Invented religions and the conceptualization of religion in a highly secular society: The Jedi religion and the Church of Beer in the Czech context

2020 ◽  
pp. 136754942091987
Author(s):  
Dušan Lužný
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Role Functioning ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
New Religions ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
Scientific Terms ◽  
Specific Material ◽  
The Church ◽  
Academic Study

This study illustrates the need to develop efforts that define scientific terms, namely, ‘religion’. Despite the fact that such efforts may seem to be practically unattainable, current phenomena testify to the need to continually improve standardized scholarly terminology (such as Invented Religion, Parody Religion). Using specific material (of new religious phenomena in the Czech Republic, specifically the Jedi religion and the Church of Beer), the study identifies several key ambiguities stemming from the cultural and social context in which both contemporary new religions and academic study of religions coexist. The study concludes that in a highly secular society, where the continuity of religious memory is disrupted (as in the Czech Republic), the academic study of religions plays an important role, functioning as an authority for the decision-making of state institutions.

scholarly journals Francie jako laický stát, vývoj a aktuální stav

AUC IURIDICA ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 71-96
Author(s):  
Petr Karola
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
The State ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Third ◽  
Constitutional Principle ◽  
New Religions ◽  
The Church ◽  
Secular State

This article is part of my dissertation on The Czech Republic as a Secular State. Its purpose is to explain what a secular state is, how it originated, how it has developed, and how it can be defined. Since the model of the laic state was primarily created in the gradually developing process of secularization in France and is linked to the local constitutional principle of laïcité, the article focuses primarily on this country. The article is divided into three interrelated parts. The first part discusses the constitutional principle of laïcité, unique to France, and its development up to 1958; the second part examines the process of the separation of the state from the church and the process of the formation of the secular state, taking into account the legal and constitutional aspects of this process; and the third, the most extensive part, examines the development of both legal secularism and laïcité from 1958 to the present. Moreover, it puts the whole development in the context of the state’s, gradually escalating, reaction to the growing influence of the “new” religions, especially Islam.

A Mistrustful Society?

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 52-71
Author(s):  
Nicole Horáková
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
European Values ◽  
European Values Study ◽  
Eastern European Countries

The level of trust in politicians also in government institutions is taken as an indicator of the state of society in general. Various studies have shown that the population of the Central Eastern European countries, and especially the citizens of the Czech Republic, lack trust in state institutions and democratic structures. The trust of the Czech population in government institutions is, compared to other (Western) European countries, at a relatively low level. This article aims to discuss different factors that are currently influencing this lack of trust: the historical, cultural, and institutional. The empirical data for this article is based on the European Values Study and Czech surveys of public opinion concerning trust in government institutions.

scholarly journals Concept of perceptual carrying capacity and its use in the creation of promotional materials of tourist destination

2013 ◽  
Vol 61 (7) ◽  
pp. 2547-2553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanislav Mokrý
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Carrying Capacity ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Primary Research ◽  
Tourist Destination ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Visual Method ◽  
Promotional Materials ◽  
The Church

The aim of this article is to introduce results of research of perceptual carrying capacity of selected area. Concept of perceptual tourist carrying capacity aims to find the number of visitors of tourist destination that the visitor is willing to accept before deciding to prefer travelling to another tourist destination. In order to determine the perceptual carrying capacity the visual method is used. The photos of destination that depict different level of visitors are presented to respondents when using this method. The primary research method used in this investigation was the questionnaire survey which was conducted via online questionnaires. The questionnaire used computer-generated images that depict different number of visitors of the particular destination – nature trail around the church of St. John of Nepomuk in Žďár nad Sázavou (UNESCO monument). The questionnaire also contained samples of photos taken from photo gallery section of CzechTourism agency (photo.czechtourism.com), which were used to determine the preferred destination for recreation. The survey was conducted within the period from May 2012 to July 2012 on a sample of 736 respondents from The Czech Republic.

Contested Constitutions

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasper de Raadt
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
European Countries ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Central European ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Constitution Making

What were the effects of constitution-making procedures on the acceptance of the new “rules of the political game” in postcommunist Central Europe? This article sets out to scrutinise the increasingly popular claim among politicians and scholars of democratisation that inclusiveness and popular involvement in constitution-making processes enhance a constitution's legitimacy. The concept of constitutional conflict, referring to political contestation over the interpretation and application of constitutional relations among state institutions, is introduced as a way to assess constitutional acceptance among politicians. The investigation concentrates on constitutional conflict patterns during the five years following constitution-making in seven Central European countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Constitution-making procedures varied substantially among the cases, as did the intensity and timing of constitutional conflict. The article finds that differences in constitution-making procedures do not necessarily determine the legitimacy of constitutions among political elites. Instead, ambiguity on the allocation of formal competencies among political actors and increasing political tensions between pro-reform and anti-reform parties during the early 1990s proved to be more important triggers of constitutional conflict. Accordingly, studies on constitution-making and democratisation should focus less on procedural aspects and take into account the fuzziness of important constitutional provisions and the extent to which constitutions can survive periods of intense political polarisation.

