scholarly journals The Impact of the D21 Method and Its Modification on Citizens’ Participation in Participatory Budgeting. The Case of the Czech Republic

2021 ◽  
pp. 117-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soňa Kukučková ◽  
Marie Poláchová
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Participation Rate ◽  
Participatory Budgeting ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Public Resources ◽  
Voting Methods ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Voting Method

Participatory budgeting (PB) is often discussed as a tool to support active participation of citizens in the decision-making in the matters of the distribution of public resources. However, little was said about the possibility that the choice of a voting method used in the voting phase of the PB process could affect the participation in PB. In the Czech Republic, the Democracy 2.1 (D21) voting method is often used in municipalities implementing PB and additionally, it is promoted as a method to encourage more people to vote. This article aims to determine Czech municipalities with the D21 method and its modification, and to evaluate the impact of choosing these voting methods on participation rate in PB. The study suggests that the choice of a voting method is relevant for citizens´ engagement in voting. Based on the empirical findings, the D21 method and its modification are associated with a higher voter turnout in PB than another voting method. Further, the results underline the influence of external organizations offering online platforms for voting.

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.

scholarly journals Participatory Budgeting and Traditional Participation in Czech Municipalities

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavol Minárik
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Participatory Budgeting ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Municipal Elections ◽  
Limited Scale ◽  
Smart Governance

As an instrument of smart governance, participatory budgeting has been implemented by several dozen of municipalities in the Czech Republic. This is in line with the trend in many European cities. The paper examines the implementation of participatory budgeting in Czech municipalities. It is observed that participatory budgeting is being implemented in the Czech Republic typically on a very limited scale. The particular aim of this paper is to analyze the relation of participatory budgeting to the traditional political participation in local elections. Following an examination of the extent in which the instrument is implemented in the Czech municipalities, statistical tools are used to relate implementation of participatory budgeting to several measures of traditional political participation, such as voter turnout and intensity of the political competition in municipal elections. The paper concludes that the implementation of participatory budgeting has very little relation to the traditional, electoral participation in the Czech Republic.

Divergent Paths of Inequality in Poland and the Czech Republic

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekrem Karakoç
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Process Tracing ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Welfare Policies ◽  
Two Factors

Employing most similar design and process-tracing methodology, this chapter focuses on Poland and the Czech Republic in the postcommunist region. It discusses the divergent paths these two countries have taken since their transitions. After discussing the similarities and dissimilarities of these two cases, it turns to the welfare policies shared by both countries with some differences under their former communist rule. It also traces voter turnout and linkage between political party and citizens, and explores how these two factors have affected social policies in each country. The last section offers a comparison of Polish and Czech social policies regarding the level and nature of their targeted spending and its effect on income inequality.

scholarly journals Assessing Habitat Vulnerability and Loss of Naturalness: Applying the GLOBIO3 Model in the Czech Republic

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5355
Author(s):  
Vilém Pechanec ◽  
Ondřej Cudlín ◽  
Miloš Zapletal ◽  
Jan Purkyt ◽  
Lenka Štěrbová ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Habitat Quality ◽  
Species Abundance ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
New Equation ◽  
The Impact

Global and regional biodiversity loss is caused by several drivers including urban development, land use intensification, overexploitation of natural resources, environmental pollution, and climate change. The main aim of our study was to adapt the GLOBIO3 model to the conditions of the Czech Republic (CR) to assess loss of naturalness and biodiversity vulnerability at the habitat level on a detailed scale across the entire CR. An additional aim was to assess the main drivers affecting the biodiversity of habitat types. The GLOBIO3 model was adapted to CZ-GLOBIO by adapting global to local scales and using habitat quality and naturalness data instead of species occurrence data. The total mean species abundance (MSA) index of habitat quality, calculated from the spatial overlay of the four MSA indicators by our new equation, reached the value 0.62. The total value of MSA for natural and near-natural habitats was found to be affected mainly by infrastructure development and fragmentation. Simultaneously, intensity of land use change and atmospheric nitrogen deposition contributed primarily to the low total value of MSA for distant natural habitats. The CZ-GLOBIO model can be an important tool in political decision making to reduce the impact of the main drivers on habitat biodiversity in the CR.

scholarly journals The Impact of Climate Change on the Sugar Content of Grapes and the Sustainability of their Production in the Czech Republic

