Journal articles on the topic 'The Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic'

The article analyses the institution of the Senate as one of the chambers of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The asymmetrical bicameralism conception adopted in 1992 refers to the solution of the Constitution of 1920. The internal organisation and the manner of work as well as the parliamentary mandate are typical for a democratic state. The basic function of the Senate is legislation, but the final decisions belong to the Chamber of Deputies. The equalisation of the position of both chambers is an exception. The second chamber does not have a control function, and the creative function is symbolic. The Senate has become established in the system of state organs.

However obsolete it may appear in the environment of the post-1989 Czech Republic, dissident activity has left its imprint on Czech society and politics. In Czech foreign policy, there is something like a dissident tradition, which dissidents themselves seem to uphold. In the Czech foreign policy process, there exists an explicit mechanism that has incorporated the dissident tradition, which, in quite a few cases, has affected policy outcomes. The introduction of the dissident tradition into Czech foreign policy was facilitated by the dissidents’ great concern for foreign policy and for human rights issues, and, in particular, for human rights issues outside the Czech Republic. We present evidence that dissidents have been concerned with foreign policy and with human rights issues by analyzing the membership of parliamentary committees of both chambers of the Parliament as well as the dissidents’ activities in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. Significantly, when activities tied to the dissident tradition emerge in the Parliament, the initiators of such activities are always (although not exclusively) dissidents; the opponents, always nondissidents.

The article examines the development of the political process in the Czech Republic following the results of the last regular elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament, which took place on October 21-22, 2017 under the proportional electoral system. The results of the elections revealed a number of new trends in the development of the parties and the party system of the Czech Republic, which at the same time have many similarities with the ideas of populists and Euro skeptics spread in the CEE region. The analysis of the specific “differentiated electoral barrier” and the Czech electoral legislation is made. The path to victory in the elections of the ANO and the ODS parties, the new in the Czech politics third party-winner – the Pirate party, members of which advocated the maximum protection of individual freedoms and the uncontrolled Internet. It is noted that the traditional and leading parties of the Czech Republic – KDU-CSL, TOP 9, KSCM, CSSD did not achieve the expected success in the Parliament elections. The regularities that emerged during the elections to the Chamber of Deputies were revealed: a steady demand of voters for new leaders, new political forces, the weakening of the positions and authority of political parties that have occupied leading positions for a long period, the change in the current political agenda. Confirmed pan-European trends: the growth of populist sentiment and a significant increase in skepticism towards the leaders of the European Union, which are manifested in many CEE countries.

Do different types of preferential-list PR systems create different incentives for how Members of Parliament vote? To examine this, we compare the quasi-list system of Poland, where only preference votes determine which candidates win seats, to the flexible-list system in the Czech Republic, where the 5 percent preference vote threshold required to override the party ranking of candidates gives the party greater power in influencing which candidates become MPs. We analyze roll call votes in the 2007–2011 Sejm and the 2010–2013 Czech Chamber of Deputies and, after controlling for party and MP characteristics, we find that in both countries, MPs with lower preference vote shares are more likely to vote along with their party. But, when we compare the strength of this relationship, we observe substantial differences. The magnitude of this relationship in the Czech Republic is ten times stronger than in Poland, which can be attributed to the more prominent role Czech electoral rules give to the party.

This paper explores the possibility of introducing a majority electoral system for the Chamber of Deputies in the Czech Republic, and discusses the virtues and drawbacks of such a system. It recalculates the electoral results from two previous elections using majority electoral systems (first-past-the-post and two round majority system) to examine how such a change could influence the formation of governmental majorities in the chamber and what the possible consequences for the quality of democracy in the Czech Republic could be. The results show that majority system would likely radically simplify the formation of governments with clear majorities, and hinder emerging populist parties as well as weaken the communist party. On the other hand, the adoption of a majority system would substantially lower barriers to enter the chamber, which could lead to the disintegration of the party system and its increased fragmentation. Combined with the common practice of Czech politicians to hold various mandates at different levels of the political system at the same time, this could be a significant risk factor.

