scholarly journals Providing Public Sport Facilities in Post-Socialist Times: The Case of the Czech Republic

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-199
Author(s):  
Jakub Popelka
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Sport Participation ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Organized Sport ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Sport Facilities

AbstractThe paper aims to investigate current approaches to the management of public sport facilities by local governments. In the Czech Republic, local clubs traditionally played a key role in providing sport to the public. With decreasing participation in organized sport, a significant number of clubs have been forced to transfer their facilities to local governments and the sport position of local authorities has strengthened considerably in recent years. In consequence, there have been alterations in the management of public sport facilities. The findings of statistical analysis emphasize an increasing role of specialized organizations at the expense of in-house management or external provision (facilities hired out to sport clubs). Moreover, local population and type of facility were found to be the possible reasons for different approaches. In-house management is associated with smaller municipalities whereas most of their facilities have the character of public goods. In contrast, publicly funded organizations and municipal enterprises appear in municipalities with larger populations providing sport facilities of regional importance in the form of mixed goods. Finally, clubs, as representatives of external provision, mostly provide sport facilities primarily intended for their own purposes - club goods. In the context of recent works and contemporary trends in sport participation, the research findings indicate that different forms of management may have significant effects not only on efficiency of public budgets but also on conditions for sport at local level - especially on targeting those who would participate in sport if they had access to new opportunities or leisure programs.

scholarly journals Citizens local political participation in the Czech Republic: rural-urban comparison

2008 ◽  
Vol 53 (No. 1) ◽  
pp. 21-29
Author(s):  
J. Cmejrek
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Administration ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Public

The Velvet Revolution in November 1989 in the former Czechoslovakia opened the way to the renewal of the democratic political system. One of the most visible aspects of the Czech political development consisted in the renewal of the essential functions of elections and political parties. On the local level, however, the political process - as well as in other post-communist countries - continued to be for a long time influenced by the remains of the former centralized system wherein the local administration used to be subjected to the central state power. Municipal elections took hold in these countries, however, the local government remained in the embryonic state and a certain absence of real political and economic decision-making mechanism on the local level continued to show. The public administration in the Czech Republic had to deal with the changes in the administrative division of the state, the split of the Czechoslovak federation as well as the fragmentation of municipalities whose number increased by 50 percent. Decision making mechanisms on the local and regional level were suffering from the incomplete territorial hierarchy of public administration and from the unclear division of power between the state administration and local administration bodies. Only at the end of the 1990s, the public administration in the Czech Republic started to get a more integrated and specific shape. Citizens participation in the political process represents one of the key issues of representative democracy. The contemporary democracy has to face the decrease in voter turnout and the low interest of citizens to assume responsibility within the political process. The spread of democratising process following the fall of the iron curtain should not overshadow the risk of internal weakness of democracy. The solution should be looked for in more responsible citizenship and citizens’ political participation. The degree of political participation is considered (together with political pluralism) to be the key element of representative democracy in general terms, as well as of democratic process on the local and regional level. The objective of this paper is to describe the specifics of citizens local political participation in the Czech Republic and to show the differences between rural and urban areas. The paper concentrates on voting and voter turnout but deals also with other forms of citizens political participation.

Boom of road races in the Czech Republic – sport for all or luxury amusement?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irena Slepičková ◽  
Pavel Slepička
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Sport Participation ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
University Education ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Public ◽  
Participation Costs ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Road Races

Nowadays, similar to worldwide trends, running has become very popular in the Czech Republic. Since the mid of 1990s, the business sector has become very active in this area. Private companies organise many road races for the public, including participation of top level runners (i.e. Prague International Marathon). In 2016, within the framework of the international project IRNIST, we realised an empirical descriptive study of the Mattoni ½ Marathon in Ústí nad Labem, a middle size town. The IRNIST questionnaire was used. Analysing data on 491 runners (of 2,238 runners finished the race) we found that concern-ing socio-economic status of respondents, 56.9% of runners have a university education, one third advanced secondary education; and 63% earn more than the average wage. Participant were able to spend quite a lot of money for participation costs. These results raise the issue if the privatization and commercialization of running for the masses does not cause limit for sport participation for all.

