Return of the Local Democracy to the Territory of the Military Training Areas (Case Study the Czech Republic)

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-213
Author(s):  
Petr Klusáček ◽  
Stanislav Martinát ◽  
Tomáš Krejčí ◽  
Josef Kunc ◽  
Jan Hercik ◽  
...  

The return of the local democracy to the military training areas raises a number of complex challenges even under the conditions of a democratic state. In the municipalities that were established in the Czech Republic on 1 January 2016 by a separation from the territory of the military training areas, a nondemocratic paternalist system has dominated for many decades at the local level, which in some cases was deepened by a presence of the foreign Soviet army. While other municipalities in the post-communist period after 1989 have undergone a complex development and have gradually responded to new challenges (e.g., the use of subsidy titles, intermunicipal cooperation), and, in the case of the settlements in the territory of the military training area districts, nondemocratic local paternalism was preserved until the end of 2015. In the first phase of their term, the elected representatives of the local government primarily focused on securing the basic functions of the municipality (issues of housing and basic amenities of the village—school facilities, shops), saving local sights as remnants of historical memory, and developing cooperation within different networks of actors on a general level (e.g., issues of tourism development, environmental protection).

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Springer

This study is dedicated to the regional history of the East-West conflict on the basis of the relationship between the Germany military and the Belgian armed forces stationed in Germany. The central question it addresses is which factors were largely responsible for the interdependence between actors and institutions of both armies. In addition to analysing the limited time of the peak phase of Belgian military deployment in the Federal Republic 1946–1990, the book concentrates regionally on the military training areas of Vogelsang in the Eifel and the Wahner Heide near Cologne as military contact zones. For this purpose, the author evaluates unpublished archival sources at the local level for the first time.


Geografie ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-330
Author(s):  
Aleš Komár

The article in its introduction deals with the problem of the former Military Training Area at Ralsko in the Czech Republic and its recent changes - the nature and landscape protection under the auspices of the Ministry of Defence and military administrations in the MTA, and deals with the consequences of the withdrawal of corps and discusses the damage caused by military training to the nature, soil and groundwater. In the conclusion the article evaluates the topical aspects of the area reutilisation.


Geografie ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
pp. 190-199
Author(s):  
Aleš Komár

The article in its introduction deals with the problem of the former Military Training Area at Ralsko in the Czech Republic and its recent changes - the nature and landscape protection under the auspices of the Ministry of Defence and military administrations in the MTA, and deals with the consequences of the withdrawal of corps and discusses the damage caused by military training to the nature, soil and groundwater. In the conclusion the article evaluates the topical aspects ofthe area re-utilisation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef KUNC ◽  
Petr TONEV ◽  
Markéta NOVOTNÁ ◽  
Petr ŠAŠINKA ◽  
Zdeněk DVOŘÁK ◽  
...  

The Czech Republic is typical for its fragmented settlement structure with a high number of small self-governing municipalities. Such a distinction causes many problems, including a non-effective way of their management. Even though various integration methods have already been applied in Europe for several decades, the Czech Republic, due to its historical development influenced by the period of communism, is still looking for intermunicipal cooperation opportunities at a higher (metropolitan) level. The presented text aims to evaluate a municipalities’ willingness to cooperate on particular activities and participate in selected topics on strategic and spatial planning at a metropolitan level. Their willingness is analysed according to the population size category of municipalities so that diverse approaches towards the willingness to cooperate could be identified for municipalities in different categories. The results are demonstrated by the example of the Brno Metropolitan Area, which is regarded to be a leader in the development of inter-municipal cooperation at a metropolitan level in the Czech Republic. The results were obtained from a questionnaire survey carried out with the mayors of the Brno metropolitan area in 2020. From a total of 184 municipalities, 175 municipalities took part in the questionnaire survey. Thus, the return was 95%. The results show that the assumption of the importance of the municipality population size is significant when making decisions about future development and cooperation within a metropolitan area. Although most municipalities in all size categories consider it useful to engage in cooperation and solve selected topics together at a metropolitan level, the municipalities in the smallest size categories of up to 1,000 inhabitants had a significantly lower proportion of very positive responses (definitely yes) than municipalities in the other categories. This fact may be attributed to the specific development of the Czech settlement system and the so-called historical memory of the residents from small municipalities during the directive merger in the 1970s and 1980s.


Data in Brief ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 107039
Author(s):  
Pavel Šaradín ◽  
Tomáš Lebeda ◽  
Jakub Lysek ◽  
Michal Soukop ◽  
Daniela Ostrá ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lenka Matějová ◽  
Juraj Nemec ◽  
Milan Křápek ◽  
Daniel Klimovský

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.


Author(s):  
Andrea Smolkova ◽  
Stanislav Balík

Against the background of current research and literature, the article discusses local level-personalization in the Czech Republic as well as the ways it can be studied. Emphasising topics such as personalization of the electoral behaviour, electoral system, and political elites’ strategy, the authors present a novel research design aimed at identifying and better understanding the phenomenon of personalization on the local level. The research design develops some original identifiers such as popularity of the candidate, while also employing traditional criteria such as preferential voting or incumbency effect.


2021 ◽  
pp. 197-210
Author(s):  
Vadim V. Trukhachev ◽  

The authorities of the Prague 6 district took down the monument to Marshal Konev, who liberated the Czech capital in May 1945. Russia could not prevent this, because the monument was not subject to an intergovernmental agreement. The laws of the Czech Republic allow municipal authorities to decide the fate of monuments standing on their territory. The actions of Czech politicians on a regional level appeared to demonstrate profound ingratitude in the eyes of many people - some condemned the politicians in the sharpest possible terms, but others supported and praised the decision. Representatives of the majority of political parties represented in the Czech Parliament, as well as the country's President Miloš Zeman, spoke on the topic. The “bronze Marshal” became a victim of Czech internal political disputes over relations with Russia. There is no state-level “war” against monuments to Red Army soldiers in the Czech Republic. However, decisions to remove them have been taken several times at local level.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document