Abstract Text analyzes in detail legal situation dealing with the Czech government investiture vote. Constitutional foundations are tested against political practice, which is oft en quite different. The Results confirms the construction of investiture vote is less important that notorious weakness of the government majority in the Chamber of Deputies.

AbstractThe paper explores the legislative unity of government and opposition blocs in the Czech Chamber of Deputies over a period of 20 years. As voting unity is usually rather low in the Czech Republic, temporarily high concentrations of votes by these blocs are linked to higher rates of conflict between the government and opposition. I use the Rice and UNITY indices to compare average unity scores of individual cabinets and also explorative time series of unity vectors in order to analyse bloc concentration, success rate, and increased conflict. The outcomes are relevant both as comprising a case study and methodological observations: (1) Broad differences in the logic of interaction are confirmed (e.g. caretaker cabinets show less conflict than standard cabinets). Although no universal trend (e.g. no transition from consensual to conflictual practice) is found, the Czech opposition became more concentrated and resorted to serial blocking tactics in the second decade; thus, a major change of behavior occurred after all. (2) The Rice and UNITY indices correlate considerably; UNITY’s discrimination capacity is not distorted significantly despite the nature of equilibria in the Chamber. Moreover; the UNITY index is able to easily distinguish contested votes not detectable by the Rice index alone.

This article explains the basis for electoral support for political parties in the Czech and Slovak Republics in the post-1993 period. The database consists of results from Parliamentary elections (in the Czech context, elections to the Chamber of Deputies) and of data obtained from censuses carried out by statistical agencies. The theory of conflict lines developed by Stein Rokkan and Seymour M. Lipset was chosen as the theoretical basis. The key analytical tool employed is linear regression. The explanation provided evaluates the dependence of political party electoral support (as defined by seats won in elections) upon socioeconomic variables contained in the theory. Analysis of the results shows that the support parties receive in elections depends significantly upon social characteristics. An especially clear explanation is generated for the support given to Christian and ethnic parties. For protest parties, the impact of the constituent social and economic structure is only marginal.

Theory of parliamentary regimes presumes that parliament can express vote of no confidence in government. On the other hand executive power (government or head of state) is endowed with right to dissolve the parliament. However, these “doomsday devices” are not in balance in many parliamentary regimes, including the Czech Republic. On the basis of a comparative analysis of dissolution provisions in the constitutions of European states the article argues that the government in the Czech Republic should be given the right to dissolve the lower chamber at least in case that the latter expresses vote of no confidence in the former.

On 2 January 2020, the Government of the Czech Republic submitted a bill to the Chamber of Deputies amending the Labor Code. The bill was sent to deputies as press 689/0 on 2 January 2020. The proposed amendment to the Labor Code was compiled by the Ministry of Labor and Social Aff airs of the Czech Republic, among other objectives, with the aim of achieving compliance with national legislation with EU regulations and case law. The proposed amendment to the Labor Code should explicitly regulate the conditions for the transfer of the employer's activities, and further specify the conditions for giving notice by an employee pursuant to Section 51a of the Labor Code when transferring rights and obligations from employment relationships. It is precisely in the issue of conditions for the transfer of the employer's activities that the current legal regulation has been repeatedly criticized due to insuffi cient use of EU legislation for the national legal regulation of the transfer of rights and obligations from labor relations.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a model that allows analyzing exchange and use of fiscal information by the roles of actors involved in the budget process and to apply the proposed model to the 2018 Czech state budget debate. The aim is to identify approaches used by the members of the Chamber of Deputies (members of the parliament (MPs)) when gathering information to be used in their decision making on the state budget, and to evaluate usefulness of the information provided through the executive’s budget proposal. Design/methodology/approach This paper is the observatory study of the Czech 2018 state budget debate based on a set of unstructured interviews with newly elected MPs. Findings When it comes to the MPs deciding about the state budget the executive’s budget proposal seems to be an insufficient source of information as the MPs relied heavily on various information brokers during the budget debate. The use of information and communication technologies in the process of information provision lags behind its potential. Practical implications The authors suggest two possible ways to improve the effective transparency of the Czech state budget debate: standardization of the chapter books and making them available to every MP as well as to the general public, and adding the budget proposal to the Monitor budget explorer – a publicly available budget explorer provided by the Ministry of Finance. Originality/value The originality of this paper lies in the proposal of the Fiscal Information Ecosystem Model and its application to the 2018 Czech state budget debate which shows how the members of the Czech Chamber of Deputies gathered information they needed in their decision making.