scholarly journals WHY SHOULD LOCAL GOVERNMENTS HAVE A DEVELOPED COMMUNICATION STRATEGY? AN ANALYSIS OF MUNICIPAL COMMUNICATION IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 302-308
Author(s):  
MIROSLAV JURÁSEK ◽  
PETR WAWROSZ
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Crisis Communication ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Communication Channels ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Public ◽  
Municipal Employees

The creation of a communication strategy is an indicator of the subject's approach to communication with the public. The article, based on a sample of 160 municipalities of the Czech Republic, empirically demonstrates that an elaborated communication strategy enhances the public value of intangible assets particularly in the following areas: various segments of citizens are better targeted through a greater number of frequented communication channels, municipal employees are more frequently trained in communication issues, crisis communication plans are likely to be prepared. On the other hand, we confirmed that all these factors are limited to some extent by the size of the municipality and the financial resources allocated for communication.

scholarly journals The Use of ICT by Local General Administrative Authorities during COVID-19 for a Sustainable Future: Comparing Five European Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 11765
Author(s):  
Aleksander Aristovnik ◽  
Polonca Kovač ◽  
Eva Murko ◽  
Dejan Ravšelj ◽  
Lan Umek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Local Level ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Managers ◽  
Main Driver ◽  
Sustainable Recovery

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reshaped administrative relations and put emphasis on the digital transformation of public administration that is urgently needed to support a sustainable recovery from the pandemic crisis and future sustainable development in the post-pandemic era. This paper presents a comparative study on the ways the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted general administrative authorities on the local level with respect to various aspects of their functioning and digitalization in five European countries. With a sample of 926 respondents from the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Romania, and Slovenia, the study shows that the pandemic-imposed changes are very similar in these countries. The results reveal that, except for Germany, the biggest problems of pandemic-related regulations are their obscurity. For all countries under study, parties to the procedures are shown to be the main driver of digitalization and not the public administration itself, generally lagging behind in this sense. Nevertheless, the pandemic has also created several potential opportunities, whereby public managers, especially in Germany, have acknowledged the importance of digitalization right after the protection of health, as confirmed by the wider use of ICT equipment, particularly in Germany and the Czech Republic. Moreover, Germany and Romania exhibit the greatest potential to accelerate digitalization. Finally, the critical factors influencing accelerated digitalization after the pandemic are also identified. The paper’s evidence-based findings could prove useful while formulating recommendations for the sustainable practices of public administrations during this and any future pandemic crisis.

Local Government Communication: Reaching out through Facebook

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-243
Author(s):  
Lucia Hrůzová ◽  
Filip Hrůza
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Social Networking Site ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Public ◽  
Government Communication ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
Alternative Service

The development of Web 2.0 technologies has led to the expansion of new technologies and services such as social media, which has become a new tool for public participation and alternative service delivery based on higher G2C (government to citizens) responsiveness. This ongoing development has caused governments to face expectations to adapt their communication channels to the changing environment of online social interactions. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate how local governments in the Czech Republic use social media in their communications with the public and the effects of these communications. To do so, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the Facebook communications of Czech regional capitals using multiple methodological approaches, including a survey, statistical analysis and an OLS model. The Facebook social networking site was chosen for this research because of its prevalent popularity over all relevant social media and the frequency of use in the Czech Republic both in general and by local governments, and because of its higher complexity of G2C interactions. The outcomes are given in the context of the relevant previous research.

Determinants of Women’s Descriptive Representation in the 2014 Czech and Slovak Local Elections

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-410
Author(s):  
Pavel Maškarinec ◽  
Daniel Klimovský
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
The Czech Republic

The main objective of this article is to analyse the determinants of women’s descriptive representation in the 2014 local elections in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is shown that although both countries are considered democratic and in spite of two decades of multi-dimensional transition, women are underrepresented at the local level. Especially electoral results in the municipalities which are considered sub-regional centres and where almost one-half of the population of both countries is concentrated are studied. As it is pointed out, factors like local population or political and institutional factors play an important role in women’s success in local politics.

scholarly journals Renewable Energy Attitudes and Behaviour of Local Governments in Poland

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 2765
Author(s):  
Joanna Rakowska ◽  
Irena Ozimek
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Energy Behavior ◽  
Public Aid ◽  
Energy Projects