Institutional Performance and Compliance with EU Law: Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerda Falkner
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Institutional Performance ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Monitoring And Enforcement ◽  
Eu Directives

AbstractThis article compares the performance of state institutions and compliance with EU law in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. The public institutions highlighted are of crucial relevance when it comes to enforcing EU social standards and include the court and legal systems as well as labour inspectorates and equal treatment authorities. Expert and practitioner assessments point to major shortcomings in their institutional performance. The procedural compliance pattern to which these shortcomings give rise closely resembles that found by previous studies in some Western European countries, notably Ireland and Italy. Thus, the four countries examined here fall within a ‘world of dead letters’ as far as their compliance with EU law is concerned. In this ‘world’, EU directives tend to be transposed in a politicised mode (although so far, this happened rather timely and correctly) and there is frequent non-compliance at the later stages of monitoring and enforcement.

scholarly journals Reemigration of the Volhynian Czechs

Geografie ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-121
Author(s):  
Eva Janská ◽  
Dušan Drbohlav
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Mother Country ◽  
Integration Policies ◽  
Czech Society

The article focuses on integration of resettlers - Volhynian Czechs - into the Czech society. This community of reemigrants began to return to their mother country in 1991 when also humanitarian aid programme was launched. The analysis is based on a questionnaire survey within the resettlers, experience and databases of state institutions and non-governmental organizations. How the resettlers adjust their lives to conditions in the Czech Republic and which factors influence most the migration/integration policies in the Czech Republic is formulated in the conclusion.

scholarly journals Application of the Current Knowledge from Research and Development of the Burial Methods and their Impact on Designing or Transforming Contemporary Cemeteries in the Czech Republic

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Klára Frolíková Palánová ◽  
Ondřej Juračka ◽  
Barbora Černá ◽  
Lukáš Dubovský ◽  
Šárka Nahodilová
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Research And Development ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Open Space ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Church

Abstract Considerable transformation of the burial method at the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries is apparent from the existing results of research in the developments of burial and funeral architecture, when after centuries controlled by the church – due to social and political changes – gradual secularisation of the society and subsequent desacralisation of funeral rituals started appearing. This phenomenon, as well as other aspects (e.g. Josephine reforms in 1782) brought about a change in the approach to newly established cemeteries but also the necessity to define areas for new burial methods and constructing new building types of funeral architecture. The position of necropolis is also changing as the society understands it, and its inclusion not only in the organism of towns but also in everyday life of town and municipality citizens. Thus, not only new but mainly original cemeteries are searching for their new position in the society. Studio papers try to react to this situation written by students of the master degree of the specialisation Architecture and civil engineering at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the VŠB - Technical University in Ostrava, led by prof. Ing. arch. Petr Hrůša, doc. Ing. Martina Peřinková, Ph.D. and Ing. arch. Klára Frolíková Palánová, Ph.D. Students try to view necropolis in an innovative way and give them a new dimension to succeed and become adequate public or semi-public space of cities and municipalities. The contribution represents starting points of possible solutions on case studies, such as transformation of a cemetery in Ostrava on the Hulváky Hill, the design of establishing a new cemetery in open space near the municipality of Velichovky, including the design of a funeral hall, situating a new urn grove in the place of a former cemetery – the current park – a part of which is the design of a new crematorium in Nový Jičín and extension of possibilities for placement of ashes and designs supporting the development of funeral tourism in the Olšany Cemeteries in Prague.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Market Risk Sources in the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises of Transport

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 97-103
Author(s):  
Maria Hudakova ◽  
Jan Dvorsky
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Goodness Of Fit ◽  
Support Systems ◽  
Market Risk ◽  
Statistical Tools ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Goodness Of Fit Tests ◽  
Risk Sources ◽  
Strong Competition

The aim of this paper was to define the important market risk sources in the transport small and medium-sized enterprises segment. A part of this aim is to find out how entrepreneurs evaluate these sources, and quantify the differences in their evaluation based on the entrepreneur’s characteristics, such as nationality, age, gender and others. The questionnaire was completed by 122 enterprises from Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Serbia. Statistical tools such as pivot tables, percentages and goodness-of-fit tests were applied to verify the formulated hypotheses. The most important source of market risk is a strong competition in the line of business. The obtained education of entrepreneurs is statistically significant characteristics for the evaluation of the market risk sources in selected transport enterprises. The findings are important for state institutions and their support systems in the transport SMEs segment.

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