The paper deals with the phenomenon of celebrity politics in the Czech Republic, particularly the involvement of celebrities in Czech politics between 1996 and 2013. The authors draw from the celebrity politics’ typologies of Paul ‘t Hart and Karen Tindall, and John Street. Employing a content analysis of newspaper articles from the journals MF Dnes and Blesk during the periods preceding the elections of the Chamber of Deputies, the authors shed light on celebrity involvement in Czech politics. Specifically, they trace three categories mentioned in the media: the celebrity expression of political topics in general, celebrity political endorsement and the candidacy of celebrities. Building upon the collected data, the authors interpret the results within the political and social context of the parliamentary period and indicate more general patterns of celebrity involvement in Czech politics.

This article deals with the issue of the matter of the mandate of members of parliament in the constitutional history of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. Namely the article is dedicated to the problem, whether and when in the years 1918–2020 the mandate of the members of parliament was free or imperative. The detailed description shows, that in Czechoslovakia strongly prevailed the imperative mandate, irrespective of character of the political regime. The pre-war Czechoslovak constitution adopted in 1920 expressly declared the mandate as a free one and members of parliament should use them regardless of any instructions or commands. Nonetheless very quickly, in 1923, through the decision of the Election Court, the first deputies were deprived of their functions as a sanction for leaving their party policy. Thus, even in the democratic regime the mandate was transformed into the imperative form. After the WWII, the political circumstances in Czechoslovakia changed and the regime turned into a totalitarian form under the hegemony of the communist party. In these circumstances the deputies should serve as servants of the voters, to follow their instructions and they could be recalled, if not fulfilling the will of the (working) people. Nonetheless the recall system based on the public meetings of the voters was not very practical and it could fulfil the estimations only when the communist party has the situation fully under its control. In some critical moments other tools for recall had to be adopted, as it happened in the year 1969, when the political situation after the Prague Spring suppression needed to be consolidated and the will of the voters was different of the will of the conservative communist leaders. The last recalls appeared after the Velvet Revolution when democracy was re-established in Czechoslovakia. Thus, the free parliamentary mandate existed hardly in 8 years from 75 years of existence of Czechoslovakia. The last 30 years of its existence in the constitution of the Czech Republic and political practice is still quite an uncommon period in the Czechoslovak constitutional tradition.

After the 1998 general elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic, the largest party, the Social Democrats, formed a minority government. The formation of this government was puzzling for at least four reasons. First, according to the so-called Opposition Pact, the minority government was supported from the outside by the conservative Civic Democratic Party, the principal opponent of the Social Democrats in the party system. Second, the grand legislative coalition was not followed by the sharing of executive portfolios between the two largest parties. Third, the two parties entered into this agreement only weeks after they had explicitly stated their unwillingness to govern together. Fourth, neither theories of coalition formation nor those of minority government formation provide an accurate prediction for this outcome. This article provides a solution for these puzzles based on a game theoretic analysis.

The paper explores the legislative unity of government and opposition blocs in the Czech Chamber of Deputies over a period of twenty years. As voting unity is usually rather low in the Czech Republic, temporarily high concentrations of the respective blocks’ votes are linked to higher rates of conflict between the government and opposition. I use the Rice and UNITY indices to compare average unity scores of individual cabinets and also explorative time series of unity vectors in order to analyse bloc concentration, success rate, and increased conflict. The outcomes are relevant as both a case study and a methodological observation: (1) Broad differences in the logic of interaction are confirmed (e.g. caretaker cabinets show less conflict than standard cabinets). Although no universal trend (e.g. a transition from consensual to conflictual practice) is found, the Czech opposition became more concentrated and resorted to the tactics of serial blocking in the second decade; thus, a major change of behaviour occurred after all. (2) The Rice and UNITY indices correlate considerably; UNITY’s discrimination capacity is not distorted significantly despite the nature of equilibria in the Chamber. Moreover; the UNITY index is able easily to distinguish contested votes which are not detectable by the Rice index alone.

