scholarly journals The Politics of Appointment of Top Civil Servants: Career Backgrounds and Civil Service Politicization in the Czech Republic

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-92
Author(s):  
Marek Rybář ◽  
Milan Podmaník
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Political Networks ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Service Legislation ◽  
Stable Arrangement ◽  
Ministerial Bureaucracy

AbstractThis contribution seeks to answer the question whether the new civil service legislation that entered into force in 2015 in the Czech Republic led to the depoliticization of the country’s ministerial bureaucracy. To that end, we compare the career backgrounds of top civil servants before and after the entry into force of the new Civil Service Act. The article examines the career backgrounds of the persons appointed as ministerial deputies between 2013 and 2018, focusing on their last “pre-deputy” jobs and considering a broader set of their career attributes. A focus on the previous job reveals that even before the law was introduced, bureaucrats constituted the largest share of appointees, and their share even increased with the new legislation. The incidence of deputies appointed directly from party-related jobs dropped considerably. However, when a broader set of career attributes is considered, the share of partisans among the pre-2015 deputies nearly matches that of the career bureaucrats. Ostensibly political careers among the post-2015 deputies declined but remain significant. Hence, there has been a decline in the open politicization of the ministerial bureaucracy after 2015. Party political effects also matter, as the new ANO party, after entering the executive, has taken a different approach to top bureaucratic appointments than the other major governing Czech parties. Typically, deputies appointed into the positions under the ANO’s control would not have links to the party itself but would be recruited via non-party channels, e.g. from pre-political networks of the ANO ministers and leaders. Consequently, though less politicized by party agents, the current Czech system is more a product of choices made by government ministers of the day than a stable arrangement resulting from firmly established norms and rules.

scholarly journals Monetary Policy Before and After the Financial Crisis and Its Economic and Legislative Impacts – Case of The Czech Republic

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liběna Černohorská ◽  
Jana Janderová ◽  
Veronika Procházková
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Interest Rates ◽  
Foreign Exchange ◽  
Inflation Targeting ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Before And After ◽  
National Economies

The article analyses monetary policy response to the world financial crisis and focuses more closely on the monetary policy of the Czech National Bank (CNB) at this time. Until 2007, the implementation of monetary policy in OECD countries was perceived very positively. However, the financial crisis has clearly shown that the world’s financial markets are highly interconnected, and this can have a major impact on individual national economies. Therefore, the monetary policy strategy has changed from a policy based on the so-called flexible inflation targeting. Ensuring price stability is emphasised as part of the monetary policy role of the CNB in the provisions of Article 98 of the Constitution, in the Czech Republic. CNB is perceived as one of the most independent central banks, the contituional dimension of its independence being confirmed by case law of the Czech Constitutional Court. In response to the financial crisis, CNB was forced to pursue unconventional monetary policy in the form of foreign exchange interventions between 2013 and 2017. However, during the time period of these interventions, CNB policy did not lead to achievement of the inflation target. Following the completion of foreign exchange interventions, CNB returned to conventional monetary policy through interest rates.

scholarly journals Attitude of assessors in the Czech Republic to the consumption of house cricket Acheta domestica L. – A preliminary study

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (No. 1) ◽  
pp. 72-76
Author(s):  
Lenka Kouřimská ◽  
Veronika Kotrbová ◽  
Martin Kulma ◽  
Anna Adámková ◽  
Jiří Mlček ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Edible Insects ◽  
House Cricket ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Sensory Acceptability ◽  
Overall Acceptability ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Acheta Domestica ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Preliminary Study

Sensory acceptability of the consumption of whole baked house crickets by assessors in the Czech Republic was investigated. The main aim was to observe attitudes to eating edible insects before and after their tasting and to assess the extent of the effect of prejudices. Hedonic evaluation of the overall acceptability of edible insects was carried out under laboratory conditions by trained assessors. Of the 98 panellists, 68 were willing to evaluate the sample visually and then by tasting. They showed statistically significant differences (P &lt; 0.0001) in overall pleasantness before tasting (40 ± 22%) and after tasting (61 ± 17%). No statistically significant differences between male and female assessors were observed, either before or after tasting. Women and younger assessors were slightly more open to entomophagy, but there were no statistically significant differences between males and females or between the two age categories (18–25 and 26–45 years of age) in the results. The preferred methods of culinary preparation of edible insects that the respondents would choose were baking, roasting and frying.<br /><br />

scholarly journals Risk of depressive symptoms before and after the first hospitalisation for cancer: Evidence from a 16-year cohort study in the Czech Republic