The deployment of renewable energy at the local level can contribute significantly to mitigating climate change, improving energy security and increasing social, economic and environmental benefits. In many countries local authorities play an important role in the local development, but renewable energy deployment is not an obligatory task for them. Hence there are two research questions: (1) Do local governments think investments in renewable energy (RE) are urgent and affordable within the local budgets? (2) How do they react to the public aid co-financing investments in renewable energy? To provide the answer we performed qualitative analysis and non-parametric tests of data from a survey of 252 local authorities, analysis of 292 strategies of local development and datasets of 1170 renewable energy projects co-financed by EU funds under operational programs 2007–2013 and 2014–2020 in Poland. Findings showed that local authorities’ attitudes were rather careful, caused by financial constraints of local budgets and the scope of obligatory tasks, which made renewable energy investments not the most urgent. Public aid was a factor significantly affecting local authorities’ behavior. It triggered local authorities’ renewable energy initiatives, increasing the number and scope of renewable energy investments as well cooperation with other municipalities and local communities. Despite this general trend, there were also considerable regional differences in local authorities’ renewable energy behavior.

scholarly journals Analysis of the perceived condition of forests in the Czech Republic

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (No. 12) ◽  
pp. 514-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Riedl ◽  
L. Šišák
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Forest Policy ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Public ◽  
Forestry Sector ◽  
Realistic Perception ◽  
Opinion Polls

A realistic perception of the condition of forests, and the attributes of the forestry sector, by the public constitutes one of the basic prerequisites for successful implementation of forest policy in any country. Although data objectively demonstrate that the condition of Czech forests has improved, opinion polls show a gap between the public perception of the condition of Czech forests and the real status of these forests. The reasons for the discrepancy between reality and the perception of the public, and between the results of different surveys, are analysed. The most significant differences were found in perceptions of damage and threats to forests. The effectiveness of communication about forest policy is discussed, and some ways to create more effective communication are examined.

scholarly journals Economies of Scale on the Municipal Level: Fact or Fiction in the Czech Republic?

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lenka Matějová ◽  
Juraj Nemec ◽  
Milan Křápek ◽  
Daniel Klimovský
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Elementary Education ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Local Administration ◽  
Government Performance ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Territorial Structure ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Municipal Level

AbstractMany countries have carried out extensive amalgamation-related territorial reforms at the level of local self-government and created relatively large municipalities. The Czech Republic is one of the few remaining European countries with a fragmented territorial structure. There is a lot of discussion in the country about the need for amalgamation, but this discussion is mainly based on political arguments rather than on empirical evidence about the feasibility of amalgamation and its potential to improve local government performance. This paper analyses economies of scale on the local level as a factor that should be reflected in debates about the pros and cons of amalgamation in the Czech Republic. To add to the existing knowledge about the reality of economies of scale on the municipal level in the Czech Republic, we processed the municipal costs of three selected areas on a representative sample of municipalities in the South Moravian Region. The analysis showed that economies of scale can be identified for collecting local fees and for pre-school and elementary education, but not for local administration. Our results suggest that the existence of too small municipalities in the Czech Republic results in inefficiencies and should be addressed.

Public leadership and strategies of Czech municipalities during the COVID-19 pandemic – municipal activism vs municipal passivism

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Plaček ◽  
David Špaček ◽  
František Ochrana
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Strategic Behavior ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Capital City ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Leadership

PurposeThis paper discusses the role of public leadership and the strategic response of local governments to the external shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors examine the typical Czech response with regard to how the leadership of municipalities in the Czech Republic responded to this extremely negative external stimulus.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use qualitative research methods for this investigation. They have chosen the case study method (see Yin, 2009; Stake, 1995; Klonoski, 2013). The general case is the Czech Republic. Mini-cases consist of municipalities from the Znojmo region, municipalities of the Central Bohemian region and the municipal districts in the capital city of Prague. Furthermore, the method of participant observation was used.FindingsThe authors’ analysis of the problem of local government responses to the pandemic crisis shows that municipal leaders responded with a variety of (non-)adaptation strategies. It appears that certain framework factors influenced the various local governments' behavior.Originality/valueThe article examines the strategic behavior of Czech municipal leaders regarding the pandemic crisis based on the observation of the reactions of local governments in the Czech Republic to the pandemic crisis and strives to define their basic strategies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document