Ako skúmať voľby v priestore mesta: prípad snemovných volieb 2017 v Prahe

The study uses the 2017 parliamentary elections results to analyses spatial patterns of votes in the city of Prague. A unique approach combining contextual and compositional data is introduced. Census data and data indicating the quality of life are reassigned to a shared entity – an address point, and analysed via automatic linear modelling. The model explained 69 % of spatial variance of votes share for the conservative TOP 09 party and the winning ANO 2011 movement, but only 19 % for the Pirate Party and the Mayors and Independence movement. Future research might focus on finding variables which would explain spatial variance of these parties’ vote shares. Abother possibility is the development of a methodology for studying votes spatiality within urban areas, in order to develop a robust theory.

Personalizace na komunální úrovni: existuje a lze ji v českém prostředí zkoumat?

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.

Partial state capture by a single oligarchic group: The Gorilla Case in Slovakia

The article discusses the Gorilla case, an officially still-contested partial state capture by a single local oligarchic group, in line with the (partial) Elite Cartels corruption pattern in Slovakia. Due to the manner in which evidence, although considered unofficial, was made available, this case illustrates secret political and business processes during partial state capture. The initial absence of the case in public, political, and academic discourses, suggests that state capture can be present and operate undetected for a long time. This study also shows that in-depth analysis of the Gorilla case was avoided by both domestic and international political scientists, despite its paramount practical and theoretical importance. This, in turn, reflects a methodological capture of political science. Consequently, this article disentangles the complexities of the Gorilla case and lays down the foundation for further studies. Specifically, it highlights the need for more careful research, terminological precision in both theory-building and empirical findings on state and media capture based on case studies, as well as re-assessment of the methodology of political sciences used in these research areas.

Rakouské parlamentní volby 2017: Začátek éry Sebastiana Kurze

The article deals with the early parliamentary elections in Austria, which resulted from conflicts inside the government. The situation provides a negative example of a long rule of grand coalition. Most Austrians had lost the trust in abilities of the cabinet made up by social democrats (SPÖ) and Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) to deal with problems of the day. The public demanded an end to controversies and change of political style. In the stalemate situation it was ÖVP which initiated irregular elections into National Council. It succeeded in connecting the dynamic and perspective personality of the leader Sebastian Kurz with the image of a new and open movement. During the campaign, it emphasized themes which the Austrian public considered important (migration and asylum policy, better security, reduction of taxes) in combination with professional political marketing. After the elections, negotiations revealed programmatic overlap between ÖVP and Freedom Party of Austria, which placed third, in a number of important areas. The new government worked out an ambitious reform program, for which it secured enough majority support in the National Council; also the favourable economic conditions helped. The article provides analysis of electoral programs and the respective stages of the electoral campaign, making use of extensive electoral materials, including unarchived ones. Besides filling a major descriptive-analytic gap in the Czech scholarly reflection of Austrian politics, the article probes into actual trends of Austrian electoral marketing and electoral behaviour.

Obchod s chudobou: obsahová analýza českých zpravodajských médií v období 2006–2017

Poverty business has become an important metaphor in the current debate regarding security in socially excluded localities. The term poverty business covers a range of business practices aimed at the poorest and most vulnerable populations. The goal of this study is to examine media representations of the phenomenon using content analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. First, characteristics of Czech media messages including the term “poverty business” are analysed. Next, key events are identified which have shaped the way poverty business is reported on in the analysed corpus. Finally, topics, groups and key actors are analysed based on the development of their quantitative representation in the corpus over time.

Znalosti a pozice v politickém prostoru: případ parlamentních voleb v Česku 2017

The aim of this article is to clarify connections between citizens’ knowledge and their positions in a political space in the Czech Republic. Rather than a political space as a whole, previous studies examined particular issues, values, participation or accuracy of citizens’ positions compared to positions of their preferred candidates in association with the knowledge variable. Thus, this study provides a new piece of the puzzle. The election study 2017 of Centrum pro výzkum veřejného mínění (Public Opinion Research Centre) is a source of the data for this analysis. The results suggest, in contrary to our presumptions, that the knowledge does not significantly influence if a person advocates rather central or clear-cut positions. On the other hand, more knowledgeable citizens are slightly more liberal in the conservative – liberal dimension. The interesting contradiction is seen in the left – right dimension in the Czech specific context. Compared to people with less knowledge, more knowledgeable people tend to be positioned in more right positions in the left-right dimension related to the economy and in more left positions in the dimension related to the transition.

Tělovýchovné spolky a turnerské hnutí jako nástroje sudetoněmecké iredenty: Podíl sudetoněmeckých tělovýchovných organizací na rozbití československého státu

The Turner movement, founded in the beginning of the 19th century by Friedrich L. Jahn, played an important role in organizing leisure time activities of the Sudeten German population during the first half of the 20th century. After splitting from the Austrian Turners, the Sudeten German Turners took over not only the methodology of practice, but also incorporated some of their ideological standpoints. At the beginning, Sudeten German Turner clubs considered themselves apolitical; the main goal of the Sudeten German Turners was physical and moral education of youth. Notwithstanding this original purpose, over time they became a political tool for Sudeten German political representation and executors of various forms of sedition towards the Czechoslovakia. Not even strong ideological contradictions within the Turner movement stopped it from becoming isolated from other Czechoslovak sport organizations and from disseminating pan-German goals and ideas in Czechoslovakia. The Turners provided Sudeten German youth not only with physical education; the organization became an influential tool of socialization as well. This paper reveals the political goals of Sudeten German Turner clubs in the terms of its historical development and provides an overview of the most important Sudeten German Turner club DTV (Deutscher Turnverband). It also clarifies how, the originally physical education-orientated DTV contributed to the breaking-up of Czechoslovakia.

Definice semiprezidencialismu – řešení či nové otázky?

This review essay discusses new definition of a semipresidential system, which has been introduced by Miloš Brunclík and Michal Kubát in their book Kdo vládne Česku? (Who Governs in Czechia?). Advantages and problems of their definition are discussed, with the result that the definition is interesting and generally correct. However, some modifications to the definition are proposed. Subsequently, arguments put forward against the Post-duvergerian definition of semipresidentialism are critically evaluated, including alternatives to the definition proposed by Brunclík and Kubát. The essay closes by presenting alternative ways of dealing with the dispute over the definition of semipresidentialism among Czech political scientists.

Ondřej Preuss: Klauzule věčnosti: Je možné odstranit liberální demokracii?

Knižní recenze / book review.

Polska A, B i C? Volební geografie vybraných polských vojvodství

The study focuses on spatial analysis of the general election results in Lower Silesia, Lodz and Lesser Poland voivodeships in a period between 2001 and 2015. Primary subjects of the analysis are political parties Law and Justice, Civic Platform, Polish People´s Party and Democratic Left Alliance, but particularly works also with the results of another parties (Self-Defence, League of Polish families, Modern). Standard electoral geography methodological methods, such as cartographic display of election results, correlation analysis and concentration of the election results measurement have been used on the local level and along with Polish and Czech literature review are included in the study. Main goal of the study was to find out if there are structural differences in terms of electoral support for the parties on both regional and voivodeship level. The analysis proved deeper context of the election results in the eastern regions along with a changing spatial structure of the Law and Justice support in the first decade of the 21st century and related deepening differences between voter bases of the Law and Justice and the Civic Platform- strongest parties in Poland. Findings of the analysis might be useful for upcoming research of the analysis of the electoral support in terms of regional differences.