This article represents a contribution to the debate over the Europeanization of political parties, one of the hot topics in contemporary political science. It explores the extent of Europeanization in political parties represented in the lower chamber of the Parliament of the Czech Republic by means of an analysis of party election manifestoes. The extent of Europeanization in these documents is analyzed using a bi-dimensional conceptualization. The first we call the quantitative dimension, assesses the space taken by the topic of European integration in each manifesto. The second one we call the qualitative dimension. This, using the analysis of content, measures the degree to which the European integration issue is elaborated in the programs. Using this conceptualization, we analyze the election manifestoes of five Czech political parties in the period 1996–2006.

There is vast evidence that gender influences the legislative behaviour of MPs. Nonetheless, as most of the findings come from Western Europe, one may ask whether such effects take place similarly also in post-communist parliaments. Since the two regions experienced different gender-related history, a negative answer suggests itself. By contrast, this first complex research on the issue conducted in a post-communist country demonstrates the opposite. It employs parliamentary activity of representatives in the Czech Republic between 1993 and 2017 as a research case. Results of the analysis show that although female MPs speak less, they receive more positions in intra-parliamentary bodies than male deputies. Moreover, a majority of committees are far from being gender-neutral as male and female legislators have significantly different chances of becoming their members. Overall, the results suggest that gender influences MPs’ parliamentary behaviour even in post-communist countries, and surprisingly similarly to Western Europe.

The first parliamentary election campaign in Albania was held in March – April 1921. This constituted innovation for Albania, since it was considered as a country with a fragile democracy and parliamentarism. The second experience was in December 1923, in the framework of the elections of the Constitutional Assamble, as the institution that would determine the kind of regime in Albania. In January 1924, after the Konstitutional Assamble fulfilled its mission, it changed into Parliament, which executed its activity in two periods 21 January – 2 June; December 1924 – 2 March 1925. The bourgeois-democratic revolution that prevailed in june 1924, continued up to the end of the same year. On 21 January 1925, the constitutional assamble declared the Parliamentary Republic of Albania, with president Ahmet Zogu; on 31 of January there were enacted the first articles of the Republican Status. The new Parliament consisted of two rooms, the Senate and the chamber of deputies. This new system lasted for a short period of time, and it constituted a unique experience in the history of Albanian parliamemtarism. The law concerning the parliamentary elections was enacted on 14 of March 1925. According to the law the elections would be realized at two levels. The opposition and the independent deputies were missing. The parliamentary election campaign in Elbasan, local characteristics, candidates, th two levels of voting, the results and its importance constitute the topic of this paper. The paper is based on archived and media documents, as well as the memorial one.

This is the second part of a two–part paper, the first one having been published in the previous volume of this journal. After the 1998 general elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic, the largest party, the Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), 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 (ODS). What was then known as the Opposition Agreement became the subject of considerable debate. The first part of the paper provided analysis of government practice in similar circumstances in Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand, and Italy at the time of the Historic Compromise. Here I focus specifically on the Czech case. The present paper points out not only the Opposition Agreement between the Social Democrats and the Civic Democratic Party and the later Toleration Patent, which even deepened the cooperation between these two parties, but also the frequent ad hoc legislative coalitions which the minority government was able to form.

After the 1998 general elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic, the largest party, the Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), 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 (ODS). 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. The paper highlights not only the Opposition Agreement between the Social Democrats and the Civic Democratic Party and the later Toleration Patent, which even deepened the cooperation between these two parties, but also the frequent ad hoc legislative coalitions which the minority government was able to form. An additional aim of the paper is to outline foreign analogies to the potential future single-party minority government of the Czech Social Democrats supported by the Communists. Because of its considerable length, the text is divided into two parts; the first part is printed in this volume.