2020 ◽  
Vol 276 ◽  
pp. 76-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wentian Lu ◽  
Hynek Pikhart ◽  
Anne Peasey ◽  
Ruzena Kubinova ◽  
Alexandra Pitman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cohort Study ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Before And After

scholarly journals On determination of the deadlines with regards to restrictions arising after the dismissal of civil servants for loss of credibility

2021 ◽  
pp. 9-14
Author(s):  
Tigran Antonovich Zanko
Keyword(s):  
Civil Service ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Federal Law ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Service Legislation ◽  
Practical Recommendations

The subject of this research is the legal norms that regulate the consequences of bringing civil servants to responsibility in the form of dismissal due to loss of credibility. It is noted that the current norms of civil service legislation do not contain specific deadlines for restrictions upon the admission to civil service after dismissal for loss of credibility. It is also indicated that the exclusion of a citizen from the register of persons dismissed for loss of credibility does not prevent negative consequences such as failure to enter into civil service is indefinite per se. The author compares the sanctions that restrict the admission of individuals to civil service within the framework of disciplinary, administrative, and criminal responsibility. The main result lies in formulation of practical recommendations for the improvement of civil service legislation, namely clarification of the paragraph 10, of the Part 1 of the Article 16 of the Federal Law No. 79-FZ for determination of the term in which the restriction caused by dismissal for loss of credibility is imposed on the entry into civil service. The article also suggests the mechanism for admission to civil service of persons who have been dismissed for loss of credibility, with participation of the Commission for combatting corruption-related offences.

scholarly journals Efficiency of Mergers of Mechanical Engineering Companies in the Czech Republic

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 361-374
Author(s):  
Mária Režňáková ◽  
Jan Pěta
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Industry ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Research Results ◽  
Operating Profit ◽  
Labour Costs ◽  
Fixed Assets ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Cost

Abstract This paper presents the research results in the field of the efficiency of mergers and acquisitions in the mechanical engineering industry of the Czech Republic. The aim of this paper is to determine whether mergers taking place in mechanical engineering are successful, or possibly to identify factors which may be deemed as synergies sources. In our research, the success rate of mergers is identified on the basis of the increasing revenues and operating profit. It has been established that out of mergers completed in 2004 - 2011, success has been achieved in approximately half of them. For this reason, we have focused on identifying the factors which may serve as the reasons for such a difference. The selected indicators of the cost-to-revenue ratio and utilization of fixed assets, investments, and net working capital we analysed before and after the mergers in both groups of successful and unsuccessful mergers. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to test the results. The research results have demonstrated that synergies are not achieved due to the change in the market power of the merged companied but owing to operational efficiency which is reflected in a drop in labour costs and depreciation to revenues ratios and increasing asset utilization.

Who said politicians cannot be conservativeΠComparing reform capacity in the Czech and Hungarian telecom administrations

2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-419
Author(s):  
Ole Nørgaard ◽  
Luise Pape Møller
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Economic Environment ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Agents Of Change ◽  
Veto Points ◽  
Political Agents ◽  
Telecom Sector

Hungary outpaced the Czech Republic in reforms of the telecom sector during the first decade of transition. In the Czech Republic, prices remained low, competition limited and the state maintained ownership of the incumbent operator. Hungary, in contrast, experienced extensive privatization, liberalization of prices and some deregulation. This outcome challenges the assumption that institutional veto points (frameworks that constrain or enable political agents) manipulated by conservative bureaucrats hindered the initiatives of reform minded politicians in Hungary, while allowing reforms to occur in the also reforming Czech Republic. It is shown that the Czech telecom administration had only a few possibilities to block policy decisions through veto points. The slow reform process was rather a result of a conscious political strategy of maintaining control and accommodating a conservative constituency in context of a relatively sound economic environment. In Hungary, bureaucrats acting as agents of change pushed though the reforms despite opposition from politicians. This insight challenges the traditional picture of civil servants in post-communist systems as inherently conservative and anti-reform.

scholarly journals Oxidation Changes of Vegetable Oils during Microwave Heating

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (Special Issue 1) ◽  
pp. S178-S181 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Lukešová ◽  
J. Dostálová ◽  
E. Abd El-Moneim Mahmoud ◽  
M. Svárovská
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Microwave Heating ◽  
Vegetable Oils ◽  
Corn Oil ◽  
Conjugated Dienes ◽  
Microwave Oven ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Conjugated Dienes And Trienes

Oxidation changes of different types of vegetable oils were studied during microwave heating. Samples of vegetable oils (rapeseed, sunflower, soybean and corn oil), commercially available at the market in the Czech Republic, were heated in a microwave oven. Parameters as peroxide value, conjugated dienes and trienes levels were determined in oil samples before and after heating in the period from 3 to 30 minutes.

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