scholarly journals Democratic Erosion and Democratic Resilience in Central Europe during COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 91-104
Author(s):  
Petra Guasti
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Previous Literature ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Path Dependent ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient

What are the effects of populists in power on democracy during a pandemic? The paper seeks to distinguish the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic can (not) be traced to democratic erosion and democratic resilience. Are the changes in the quality of democracy resulting from political leaders' actions or rather a path-dependent continuation of previous trends? This contribution focuses on two paths – democratic erosion and democratic resilience – in the Visegrad Four countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia), which are all governed by populist leaders. It builds on previous literature that focused principally on the first wave of the pandemic by focusing on institutional guardrails and accountability (vertical, horizontal, and diagonal) during the 18 months of the pandemic. It seeks to answer the following question:  What conditions are necessary and sufficient to prevent democratic erosion?

scholarly journals The Illiberal Turn or Swerve in Central Europe?

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 166-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lenka Bustikova ◽  
Petra Guasti
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Independent Judiciary ◽  
Multiple Symptoms

Scholars are coming to terms with the fact that something is rotten in the new democracies of Central Europe. The corrosion has multiple symptoms: declining trust in democratic institutions, emboldened uncivil society, the rise of oligarchs and populists as political leaders, assaults on an independent judiciary, the colonization of public administration by political proxies, increased political control over media, civic apathy, nationalistic contestation and Russian meddling. These processes signal that the liberal-democratic project in the so-called Visegrad Four (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) has been either stalled, diverted or reversed. This article investigates the “illiberal turn” in the Visegrad Four (V4) countries. It develops an analytical distinction between illiberal “turns” and “swerves”, with the former representing more permanent political changes, and offers evidence that Hungary is the only country in the V4 at the brink of a decisive illiberal turn.

scholarly journals Possible Outcomes of Introducing a Majority System for Elections to the Czech Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-163
Author(s):  
Michal Pink
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Party System ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Significant Risk Factor ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Common ◽  
Chamber Of Deputies

This paper explores the possibility of introducing a majority electoral system for the Chamber of Deputies in the Czech Republic, and discusses the virtues and drawbacks of such a system. It recalculates the electoral results from two previous elections using majority electoral systems (first-past-the-post and two round majority system) to examine how such a change could influence the formation of governmental majorities in the chamber and what the possible consequences for the quality of democracy in the Czech Republic could be. The results show that majority system would likely radically simplify the formation of governments with clear majorities, and hinder emerging populist parties as well as weaken the communist party. On the other hand, the adoption of a majority system would substantially lower barriers to enter the chamber, which could lead to the disintegration of the party system and its increased fragmentation. Combined with the common practice of Czech politicians to hold various mandates at different levels of the political system at the same time, this could be a significant risk factor.

scholarly journals Does Participatory Budgeting Bolster Voter Turnout in Elections ? The Case of the Czech Republic

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soňa Kukučková ◽  
Eduard Bakoš
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Participatory Budgeting ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThough participatory budgeting (PB) is often discussed as a tool to bolster the level of civic participation and the quality of democracy, empirical research on the subject offers ambiguous results. In the Czech Republic, PB was introduced 5 years ago, and the number of implemented PBs has since increased substantially. The purpose of this article is to evaluate whether the use of PB is associated with higher voter turnout in municipal and parliamentary elections. Voter turnout in Czech municipalities that implemented PB is analyzed and compared with the control group of municipalities without PB. Considered by type of election, we found that the impact of PB use on voter turnout is higher for local elections than it is for national elections, which is in line with our assumptions. However, our results were significant for Prague districts only. Participatory budgeting could increase voter turnout in local election, but there are other factors that must be considered.

The quality of democracy: Mass‐elite linkages in the Czech republic

1997 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 63-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew T. Green ◽  
Carol Skalnik Leff
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
The Czech Republic

INTERNATIONAL GRANT COOPERATION AS A TOOL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES OF UNIVERSITY TEACHERS

2018 ◽  
pp. 4-8
Author(s):  
Milan Chmura
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Professional Education ◽  
European Countries ◽  
International Project ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
University Teachers ◽  
Quality Of Higher Education ◽  
Education And Development

The education and development of university teachers have its justifcation and its importance is signifcant not only in the Czech Republic but also abroad. This study provides an analysis of further professional education of university teachers in the Czech Republic and in selected European countries. Subsequently, it presents an international project with participants from the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Slovakia and Poland, which, ultimately, plays a role in the improvement of the quality of higher education.

Review of quality of life studies in the Czech Republic

1998 ◽  
Vol 13 (S4) ◽  
pp. 319s-319s
Author(s):  
E. Dragomirecká ◽  
C. Škoda
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
The Czech Republic

Transitional Justice and Changing Memories of the Past in Central Europe

2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-44
Author(s):  
Roman David
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Divided Societies ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Impact

Memories of wrongdoings are often viewed as an obstacle to reconciliation in divided societies. Is it due to the past or the present politics of the past? To examine the dilemma of essentialism versus presentism, this article investigates the impact of transitional justice on memories of wrongdoing. It theorizes that using different transitional justice strategies to deal with the same wrongdoing shapes memories in different ways. The theory is tested via vignette-based surveys in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, which adopted distinct lustration laws. The results show that wrongdoing is viewed through lustration laws, reflecting present power constellations, not history.

scholarly journals The impact of the air temperature on measuring the zenith angle during the year in the ground layer of the atmosphere for the needs of engineering surveying

2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 476-488
Author(s):  
Tomáš Suk ◽  
Martin Štroner
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Numerical Model ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
Zenith Angle ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Temperature Gradients ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Different Seasons ◽  
The Impact

This paper presents the results of over a year-long experiment dealing with a temperature measurement to calculate the theoretical effect of the atmosphere on the measured zenith angle in engineering surveying. The measurements were performed to determine the accurate and specific temperatures (temperature gradients), which can be recorded in different seasons in the low level of the atmosphere (up to 2 m above the ground, where most Engineering Surveying measurements take place) for the geographical area of Central Europe - specifically the Czech Republic. A numerical model was then applied to the resulting determined temperature gradients to calculate the path of the beam passing through an inhomogeneous atmosphere. From these values, the apparent vertical shifts caused by refraction in a given environment and time were finally determined.

scholarly journals Quality of malting barley crop 2009 in the Czech Republic.

2010 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivo HARTMAN ◽  
Josef PROKEŠ ◽  
Alena HELÁNOVÁ
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Malting Barley ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Barley Crop
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