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 222
Author(s):  
Miroslava Navrátilová ◽  
Markéta Beranová ◽  
Lucie Severová ◽  
Karel Šrédl ◽  
Roman Svoboda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Sugar Content ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Vegetation Period ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Impact Of Climate Change ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Growing Region

The aim of the presented article is to evaluate the impact of climate change on the sugar content of grapes in the Czech Republic during the period 2000–2019 through selected indicators on the basis of available secondary sources. Attention is focused on the developments in both the main wine-growing regions of Moravia and Bohemia. In the field of viticulture and wine-growing, the sugar content of grapes, as a basic parameter for the classification of wines, plays an important role. In the Czech Republic, the average sugar content of grapes has had a constantly growing trend. This trend is evident both in the wine-growing region of Bohemia and in the wine-growing region of Moravia. The impact of climate change, especially the gradual increase of average temperatures in the growing season, cannot be overlooked. It greatly affects, among other things, the sugar content of grapes. Calculations according to the Huglin Index and the Winkler Index were used to determine the relationship between climate and sugar content. These indexes summarize the course of temperatures during the entire vegetation period into a single numerical value. The results show that both indexes describe the effect of air temperature on sugar content in both wine regions of the Czech Republic in a statistically significant way. The Huglin Index shows a higher correlation rate. The Winkler Index proved to be less suitable for both areas. Alternatively, the Winkler Index calculated for a shorter growing season was tested, which showed a higher degree of correlation with sugar content, approaching the significance of the Huglin Index.

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.

Visible marking of wader nests to avoid damage by farmers does not increase nest predation

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
VÁCLAV ZÁMEČNÍK ◽  
VOJTĚCH KUBELKA ◽  
MIROSLAV ŠÁLEK
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Nest Predation ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Positive Experience ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Nest Protection ◽  
Vanellus Vanellus ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Ground Nesting

SummaryOnly a few studies have assessed the predation risk on artificially marked nests, or have examined ways of marking nests to avoid destruction by machinery. Until now, however, neither type of study has directly addressed this apparent trade-off experimentally. The impact of marking the nests of Northern Lapwing Vanellus vanellus with thin 2 m-long conspicuous bamboo poles with the top end highlighted with reflective red or orange spray has been tested for three years in two breeding areas of waders in the Czech Republic. A total of 52 pairs of nests on agricultural land, with each pair consisting of one marked nest and one unmarked reference counterpart nest, were monitored for 2004 nest-days until hatching, agricultural operations or failure. The results proved that marking itself does not result in increased nest predation. The nests found in the early incubation stage were under higher threat of depredation, irrespective of the presence of marking. Our results show that it is possible to find a finely-tuned trade-off in nest marking of ground-nesting birds between risk of damage by agricultural machinery and risk of increased nest predation. Our positive experience with Northern Lapwing, and episodically with three other wader species in the Czech Republic, suggests that this direct nest protection could be used effectively for a wider variety of ground-nesting birds.

scholarly journals The impact of the recession on health care expenditure — How does the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia compare to other OECD countries?

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-88
Author(s):  
Petra Baji ◽  
Márta Péntek ◽  
Imre Boncz ◽  
Valentin Brodszky ◽  
Olga Loblova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Oecd Countries ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Relative Growth ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
The Impact

In the past few years, several papers have been published in the international literature on the impact of the economic crisis on health and health care. However, there is limited knowledge on this topic regarding the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The main aims of this study are to examine the effect of the financial crisis on health care spending in four CEE countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) in comparison with the OECD countries. In this paper we also revised the literature for economic crisis related impact on health and health care system in these countries. OECD data released in 2012 were used to examine the differences in growth rates before and after the financial crisis. We examined the ratio of the average yearly growth rates of health expenditure expressed in USD (PPP) between 2008–2010 and 2000–2008. The classification of the OECD countries regarding “development” and “relative growth” resulted in four clusters. A large diversity of “relative growth” was observed across the countries in austerity conditions, however the changes significantly correlate with the average drop of GDP from 2008 to 2010. To conclude, it is difficult to capture visible evidence regarding the impact of the recession on the health and health care systems in the CEE countries due to the absence of the necessary data. For the same reason, governments in this region might have a limited capability to minimize the possible negative effects of the recession on health and health care systems.

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