones in the Brazilian party system, we can conclude that the coalitional presidentialism is rather supportive to the existing structure of the party system in Brazil.
Liudmila Volakhava
Identifikace běloruského národa v kontextu civilizačního pohraničí
Identification of the Belarusian nation in the context of civilizational borderlands
The article is focused on Belarusians‘ identification in the context of civilizational borderland that appears to have a considerable impact on the nation‘s complex identification and remains utterly relevant in contemporary Belarus under its strongman A. Lukashenko. Significantly, the state‘s current president and, most importantly, his political course can be regarded as the nation’s key identity-provider in the geopolitical and civilizational dimension Lukashenko’s pendulum-like foreign policy highlights the national identity reference points and regulates its either pro-Russian or pro-Western leaning. In the aftermath of regime’s relentless maneuvering between Moscow and Brussels, Belarusians‘ pro-Russia and pro-West orientations reached parity by the end of 2010. It means that the country’s identification trajectory is amenable to modifications in accordance with the ruling elite’s foreign policy imperatives and the current political conjuncture. Notwithstanding the fact that the elements of European identity are present in the Belarusian identity code, notably as the symbol of higher living standards, its role is far from relevant. Instead, strong bonds with the Eastern Orthodox civilization—nurtured within the Pan-Slavic “Russian World” paradigm— will probably prevail as the dominant vector for the nation’s identification in the long run.
Vít Skála
Using social network analysis to uncover power relations in elected bodies. Analysis of ties between representatives of the Vysočina Region
Study based upon survey among members of regional parliament (Vysocina) confirms that methods of Social Network Analysis are suitable for discovering key persons among members voted representatives: the persons with real informal power in the assembly. About 50 % members of regional parliament, most of those with the highest official authority, participated in the survey. Regional president, seven from nine members of regional council and five from six leaders of committees are among respondents. Analysis of anonymized data is provided and possible problems with data interpretation mentioned. SW program UCINET was used for presented analysis of centrality and cliques. SW program NetDraw was used for presenting ties among individual members of regional parliament showing relationship to their political parties, membership at committees and to district of their residence. Possible applications of these methods in sociology, political science and other fields of interest are mentioned, problems and another possible ways for other scholars are described in conclusion.
Zuzana Machová
Volební právo cizinců v komunálních volbách České republiky a jeho využití
Voting rights of foreigners in municipal elections in the Czech Republic and their use
The article sets itself a task to evaluate the using of voting right by foreign nationals in local elections in the Czech Republic. It shows the approach of other member states of European Union to the voting right of foreign nationals in local elections, the legislative framework and the legal position of foreign nationals in the Czech Republic. The centre point of the article lies in the real experience of the foreign nationals, mayors and workers of municipal authorities with voting right in the local elections. Information gained during the research allows to study the practice of voting right. During the research there were discovered reasons why the foreign nationals participate or not in local elections. There were explained opinions of foreign nationals about the quality of information of their possibility to participate in local elections and about the conditions of voting right declared by state. Opinions and ideas of foreign nationals are compared with the opinions and experience of mayors or workers of municipal authorities and state institutions. The research was originally part of the diploma thesis worked out by Zuzana Machova at the Institute of Political Studies at Faculty of Social Science at Charles University in Prague.
Josef Bernard
Complete name database of candidates for municipal and local assemblies as a tool for researching the population of candidates and representatives
The author of the paper presents a complete historical database of municipal election candidates (from the year 1994) and its possible use in the study of various research topics. The database, elaborated on the basis of official electoral data from the Czech Statistical Office, includes basic political features of individual candidates and some of their socio-demographic features. Its main advantage is the possibility to identify repeated candidates and incumbents and the possibility to link the data to other databases containing information on municipalities. The database was used in a study of factors influencing the chance of candidates to be elected, in a study searching the determinants of voter turnout and in testing a hypothesis about decreasing numbers of candidates in small municipalities.
Ilona Kruntorádová
BACKHAUS, Jürgen G.: Two Centuries of Local Autonomy
Tomáš Bandžuch
WINGFIELD, Nancy M.: Flag wars and stone saints. How the Bohemian lands became Czech
Marián Sekerák
MEZEIOVÁ, Gabriela: Postkomunistická transformácia médií. Prípadová štúdia Chorvátskej republiky
Kamil Švec
KUBÁT, Michal: Současná česká politika: Co s neefektivním režimem?
