Local Self-Government in Slovakia

The goal of this chapter is to summarize the developments of the local self-government system in Slovakia and evaluate the conformity of its current status with the principles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government

Four Cases, the Same Story? The Roles of the Prime Ministers in the V4 Countries During the Covid-19 Crisis

The goal of this paper is to deliver a comparative analysis of the behaviors and statements of the PMs in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, using the concept of adaptive leaderships as a base for analysis. We employed the usage of four fundamental skills proposed by Glover, Friedman and Jones (2002) and of five fundamental recommendations proposed by Macpherson and ‘t Hart (2020) to assess the behaviors and relevant statements of the PMs of the four analyzed countries during the time of the pandemic. The fact that all four analyzed PMs did not employ many adaptive leadership skills and recommendations may serve as one of the possible explanations for the very problematic results in fighting COVID-19 during the second phase of the pandemic, when especially the Czech Republic and Slovakia belonged to the most affected countries. The costs of such limited competence are borne by citizens and businesses

Dopady pandemie covid-19 a reakce různých politických aktérů v České republice a na Slovensku v roce 2020: Úvod do speciálního čísla

Hundreds of thousands of articles related to COVID-19 have been published worldwide, and many of them have focused on public administration and public policy aspects related to this pandemic. Certainly, the general lack of relevant knowledge and necessary experience for a robust governance strategy and evidence-based policy-making became a global problem in 2020. This is certainly the case for all countries of the Central and Eastern European region, including the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This gap in research perspectives needs to be filled because of the enormous public policy challenges raised due to the COVID-19 pandemic. SciPap is an international academic journal of regional importance, and this special issue aims to contribute some answers to present research shortcomings and the lack of inputs for evidence-based policy-making. More precisely, this special issue is focused on public policies and responses of various actors to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 2020.Po celém světě byly publikovány statisíce článků souvisejících s COVID-19 a mnohé z nich se zaměřily na aspekty veřejné správy a veřejné politiky související s touto pandemií. Obecný nedostatek relevantních znalostí a potřebných zkušeností pro robustní strategii vládnutí a tvorbu politik založených na důkazech se jistě stal v roce 2020 globálním problémem. To je jistě případ všech zemí regionu střední a východní Evropy, včetně České republiky a Slovenska. Tuto mezeru v perspektivách výzkumu je třeba zaplnit kvůli obrovským výzvám veřejných politik vyvolaných pandemií COVID-19. SciPap je mezinárodní akademický časopis regionálního významu a toto speciální vydání si klade za cíl přispět některými odpověďmi na současné nedostatky ve výzkumu a nedostatek vstupů pro tvorbu politik založených na důkazech. Přesněji řečeno, toto speciální číslo je zaměřeno na veřejné politiky a reakce různých aktérů na pandemii COVID-19 v České republice a na Slovensku v roce 2020

Development and current state of local government systems in the selected post-communist countries

Since the fall of the Communist parties' regimes, the Central/South-East Europe countries have, inter alia, tried to reorganize their local government systems in the manner that would be closer to democratic principles or principles that were accepted in so called Western Europe. A comparative analysis of this article is focused on local government systems which have been introduced in the Czech Republic, FYR of Macedonia, Slovakia and Slovenia and, within this context, especially on positions of the political representatives, who are elected at the local levels in these countries. Due to similar socio-political and economic history of these countries in the 20th century as well as due to their efforts to become members of the European Union, it is possible to assume that they have introduced similar local government systems. However, as stressed in the article, similar ideas and comparable ways of their implementation may produce different outcomes in different environments. Thus, despite the fact that the processes, which should lead to their achievement, were often supported by various international organizations and despite a manifested desire of the selected countries to join the EU, they have introduced significantly different local government systems

Public Administration Education in the CEE Countries: How has it Developed during the Recent Decades ?

This paper presents findings on the developments of PA education in 11 CEE countries and discusses various patterns based on the data on the historical background of PA education, forming thus the initial outcome of a more complex research carried out within the PAQUALITY project. The analysis is based around two main contextual factors: the role of imprinting (path-dependence) of the PA education in the framework of history and evolved PA ideologies, and the development of PA as discipline; and the role of institutional and HE legal factors on the current existence and status of PA education in the selected cluster of countries. The research question relates to the potential observation of differences in the development and current status of PA education in 11 CEE countries today. For this purpose, we utilize a co-variational international comparative case-study methodological approach, since this is a variable-centered approach, as it is acknowledged that a full-fledged theory might be absent in the framework of this specific investigation. The results indicate that we can argue in favor of the role of path-dependence in shaping PA education in CEE countries, where different starting points affected the outcomes in the content of current PA education. However, path-dependence is not to be taken as a sole factor corresponding to the development of the PA discipline in specific countries, as also more context-based factors and legal provisions do play the role. The outcome is that there is a lack of uniformity of PA education across CEE countries, where the country-specific context is the major factor in shaping the structure and content of programs, in some instances even creating new “sciences”. Although it would be expected to have some convergence in PA programs after almost three decades after the political and economic transformations started, we can even argue that PA education is more diverse now. This would give a specific role to the internalization and / or international accreditation in re-shaping and reversing the divergence processes in the future, but the anticipation for program consolidation might also be the factor that could have converging effects