This text focuses on the integrity of elections to the lower chamber of the Parliament of the Czech Republic between 1998 and 2013. Its descriptive nature allows the following two main questions to be answered: What are the problems associated with Czech parliamentary elections? Can we identify any trend in the quality of these elections? The analysis employs a framework based on a “policy accountability” model of democracy previously used by Sarah Birch (2011). The analysis is based on various kinds of sources, mainly international observers’reports, laws, secondary analyses, and local news. The overall assessment of the quality of the analyzed elections is quite positive: Between 1998 and 2006 the quality of elections improved, and while it slightly deteriorated in 2010, it quickly returned back to the 2006 levels. The ability to provide equal information and the effective adjudication of disputes are identified as the most problematic aspects. Other parts of the electoral process are well-managed, with only negligible problems on the levels of electoral rules and electoral practice. The overall results differ little from the outcomes of available quantitative studies; however, they offer a deeper insight into the actual realization of demoratic electoral standards.

The international experience of performance indicators application by supreme audit institutions of European countries and the USA in their annual reports is investigated. In total, 267 indicators were identified, analyzed and grouped by areas of activity, in particular, audit activity (audit, conclusions and reports), recommendations, other activities, consequences and effects of work, relations with main stakeholders (with parliament, audit objects, other bodies, society, international community), human resources (personnel, training and certification), management and financial support. The areas of interaction with society and publicity of work, personnel management and audit activity are the most characterized by quantitative indicators areas, least of all interaction with audit objects and other activities of the body, except audit. Among the studied countries, fewer quantitative indicators were published in the reports of the Supreme Audit Institutions of Estonia, Slovakia and Croatia (less than 20 indicators), most of the aspects of activity were quantitatively assessed in the reports of the Supreme Audit Institutions of the UK, Czech Republic and Poland (65 – 80 indicators). The Accounting Chamber in 2020 in terms of the number of indicators in this comparative analysis ranked second (published 75 indicators). Over the eight years analyzed, this number increased significantly, but there is still no indicators for some areas of work, such as international activities and interaction with audited entities. It was also determined that the selection of indicators presented in the reports of the Accounting Chamber lacks consistency, the practice of disclosing some important performance indicators has ceased. Based on the analysis of international practice and the experience of the Accounting Chamber, a system of indicators advisable to characterize its work is proposed. Proposed 55 groups of indicators characterize all areas of activity and correspond to the best international practice and approaches of the supreme audit institutions performance measuring framework (SAI PMF), which is used in the strategic planning of the Accounting Chamber.

In 2017, in addition to the traditional, old, and more recently established political parties, a new formation – the Czech Pirate Party – espousing more participative principles, including the use of online platforms for discussions – arrived on the political scene in the Czech Republic. This newcomer to the parliamentary ecosystem, shortly after achieving success at the national level, also managed to attract significant support in local elections. For this reason, there is currently a Pirate Party parliamentary group present in the Chamber of Deputies (the lower chamber of the Czech parliament), while simultaneously the mayor of Prague and members of the ruling coalition in Brno – the second biggest city in the Czech Republic – also represent the Pirate Party. Furthermore, recent opinion polls show support for the Pirates running at about 14%. This is coupled with another new feature: the young age of the party’s elected parliamentarians and local councilors, which brings new challenges to politics. After the elections, a number of commentators immediately dubbed the Pirate Party a ‘youth party.’ But is this really the case? What forms of participation do the party and/or its members use and encourage? This article offers answers to these questions. In particular, it presents the electoral base of this new political party through interpretative analysis. The data are based on election results triangulated with other sources – specifically, a Czech election study is juxtaposed against a quantitative survey carried out by three academic institutions in the Czech Republic (the Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University, Brno; Palacký University, Olomouc; and the Institute of Sociology at the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague). These statistical tools enable us to identify in great detail the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of Pirate Party voters (for instance: age, education, their views about contemporary democracy, and the timing of their decision to vote) and map their attitudes towards other parties and their leaders. The article reveals how popular the Czech Pirate Party is among the younger generation of voters, where the latter come from, and what political preferences they had previously.

The paper deals with the issue of the "candidate effect" within the proportional electoral system. The basic database consists of the total count and the share of preferential votes won by the candidates listed as first on party ballots in the Czech national parliamentary elections in June 2006. These election results, which are analyzed in the following text, are limited only to the ballots of those political parties that won seats in the Chamber of Deputies (that is, CSSD, KDU-CSL, KSCM, ODS, SZ). Individual outputs are based on a comparison of the election results for particular candidates in their electoral districts, in relation to their positions on the party ballots.

