Opoziční smlouvy „za kopečky“ I.: Byl pakt ČSSD a ODS z let 1998–2002 demokratickou deviací?

Po parlamentních volbách roku 1998 zformovala vítězná sociální demokracie menšinovou vládu. Vznik a existence této vlády umožňovala dohoda s druhou největší formací - Občanskou demokratickou stranou. Tato dohoda známá jako Opoziční smlouva se stala předmětem velké debaty. Článek analyzuje Opoziční smlouvu ve srovnávací perspektivě s jinými menšinovými vládami s vnější podporou. Text přitom podrobně analyzuje vládní praxi v Dánsku, Švédsku, na Novém Zélandu a v Itálii (v době historického kompromisu) a v tomto kontextu jsou rozebrány specifika českého případu. Z důvodu značné délky je text článku rozdělen na dvě části; první část je publikována v tomto čísle.After the 1998 general elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic, the largest party, the Social Democratic Party, formed a minority government. The origin and existence of this government was enabled by an agreement with the second largest formation, the Civic Democratic Party. What was then known as the Opposition Agreement became the subject of considerable debate. The paper analyses the Opposition Agreement in comparison with other minority governments with external support, be they governments formed on the basis of ad hoc agreements or complex ones. The text looks in detail at government practice in Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand, and Italy at the time of the Historic Compromise; this is then used as a context for outlining the specifics of the Czech case. Because of its considerable length, the text is divided into two parts; the first part is printed in this volume

Differentials of road and racing vehicles

Tato bakalářská práce je zaměřena na diferenciály osobních a závodních automobilů. Jsou zde uvedeny nejčastěji používané typy. U jednotlivých typů je vysvětlena konstrukce a principy funkce. Přednostně jsou zde popsány používanější typy a také typy se zajímavým technickým řešením. V rámci závodních diferenciálů jsem se pokusil popsat jejich možné nastavování.This bachelor's thesis deals with background research of differentials of road and racing vehicles. There are listed the most commonly used types. For each type is explained by the principles of design and function. Priority, there are described the most commonly used types and types with interesting technical solutions. The race differentials, I tried to describe their possible settings.

Opoziční smlouvy „za kopečky“ II.: Byl pakt ČSSD a ODS z let 1998–2002 demokratickou deviací?

Toto je druhá část článku, jehož první část byla publikována v předchozím čísle časopisu. Opoziční smlouva z července 1998 dala ČSSD možnost zformovat jednobarevnou vládu, přičemž tato strana získala garanci občanských demokratů, že nepodpoří vyslovení nedůvěry vládě. Hlavním ziskem ODS byly pozice ponejvíce v parlamentu, což se vyskytuje i u některých podobných uspořádání v zahraničí. Nicméně ODS nezískala přímou možnost ovlivňovat exekutivu, jako to umožňuje institut ministrů mimo kabinet na Novém Zélandu nebo politických poradců na ministerstvech ve Švédsku. Text Opoziční smlouvy nezahrnoval ustanovení o programové spolupráci s důležitou výjimkou představy rozsáhlých reforem politického systému země, která ale nebyla blíže specifikována. Právě tento nedostatek přispěl ke konci roku 1999 ke krizi Opoziční smlouvy (zvláště důležitá byla neshoda ohledně reformy volebního systému). Společně s problémem, jak zajistit schválení státního rozpočtu, to vedlo k nové dohodě obou velkých stran nazvané Toleranční patent. Toleranční patent sice na jedné straně výrazně posílil kooperaci ČSSD a ODS, ale na druhé straně ani on nevytvořil silně institucionalizovanou dohodu o spolupráci.This is the second part of a two–part paper, the first one having been published in the previous volume of this journal. The Czech Opposition Agreement of July 1998 gave the ČSSD the chance to form a single-party government; moreover, the party received a guarantee from the ODS that it would not support a no-confidence vote. The main gains for the ODS were several posts mainly in parliament, as is common under some similar arrangements abroad. However, the ODS did not gain a strong or direct way of influencing executive power, as there was no parallel to ministers outside the cabinet as in New Zealand, or political advisors to the ministries as in Sweden. The text of the Opposition Agreement did not include any paragraph about cooperation in terms of supporting a particular program. The only, but important, exception was the idea of reforming the political system, which, however, lacked specific details. It was this lack of details that, in the fall of 1999, contributed to a crisis in the Opposition Agreement because of disagreements between the ODS and ČSSD on major reforms to the electoral system. Along with the problem of how to collect enough votes to approve the budget, the issue of electoral reform became the subject of a new agreement between the two big parties that was called the Tolerance Patent. The Tolerance Patent significantly strengthened cooperation between the ČSSD and ODS, but, on the other, it did not constitute a comprehensively institutionalized agreement on cooperation

Simple-Semi-Conditional Versions of Matrix Grammars with a Reduced Regulating Mechanism

This paper discusses some conditional versions of matrix grammars. It establishes several characterizations of the family of the recursively enumerable languages based on these grammars. In fact, making use of the Geffert Normal forms, the present paper demonstrates these characterizations based on matrix grammars with conditions of a limited length, a reduced number of nonterminals, and a reduced number and size of matrices

Referendum in theory and practice: the history of the Slovak referendums and their consequences

