Talking Gender Quotas in the Czech Republic
When the European Commission proposed legislation to accelerate gender balance on company boards last year, it seemed that in the Czech Republic the end of the world had truly come.
Current debates on society, politics and economy in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary or Slovakia.
Vassilis Petsinis
23. 4. 2013
Economic Crisis and the Far Right: Hungary, As We Say Greece?
There has much talk about the link between the economic crisis and the popularity of the far right in Europe. Most articles that deal with this topic revolve around such keywords as ‘party-systems’, ‘EU austerity measures’, ‘institutions’ and ‘protest voting’.
Adam Balcer
28. 2. 2013
A Wishful Thinking? Military Cooperation in the Visegrad Group
Despite certain undeniable achievements, regional cooperation in the Visegrad Group is definitely below its potential. The hard security sphere represents the most striking example of underperformance of the V4. Unfortunately, the likelihood of reinvigoration of cooperation in the security dimension is near zero because of a huge and ever-deepening gap in military capabilities and defense spending between Poland and other Visegrad states.
Pavol Szalai
25. 2. 2013
Nuclear Energy: The Visegrad Exception and How to Develop It
Defending nuclear energy in Western Europe is almost a faux pas. Even France, the most pronuclear country, has committed itself to reduce the nuclear portion of its electricity mix. Against the odds, the Visegrad countries remain faithful to the atom. If the Czechs, Hungarians, Poles, and Slovaks want to develop their nuclear industries, they should cooperate.
Craig J. Willy
8. 2. 2013
Czech Virtue
Milos Zeman, a strong supporter of European integration, will be the next president of the Czech Republic: an opportunity to examine the relations between his country and Western Europe. Does the Iron Curtain still exist?
Lukáš Makovický
21. 1. 2013
Visualising Resilience, Or, How Life Struggles Become Entertainment
While the human development situation of Roma in Slovakia can be clearly described as desperate, 2012 has shown a number of instances where the imagery of Roma has resonated as one of the principal matters of political discourse. No wonder – it is tied closely to matters of social and economic justice, land ownership and illegal construction, policing of life, and questions of order and policing it in the broad sense.
Zoltán Sidó and Dénes Surgó
23. 11. 2012
The Traumatic Symbol Of The Middle Class
Don Kalb is a professor of social anthropology at Central European University in Budapest. In his latest book Headlines of Nation, Subtext of Class – Working Class Populism and the Return of the Repressed in Neoliberal Europe (Berghahn Books, 2011), edited together with Gábor Halmai, Kalb and his fellow researchers aim to explain the deeper processes behind this surge both in Western and in Eastern Europe.
Cezary Polak
20. 11. 2012
Winged Victory of Nike. The System of Literary Prizes in Poland.
The situation with literary prizes in Poland can be compared to the global film industry. In the country of the Vistula River, we have a literary equivalent of the Oscar, the Nike Literary Prize, conferred annually since 1997 by Gazeta Wyborcza, the largest daily newspaper in Poland. Each year this award provokes media discussions and fierce debates, it turns prize-winning books into bestsellers, and puts authors into the literary Pantheon.
Eva Klíčová
14. 11. 2012
Conservative Confirmation Or Progressive Lottery? The World of Czech Literary Awards
The small Czech language community has lost its literary authorities. Czechs don’t have time to read fiction; on the other hand, there are more fictional books being published than ever before. The contemporary situation in literature is generally perceived as that of a crisis or chaos. And the existing literary prizes play a considerable role in all of this.
Ivo Šlosarčík
5. 11. 2012
Democracy Fatigue In Central Europe And The Absent EU Response
The European Union defines itself as entity based on the rule of law. Democracy and the rule of law are also required from candidates for EU membership, as explicitly formulated in the Copenhagen criteria and, later, in the EU primary law. Yet once a state becomes a member, and its democracy wavers, the EU has very limited correctional tools at its disposal. This article explores how “democracy fatigue” materialised in the judicial sphere in three new EU states: Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, and how the EU intervened … or did not.