AbstractThe Constitutional Court used the case of a constitutional complaint filed by a former member of the Chamber of Deputies to provide a comprehensive view of the scope of parliamentary immunity. Indirectly overruling previous case law of the Supreme Court, this Court adhered to a more restrictive interpretation of the relevant constitutional provisions. According to this decision, members of parliament can rely on their constitutional protection only with regard to the communication of information or expression of an opinion verbally, in writing, visually, or in another way at a meeting of the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate, their committees, subcommittees, and commissions or their bodies, that is aimed at the participants of the meeting rather than just at the television audience or radio listeners.

The article presented is theoretically grounded in the office-seeking approach to the study of coalitions. It takes the most influential theories of portfolio distribution in the executive and legislature (voting weights, proportionality, formateur) and tests it on the data pertaining to coalition negotiations in the Czech Republic between 1992 and 2010. We follow the distribution of portfolios in the government, in the presidium of the Chamber of Deputies, as well as in the presidiums of permanent parliamentary committees. The approach based on voting weights seems best for studying portfolio distribution in the Czech Republic, although it is not entirely satisfactory. In the theoretical discussion of the results, we also point out that the voting weights approach is somewhat less rigorous than others. At the same time, we show that even ostensibly exact approaches to the study of coalitions can lead to arbitrariness on the part of the researcher, as theoretical assumptions about portfolio distribution operate with decimal numbers, whereas in reality one operates with natural numbers.

The paper deals with measuring volatility in the election of the Chamber of Deputies in the Czech Republic, calculated for both national and regional levels (the latter being the level of electoral constituencies). The main aim of the paper is to identify the link between the gains and losses of parties, and the volatility of a region. In comparison with the 2006 election, an overall increase in volatility was recorded in 2010, but most of the more volatile regions remained the same in both elections compared. Volatility on the regional level is strongly connected with the losses of the previously governing parties (in office 2006-9) and with the gains of the strongest new party, TOP09. We also compare three possible calculations of volatility involving the category of “other” parties. In calculating volatility we could not recommend the omission of “other” parties from the numerator without a corresponding change in the denominator. As for the remaining two methods (“other” parties calculated as one bloc, or “other” parties omitted both in the numerator and the denominator), future comparisons would be required.

AbstractCan a constitutional norm be unconstitutional? This idea seems, at first sight as a self-contradiction. Unconstitutionality is commonly referred to those ordinary laws, inferior to the constitution, which violate it. Constitutional norms, in contrast, carry an equal normative status as the constitution itself and other constitutional provisions. The question of unconstitutional constitutional norms recently arose in the Czech Republic. On 10 September 2009, the Czech Constitutional Court declared Constitutional Act no 195/2009 Coll, on Shortening the Fifth Term of Office of the Chamber of Deputies to be unconstitutional. The Czech Constitutional Court held that the constitutional act was an individual, specific decision and retroactive, thus violating the unamendability provision (Art 9(2)) in the Constitution, which prohibits amendments to the essential requirement for a democratic state governed by the rule of law. This article analyses the Czech Constitutional Court’s decision in a broader comparative and theoretical perspective and focuses, mainly, on four issues: first, the Czech Constitutional Court’s authority to substantively review constitutional norms; second, the appropriate standard of review when exercising judicial review of constitutional norms; third, the ‘individual, specific’ character of the constitutional act; and fourth, its alleged retroactive application. The article claims that while the Czech Constitutional Court was generally correct in claiming an authority to substantively review even constitutional norms, this was not the appropriate case in which to annul a constitutional act.

