Archive 3/2015

Zdeněk Kříž
Masaryk University, Czech Republic
e-mail: zkriz@fss.muni.cz

Kateřina Fridrichová
Masaryk University, Czech Republic
e-mail: katerina.fridrichova@gmail.com

Abstract

When seeking guidelines for worst-case scenario, military intervention under the Responsibility to Protect looks to the just war tradition. We tried to pinpoint the most important criteria, drawing on the Responsibility to Protect report, subsequent RtoP development and relevant authors to create a background to which compare the NATO’s operation in Libya. These criteria were not met during the intervention, as is shown in this article. The criterion of just cause could be seen as fulfilled, albeit this admission is done very grudgingly – the loss of life was not that large comparing to other tragedies that did not trigger intervention. The Libyan intervention is most questionable when it comes to right intentions and proportional means that suggest that the goal of interveners was to topple the regime not protect the civilians. These results bring the discussion of the weakness of the RtoP approach when it comes to defining, which populations should be helped under this doctrine and whether the nature of victims should be taken into consideration.

Key words

Humanitarian intervention; Libya; just war theory; Responsibility to Protect; RtoP; NATO

Michael Škvrňák
Masaryk University, Czech Republic
e-mail: 397925@mail.muni.cz

Abstract

The theory of democracy states that political parties attract voters through election programs which they intend to implement upon election. This article examines the programme-to-policy fulfilment of election pledges in the Czech Republic in 2010–2013. It explores the factors that should influence the fulfilment of pledges. The article concludes that Czech political parties try to fulfil their election pledges, although the rate of fulfilment is not high because of the way the party system is structured. In addition, five factors influencing outcomes are tested. Consensus among parties, inclusion of the pledge in the Programmatic Declaration of the Government and whether pledges maintain the status quo influence the probability of pledge fulfilment. On the other hand, there appears to be no relation between pledge fulfilment and participation by a party in the government or its control of a ministry.

Key words

mandate theory; election pledges; representation; mandate responsiveness; programme-to- policy linkage

Michael Augustín
Slovak Academy of Science, Slovak Republic
e-mail: michael.augustin.ma@gmail.com

Abstract

This paper focuses on the problem of analogies and metaphors in politics, concretely the metaphor of the market and the various analogies it encompasses applied to the political sphere, as a phenomenon of political language and practice. The inspiration behind this article is a sociological critique of the economic theory of politics by Lars Udehn. After forming a basic theoretical framework for the terms analogy and metaphor, the author discusses the problem of methodological inconsistency in the social sciences. The discussion of metaphor is presented in three parts: the inherence of homo economicus in politics, politics as exchange and politics as competition. The crucial thesis of this paper is that there are limitations on the extent to which political processes and phenomena may be understood in market terms, and individual analogies that have emerged from this metaphor are by definition only partially applicable. The conclusion is that the market metaphor presents specific difficulties and is an oversimplification which will lead sooner or later to significant misunderstandings and misinterpretations of politics.

Key words

market metaphor; homo economicus; generative metaphors; exchange and competition in politics; political marketing; voter preferences; persuasion

Petr Kratochvíl
Institute of International Relations, Czech Republic
e-mail: kratochvil@iir.cz

Daniel Kný
University of Economics, Czech Republic
e-mail: daniel.kny@vse.cz

Abstract

Although Euroscepticism as a scholarly term seems to be indispensable in European studies today, we argue that the current approaches to party-based Euroscepticism are in need of reformulation. This is so mainly because students of party-based Euroscepticism mistakenly construe the term as a deviation from the essentialized integration mainstream. While the study of Euroscepticism has also developed in alternative directions, these innovative approaches have only created additional problems: either the redefinition of Euroscepticism leads to more substantive definitions, but also to the denial of the temporal and spatial diversity of Euroscepticism, or the redefinition results in creating new typologies, but these typologies only reproduce the old pattern of deviation vs. the norm on a different level. This critical literature review article concludes by briefly outlining the steps which would redress the situation and which consist of a radical contextualization of Euroscepticism(s).

Key words

Euroscepticism; party systems; European integration; European Union

Abstract

Holubec, Stanislav (2015). Ještě nejsme za vodou: Obrazy druhých a historická paměť v období postkomunistické transformace. Prague: Skriptorium. 312 pages.

Key words

Abstract

Kunštát, Daniel (2013). Za rudou oponou. Komunisté a jejich voliči po roce 1989. Prague: Sociologické nakladatelství (SLON). 342 pages.

Key words

Abstract

Keil, Soeren and Stahl, Bernhard (eds) (2014) The Foreign Policies of Post-Yugoslav States: From Yugoslavia to Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmilian, 280 pages.

Key words