Středoevropské politické studie / Central European Political Studies Review

Rakouské parlamentní volby 2017: Začátek éry Sebastiana Kurze

2019-01-14T12:22:04+01:00

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

2019-01-14T12:04:37+01:00

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.

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

2019-01-21T09:39:19+01:00

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.

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

2019-01-21T10:08:12+01:00

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.

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

2019-01-21T10:12:55+01:00

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.

Íránská politika a angažmá v Bosně a Hercegovině

2019-01-14T12:04:46+01:00

The aim of this article is an analysis of the Iranian policy towards the region of Western Balkans, mainly the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, since the early 1990s until present days. The security and political dimensions of mutual relation between Iran and Bosnia and Herzegovina are examined. This country has been on the focus of Iranian foreign policy for decades. The article maps Iranian political, religious and cultural activities in the country during and after the civil war. One of the main outcomes of the text is the analysis of stagnation, and we might say even fall of Iranian influence in the region caused by changing of the international atmosphere, Iranian regime itself and the decline of Iranian money flow to Bosnia and Herzegovina caused by problematic economic situation in the Islamic Republic suffering the lack of sources.