Dear readers,We offer you a new English issue of Envigogika which thematically focuses on case studies of regional sustainable development where social actors play specific roles in communication processes – it documents both the promotion of positive changes at regional level and/or also provide evidence to illuminate seemingly unresolvable conflicts. The concept of social learning from an educational point of view frames this thematic edition – as with any other learning process, stakeholder dialogue has a transformative aspect, the opportunity to confront and possibly change opinions and act on the basis of agreed emergent standpoints. In particular, this collection of case studies specifically tries to illuminate role of science and education in regional development, and attempts to introduce methods of analysis of diverse social relationships as well as practical ways of facilitation of communication processes.In this issue of Envigogika two types of case studies are presented – regional development and regional conflicts. Progress in both is highly dependent on the involvement of actors who shape discussions and consequently frame the issue. Analysis of social aspects is hence highly desirable and first steps undertaken here show some interesting results.The first area of interest (development issues) is a traditional focus of Actor Analysis (AA) and this method is widely used abroad in the envisioning stage and helps to facilitate negotiation processes. In the Czech context however, deliberation processes take place rather spontaneously and without a proper analytical stage, and reflections on negotiations in specific cases illustrates exactly this. A hypothesis about the need for continuous cultivation of democratic conditions in the Czech Republic, (with help of sound scientific analytical methods) specifically concerning deliberation processes, was posed as a result of a collaborative research process. This hypothesis was explored in different ways by our invited authors.To provide a brief overview of the issue:Simon Burandt, Fabienne Gralla and Beatrice John in their article Actor Analysis in Case Studies for (regional) Sustainable Development introduce the Actor Analysis analytical tool used to reflect regional (sustainable) development challenges throughout several articles in this issue. This method can be used with the aim not only of studying social capital, but also to have an impact on decision making and community choices. Its role in describing social players and their interactions, to assist in understanding regional development processes and potential conflicts, and to provide information for strategy development is demonstrated through a specific case (the Ore Mountains). The steps of an actor analysis described in the article can be read as guideline for implementing this analysis and an analytical perspective on this process is provided by this article.An outstanding Czech sustainability oriented local economy project is presented in an article by Jan Labohý, Yvonna Gaillyová and Radim Machů: A sustainability assessment of the Hostětín cider house project. The authors assess the sustainability of the project in relation to different kinds of capital using complex indicators that uncover different aspects of the production process and its local cultural characteristics; moreover, effects to the local economy are measured using the local multiplier effect indicator. From this assessment it is clear that the cider house project meets the primary goals of regional sustainable development in a long term perspective.Another – opposite, negative – case is described by Jan Skalík in the analyses the Debate about the Šumava National Park in the Czech Chamber of Deputies. The article demonstrates persisting conflict and its roots with help of the text analysis method applied to the transcripts of parliamentary debates about National Park Šumava (ŠNP) in the Chamber of Deputies between 1990 and 2013. The relationship between politicians and local people within decision-making process, which is depicted as a consequence of this conflict, is then discussed. Interesting conclusions concern the plurality of dialogue and roles of the actors within it; the influence of scientists on the solutions; and the inflammatory and emotional characteristics of recent debate.As a contrast, which serves as a counterargument to show the power of civic society, Vendula Zahumenská refers to a case in Hradec Králové where environmentalists and local developers have been in conflict concerning the development and commercial use of the Na Plachtě natural monument. This case study shows the role of public participation in environmental protection and describes the specific opportunities for influencing environmental decision-making.But there are cases in CR where declared economic interests are so strong that they eliminate dialogue with civic society – for example, as a result of brown coal mining and its associated industrial development, 106 towns and villages were obliterated in North Bohemia and its population was resettled to newly built prefabricated housing estates. A Case study analysing biographic interviews with the displaced people of Tuchomyšl is presented by Ivana Hermová. The author shows that the former Tuchomyšlers continue to identify strongly with the social space of the obliterated village, and discovers how they reflect on their forced eviction 35 years after the physical destruction of the village.That these conclusions concerning the involvement of social actors might be reflected (and used) in the practice of school education, is described by Alois Hynek, Břetislav Svozil, Jakub Trojan and Jan Trávníček. In a reflection on the Deblínsko landscape project these authors refer to the roles of stakeholders including a university, primary school and kindergarten, and also owners, users, decision-makers, shareholders and stakeholders within public administration. The project is driven by Masaryk University which applies sustainability/security concepts in practice while closely relating these activities with