scholarly journals Elections in V4 countries after 30 years. Features of 2019–2020 electoral campaigns

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikhail Vedernikov ◽  
◽  
Lyubov Shishelina ◽  
Andrei Habarta ◽  
◽  
...  

The collective monograph, written by leading Russian specialists in Central Europe, provides an overview of the election campaigns of 2019–2020 in the Visegrad group countries (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic). The analysis is based on the elections of different levels in these countries, as well as on the elections to the European Parliament in 2019; i.e. 30 years after the first free elections in the «post-socialist countries». The key trends of electoral behavior of the region’s residents during the latest election campaigns are identified, as well as the main directions of the region’s political evolution in recent years. For the first time, the attention of researchers is focused on the transformation of the political process under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Author(s):  
E.V. x E.V. Efanova

The article presents a structural and functional analysis of election campaigns in Russia. It is obvious that electoral campaigns of candidates are unfolding during the election period, which, through interaction with citizens, enlist their support and sympathy, which contributes to their achievement of the main goal - victory in the elections and, therefore, the seizure and retention of power. The election campaign, being a structural element of the electoral process, is a set of events carried out by various subjects of this process in order to win the election by attracting the votes of the electorate. In general, the electoral company, on the one hand, is a set of measures for organizing elections, regulated by law and carried out by election commissions, and, on the other, a set of actions of political actors involved in the electoral process. It was established that election campaigns have a typical structure, organizational features, political, administrative and socio-cultural characteristics at the federal and regional levels of the electoral process. Among the regional organizational and functional features of domestic election campaigns are: a high degree of intensity of the election process, the dependence of the success of regional election campaigns on the electoral activity of citizens, the orientation of candidates to the needs of the residents of the region, and a prompt response to criticism from the electoral community. The study of the features of the implementation of regional election campaigns is important for Russian reality, especially in the conditions of the ongoing formation and intensive development of the democratic political process in the Russian Federation at the present stage.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-66
Author(s):  
Josef Smolík

The article deals with the description of football hooligans in the countries of Visegrad Group (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary). Text describes history of this phenomenon in the central Europe in the context of European Football Championships of 2012 and 2016. Particular hooligans’ groups, the basic characteristics, relations and manifestations of these groups are briefly presented. In the final part there are outlined particular actors participating in tackling with football hooligans, including legislative procedures stemming from European Convention. In the conclusion itself there is discussed also police’ cooperation during big football championships.


1976 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 433-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred M. Hayward

This study examines the extent, impact and implications of political information in Ghana using survey data. A major interest is to identify and examine variables which influence level of information and to look at the consequences for the political process of different levels of political information. I examine conventional wisdom concerning the ignorance of the masses about national politics and call into question some common assumptions. Many of the differences usually assumed between developed and underdeveloped nations are found either not to exist or to be smaller than hypothesized. The data suggest that in some areas of national political information the masses in non-modernized societies are more politically aware than their counterparts in modernized societies. It is also suggested that there is no necessary link between education (literacy) and political information and that there are a number of functional equivalents to formal education. In the last section of the study several propositions about the informed citizenry are discussed.


2008 ◽  
Vol 53 (No. 1) ◽  
pp. 21-29
Author(s):  
J. Cmejrek

The Velvet Revolution in November 1989 in the former Czechoslovakia opened the way to the renewal of the democratic political system. One of the most visible aspects of the Czech political development consisted in the renewal of the essential functions of elections and political parties. On the local level, however, the political process - as well as in other post-communist countries - continued to be for a long time influenced by the remains of the former centralized system wherein the local administration used to be subjected to the central state power. Municipal elections took hold in these countries, however, the local government remained in the embryonic state and a certain absence of real political and economic decision-making mechanism on the local level continued to show. The public administration in the Czech Republic had to deal with the changes in the administrative division of the state, the split of the Czechoslovak federation as well as the fragmentation of municipalities whose number increased by 50 percent. Decision making mechanisms on the local and regional level were suffering from the incomplete territorial hierarchy of public administration and from the unclear division of power between the state administration and local administration bodies. Only at the end of the 1990s, the public administration in the Czech Republic started to get a more integrated and specific shape. Citizens participation in the political process represents one of the key issues of representative democracy. The contemporary democracy has to face the decrease in voter turnout and the low interest of citizens to assume responsibility within the political process. The spread of democratising process following the fall of the iron curtain should not overshadow the risk of internal weakness of democracy. The solution should be looked for in more responsible citizenship and citizens’ political participation. The degree of political participation is considered (together with political pluralism) to be the key element of representative democracy in general terms, as well as of democratic process on the local and regional level. The objective of this paper is to describe the specifics of citizens local political participation in the Czech Republic and to show the differences between rural and urban areas. The paper concentrates on voting and voter turnout but deals also with other forms of citizens political participation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 92 (8) ◽  
pp. 1906-1916 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Weidmann ◽  
D. Růžek ◽  
K. Křivanec ◽  
G. Zöller ◽  
S. Essbauer ◽  
...  

Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is the most important arboviral agent causing disease of the central nervous system in central Europe. In this study, 61 TBEV E gene sequences derived from 48 isolates from the Czech Republic, and four isolates and nine TBEV strains detected in ticks from Germany, covering more than half a century from 1954 to 2009, were sequenced and subjected to phylogenetic and Bayesian phylodynamic analysis to determine the phylogeography of TBEV in central Europe. The general Eurasian continental east-to-west pattern of the spread of TBEV was confirmed at the regional level but is interlaced with spreading that arises because of local geography and anthropogenic influence. This spread is reflected by the disease pattern in the Czech Republic that has been observed since 1991. The overall evolutionary rate was estimated to be approximately 8×10−4 substitutions per nucleotide per year. The analysis of the TBEV E genes of 11 strains isolated at one natural focus in Žďár Kaplice proved for the first time that TBEV is indeed subject to local evolution.


Author(s):  
Andrii Koblan

AbstractThe paper deals with the political moments of CEE countries participation in American anti-terrorist and military efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the course of these events, it accentuates the bilateral relationships between four countries of Visegrad group with the USA, with the focus on the participation of Poland and Czech Republic that presented some different, although controversial patterns of support of American policy. The paper clearly shows the remoteness of international terrorist threat in the region that is irrelevant with active participation of the region in outer campaigns in Asia, with dubious rationale and consequences. As a result this paper is the attempt to consolidate the conclusions of other (predominantly local) works on the issue, but also to generalize this issue from the historical perspective; and is the additional contribution to the whole picture of American anti-terrorist campaign in the first decade of XXI century. Thus the background of terrorism in the region is contemplated through the context of American anti-terrorist policy along with the reforms of anti-terrorist system of these states after “September 11”. Indeed, main point of the work is the comparative approach to analyzing the contribution of Poland and Czech Republic to the anti-terrorist campaign.


Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4568 (3) ◽  
pp. 587
Author(s):  
JAN ŠUMPICH ◽  
JOSEF JAROŠ

Chrysoclista karsholti Šumpich, sp. n., is described from a single male collected in Turkey. This species most resembles C. germanica Šumpich & Huemer, 2016, but differs in the colouration of the dorsum of the forewing and in the shape of the valva in the male genitalia. Differences in the DNA barcode region between these two species are rather low compared to differences between other species of the genus. Chrysoclista germanica, previously known only from the holotype, is recorded from the Czech Republic for the first time. An updated checklist of western Palaearctic Chrysoclista Stainton, 1854 is provided. 


Author(s):  
Andrey V. Samusevich ◽  

This article elaborates the thesis the process and results of the regional heads elections in 2019 and 2020. An attempt is also made to frame the model of the manageable electoral procedure for the governors’ appointments implemented during the period of the regional election campaigns of 2019 and 2020. The methodological framework includes the design of the regional electoral cycle and the concept of the viability of public administration and administrative elites as an independent research category of political science. Based on the results of the analysis, a conclusion is drawn about the current situation of the state administration and administrative elites in the Russian political system and the degree of their participation in the political process.


Politics ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darren G. Lilleker

Conducting interviews can be a fundamentally important part of a research project that analyses the motivations and activity of those within the political process. However the logistics of interviewing are fraught with a number of serious obstacles and what information one can glean may not always serve the purpose that was originally intended. This article offers some observations gathered from conducting interviews with a wide range of political actors which is intended to help prepare all those considering interviewing for the first time.


2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasper de Raadt

What were the effects of constitution-making procedures on the acceptance of the new “rules of the political game” in postcommunist Central Europe? This article sets out to scrutinise the increasingly popular claim among politicians and scholars of democratisation that inclusiveness and popular involvement in constitution-making processes enhance a constitution's legitimacy. The concept of constitutional conflict, referring to political contestation over the interpretation and application of constitutional relations among state institutions, is introduced as a way to assess constitutional acceptance among politicians. The investigation concentrates on constitutional conflict patterns during the five years following constitution-making in seven Central European countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Constitution-making procedures varied substantially among the cases, as did the intensity and timing of constitutional conflict. The article finds that differences in constitution-making procedures do not necessarily determine the legitimacy of constitutions among political elites. Instead, ambiguity on the allocation of formal competencies among political actors and increasing political tensions between pro-reform and anti-reform parties during the early 1990s proved to be more important triggers of constitutional conflict. Accordingly, studies on constitution-making and democratisation should focus less on procedural aspects and take into account the fuzziness of important constitutional provisions and the extent to which constitutions can survive periods of intense political polarisation.


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