This article deals with the theory and practice of Slovak referendum. Special aim is concentrated on referendum in 1997 (held on NATO accession and on the direct election of the president of the Slovak Republic). Generally speaking referendums brought with a lot of problems. Their outcome was polarization of society and political elite. All Slovak referendums were unsuccessful (with the exception of last referendum – euro referendum in 2003). Concerning the consolidation of Slovak democracy referendums had a negative impact

Strange Bedfellows : A Hyper-pragmatic Alliance between European Liberals and an Illiberal Czech Technocrat

The article deals with the membership of the most important Czech political party, ANO (meaning “yes” in Czech), led by Andrej Babiš, in the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). Our goals are to reconstruct how Babiš’s party joined ALDE and to discuss the ideological differences between ANO and ALDE. The paper shows that ALDE’s offer of membership in 2014 was motivated by a pragmatic need to bolster its own position in the European Parliament; ANO, meanwhile, needed to anchor itself in European politics. Andrej Babiš’s technocratic and illiberal view was not apparent at the beginning, but more importantly, this did not matter to ALDE. ALDE’s Czech “point of contact,” ANO’s foreign policy expert and the leader of its party group in the European Parliament, Pavel Telička, made ANO’s membership credible. However, as a Euro-optimist, Telička was not compatible with ANO’s flexible ideological character in the long term and the party group split up. A comparison of the parties’ European Parliament election manifestos and positions on crucial controversial European issues clearly reveals a deep division between ALDE and ANO and their fundamentally opposed ideological positions. We describe the findings as a new hyper-pragmatic trend in the creation of Europarties, which weakens their ideological cohesion.Článek se věnuje členství ANO Andreje Babiše v Alianci liberálů a demokratů pro Evropu (ALDE). Cíli článku je rekonstruovat cestu ANO do ALDE a debatovat ideologické rozdíly mezi ANO a ALDE. Text ukazuje hluboký rozdíl mezi ALDE a ANO a fundamentální neslučitelnost jejich ideologických pozic, což dokládá hyperpragmatický trend v podobě Eurostran

Which conservatism? The identity of the Polish Law and Justice party

This article deals with Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS), considered a conservative party in the scholarly literature. Drawing largely on party manifestos, the article demonstrates the character, the specificities and the evolution of the party’s identity and ideology. A theoretical basis for the undertaking is provided by Klaus von Beyme’s concept of party families, Arend Lijphart’s seven ideological dimensions and classic texts on conservatism. The analysis finds that the most important components in PiS’s current identity are Catholicism itself and the great emphasis the party places on the role of the Catholic Church. Also important for the party’s identity are visions of a nation conceived on ethnic principle, a strong and active state able to form society with a national spirit, anti-communism and a negation of developments in Poland since 1989. A substantial role is played by the quasi-religiously conceived legacy of the party’s co-founder, Lech Kaczyński, who tragically perished in an aircraft crash. With its Catholic-nationalist profile, PiS is close to the Christian current within the conservative New Right, and to Polish National Democracy in the interwar period.Článek se zabývá polskou politickou stranou Právo a spravedlnost (PiS), která je v akademické literatuře považována za konzervativní stranu. Smyslem textu je zejména s pomocí stranických programů ukázat charakter, specifika a vývoj stranické identity a ideologie. Teoretickou bází tvoří koncept party families Klause von Beymeho, sedm ideologických dimenzí Arenda Lijpharta a klasické texty zabývající se konzervatismem. Analýza dochází k závěru, že nejdůležitější složkou současné identity PiS jsou katolicismus a s tím spojený enormní důraz na úlohu katolické církve. Dále jsou pro stranickou identitu významné převážně etnicky chápaný národ, vize silného a aktivního státu schopného formovat společnost v národním duchu, antikomunismus a negace vývoje Polska po roce 1989. Značnou roli hraje také kvazinábožensky pojímaný odkaz spoluzakladatele strany Lecha Kaczyńského, který tragicky zahynul při letecké havárii. Svým katolicko-nacionálním profilem má PiS blízko ke křesťanskému proudu konzervativní Nové pravice, podobně jako k polské Národní demokracii mezi světovými válkami

Heparin release from thermosensitive hydrogels

Thermosensitive hydrogels (TSH) were synthesized and investigated as heparin releasing polymers for the prevention of surface induced thrombosis. TSH were synthesized with N-isopropyl acrylamide (NiPAAm) copolymerized with butyl methacrylate (BMA) (hydrophobic) or acrylic acid (AAc) (hydrophilic) comonomers. The incorporation of hydrophobic and hydrophilic comonomers strongly influences the swelling/shrinking behavior of TSH. Upon deswelling, gels containing the hydrophobic comonomer formed a skin-type layer, which acted as a rate controlling membrane, while the hydrophilic comonomer greatly increased gel swelling, relative to NiPAAm. Equilibrium swelling in isotonic PBS and deswelling kinetics of the synthesized gels were examined at various temperatures. The loading of heparin into the different gels was studied as a function of temperature, solution concentration, and gel composition. The release kinetics of heparin was found to be influenced by gel composition and loading temperature; the release correlated with the gel deswelling kinetics. In the case of Ni-PAAm/BMA gel, the release profile of heparin was affected by temperature dependent properties of the skin-type diffusional barrier formed on the gel surface