Pandemie COVID-19 v České republice a na Slovensku

This special issue was envisaged to cover diverse scholarly contributions of an empirical nature that focus on various questions linked to the COVID-19 crisis in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The choice of countries was intentional; after all, the Czech Republic and Slovakia both experienced controversial developments during 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic found them unprepared and inexperienced in the field of serious epidemics yet also saw them gain international recognition for the very positive results gained from their initial responses. The second half of 2020 provided a very different story. Both countries were hard hit by the epidemics immediately after the summer, and the situation worsened month by month. These negative developments escalated at the end of 2020 and in early 2021 when the number of new cases rapidly increased and the total number of patients at risk of dying began to exceed the capacities of public hospitals. This summary offers an overview of the research by authors included in this special issue. It compares their findings with the results of others in order to suggest a set of policy implications that are based on empirical analyses. There is also an attempt to estimate several avenues of further multi-disciplinary research focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic and relevant policy responses. Within this context, this special issue is useful for both researchers and policy makers.Toto speciální číslo mělo pokrýt různé odborné příspěvky empirického charakteru, které se zaměřují na různé otázky související s krizí COVID-19 v České republice a na Slovensku. Výběr zemí byl záměrný; ostatně Česká republika i Slovensko zažily v roce 2020 kontroverzní vývoj. Pandemie COVID-19 je zastihla nepřipravené a nezkušené v oblasti vážných epidemií, ale zároveň jim přinesla mezinárodní uznání za velmi pozitivní výsledky získané z jejich počátečních reakcí. Druhá polovina roku 2020 přinesla úplně jiný příběh. Obě země byly bezprostředně po létě těžce zasaženy epidemiemi a situace se měsíc od měsíce zhoršovala. Tento negativní vývoj eskaloval koncem roku 2020 a začátkem roku 2021, kdy rapidně vzrostl počet nových případů a celkový počet pacientů ohrožených smrtí začal převyšovat kapacity veřejných nemocnic. Toto shrnutí nabízí přehled výzkumů autorů zařazených do tohoto speciálního čísla. Porovnává jejich zjištění s výsledky jiných, aby navrhlo soubor politických důsledků, které jsou založeny na empirických analýzách. Pokouší se také odhadnout několik cest dalšího multidisciplinárního výzkumu zaměřeného na pandemii COVID-19 a příslušné politické reakce. V tomto kontextu je toto zvláštní téma užitečné jak pro výzkumníky, tak pro tvůrce politik

Politická reprezentace žen na pozicích starostek v Česku a na Slovensku v letech 2006-2014 :Srovnávací analýza faktorů úspěšnosti

Main objective of this article is to analyse political determinants of the descriptive representation of women at the local level in communal elections (i.e. the position of mayor) in the Czech Republic and Slovakia over the past decade. It focuses on the political opportunity structure (i.e. the structure of relationships that affect social and political behaviour) and questions whether this structure affects also women’s political representation. It shows that women are significantly advantaged in municipalities where women have held a mayoral post in a previous electoral term. In contrast to other studies, previous women’s representation in a municipal council is here found to have only a limited effect. The strong negative effect of the direct election of mayors and the negative effect of municipal size (only in Slovakia) indicate that women’s representation as mayors may be the result of interdependent phenomena that are a combination of institutional structure (e.g. electoral procedure, the mayor’s powers) and political contextual factors (past experience with a female mayor - not necessarily incumbents). This finding challenges earlier studies and it shows that any effort to identify a clear list of determinants of women’s representation as mayors is a complex task, making it difficult to pursue a broader comparative study in a different institutional environment or a different political culture.52956

Human Limitations to Introduction of Smart Cities: Comparative Analysis From Two CEE Cities

<p><strong>Abstract </strong>Smart cities are a modern administrative/ developmental concept that tries to combine the development of urban areas with a higher level of citizens’ participation. However, there is a lack of understanding of the concept’s potential, due possibly to an unwillingness to accept a new form of relationship with the citizens. In this article, the willingness to introduce the elements of smart cities into two Central and Eastern European cities is tested. The results show that people are reluctant to use technology above the level of their needs and show little interest in participating in matters of governance, which prevents smart cities from developing in reality.</p