research and teaching. This experience shows that social learning processes can start early among children/pupils/students.A brief analytical overview of cases in this special issue, as well as an overview of information and experiences from a database of case studies from different regions of the Czech Republic and from abroad (compiled by authors beyond the scope of this issue), is provided in an article Potential for social learning in sustainable regional development: analysis of stakeholder interaction … by Jana Dlouhá and Martin Zahradník. The conditions for the success or failure of environmental or sustainable development strategies from a social point of view have been analysed here with a focus on the roles of actors in a dialogue about regional sustainability issues within cooperative or conflict situations and concern for the communication processes among actors, scientists included. As a result of this analysis, interesting hypotheses were formulated, related to the role of future visioning as a ground for discussion, communication frameworks which involve all concerned actors, and the (non)existence of facilitation practices. These findings highlight the importance of reflecting on development issues’ social aspects to help understand and promote democratic decision making processes at regional level.The case studies which follow the research section of the issue take the opportunity to provide a colourful depiction of local sustainable development conditions. The Description of old industrial regions in Europe and potential for their transformation is described by Joern Harfst and David Osebik who stress social learning as an important transformative factor. In particular the involvement of research partners may support joint learning effects and knowledge transfer between all actors. Establishment of trusting working relationships may be crucial to overcome certain reservations on all sides before innovative approaches can be pursued successfully.The Vulkanland case study case written by Michael Ober traces the first glimpses of a sustainable development vision for a border region with little hope for economic prosperity to the successful development of a new identity which has reinforced local peoples’ self-confidence. The initiators of the project first imagined a future built on different standards than the past and consequently managed to substantially transform this region within a period of 15 years. The ‘Steirisches Vulkanland’ region now includes 79 municipalities which together promote local, green, self-sustaining businesses and continue to be ambitious about their future visions including achieving energy independence.As part of the theme illustrated in this Special issue and mentioned also within the analysis of the cases is a text Discovery of a supposed extinct settlement species made at Königsmühle in the Ore Mountains (published previously in Envigogika 9/1 last year but worth republishing in English in the context of this thematic issue). Author Petr Mikšíček pays attention to footprints left in the landscape by bygone generations of inhabitants (and also to present-day footprints left by our generation) and struggles to retain this memory for future generations. Clashes with the interests of some of the actors (land owners in this case) are necessary to preserve the footprints that are on the brink of being wiped out.A brief introduction to the new publication Analysis and support for participatory decision-making processes aimed at regional sustainable development strategies through the use of actor analysis methodology which is available fully online here is presented in the Information section of the Issue.From this overview, some general conclusions can be derived:Conflict situations described in this issue emerged when traditional concepts were enforced by strong actors (without joint envisioning and planning with the others); these circumstances usually do not allow for balanced discussions about the future. However the important role of minor actors such as scientists was also revealed. Experiences with their involvement provided a chance to highlight the role of scientists in policy-making.Based on the findings of this and other related research, the role of scientists can be framed not only as providers of the (rather technical) expertise to reach the goals that were set within the environment or SD oriented decision-making, but also as entering policy negotiations providing an insight into the processes they undergo. If invited at an early stage of decision-making, they can have a considerable impact on its results (then their involvement can be described as an action research). This finding might be used in planning of similar practical and scientific projects.As we can see, several interesting ideas resulted from a comparative meta-analysis of the case studies and were outlined in this issue of Envigogika. In general, it is a social point of view that provides an insight into the nature of the examples presented from the Czech Republic and the good practices from abroad. A scientific method of description is used here to reflect policy mechanisms as well as to indicate a way forward for integrating decision making practice into very sensitive, local or regional sustainability contexts. We sincerely hope that this will precipitate a broad process of public dialogue among experts as well as other actors – beyond the realm of academic discussions only, but nevertheless with substantial academic input.We wish you an enjoyable read and a pleasant and relaxing summer!On behalf of the Envigogika editorial teamJana and Jiří DlouhýAcknowledgementResearch in several articles of this issue was supported by the following projects: Interdisciplinary network of cooperation for policy development in the field of sustainable development (Mezioborová síť spolupráce pro policy development v oblasti udržitelného rozvoje – MOSUR, 2011‑2014) CZ.1.07_2.4.00_17.0130 from the OPVK program of Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports; and TD020120 (TAČR), and 14/36005S (GAČR).