Tomáš Kostelecký

Rental Housing for Young Households in the Czech Republic: Perceptions, Priorities, and Possible Solutions

This paper describes changes in the housing market after the collapse of communism in Central Europe and analyses the current functions and perceptions of the private rental housing in the Czech Republic. It aims to understand why private rental housing is perceived as a sub-optimal housing solution for young adults, whether this affects their family plans, and which policy design could change that. The article uses qualitative research techniques to analyse mental frames, opinions, and attitudes of both potential tenants and landlords towards rental housing. The authors argue that the main problem of rental housing for young tenants is the short-term lease. Lack of mutual trust between tenants and landlords is a main cause of short-term contracts in the private rental segment. The insecurity it produces among young tenants contributes to delayed family formation. A policy tool aiming to overcome that distrust between tenants and private landlords through the involvement of an independent third party as a guarantor of the relationship is discussed.

The Innovative Regions in the Czech Republic and their Position in the International Labour Market of Highly Skilled Workers

Bernard J., Kostelecký T. and Patočková V. The innovative regions in the Czech Republic and their position in the international labour market of highly skilled workers, Regional Studies. This paper analyses the possibilities and potential barriers of development of an Island of Innovation in the most innovative regions in a post-Communist country – the Czech Republic. The relation between the labour market of these regions and the Islands of Innovation is explored and the consequences of the situation for further R&D development are assessed. The analysis concludes that the most innovative Czech regions are able to attract highly qualified labour from other locations and do not suffer from a quantitatively important brain drain. On the other hand, mutual interconnections with the most developed Islands of Innovation are weak.

Czech Green politics after two decades: the May 2010 general election

The article examines the electoral results of the Czech Green Party in the 2010 elections to the lower house of the Czech Parliament, placing those results in both historical and sociological perspective. In particular, the article analyses the social bases of Green Party support in past parliamentary elections, and identifies reasons for the party’s substantial decline in electoral support in 2010.

Socio-Spatial Inequalities in the Czech Metropolitan Areas: The Case of Prague Metro

Social inequalities have increased in the Czech Republic since the collapse of communism. While this has not led to an intensification of territorial inequalities, yet the analysis of the Prague metropolitan area presented in this chapter shows that pressure toward socio-spatial inequalities might increase in the near future. In particular, the abandoning of rent regulations decided by the national government in 2013 is likely to accelerate sorting of residents into affluent and poorer areas. Several features of the Czech local government system will, nevertheless, counteract a deepening of socio-spatial inequalities: centralized redistribution of revenues among municipalities, earmarked central government grants for specific services or investments, as well as centrally regulated municipal expenditures resulting in standardized level of municipal services.

Povolání zvolených poslanců za první republiky a dnes

The article focuses on an analysis of the professions of Czech deputies in the interwar period and in the period after 1989. Based on the theoretical framework of representation we assume that voting decisions are influenced not only by party electoral programs, but also by the individual characteristics of candidates. Candidate professions may indicate whether they are considered to be sufficiently qualified and whether they are considered to represent the interests of voters. The aim of the article is to analyse the differences between two historical periods and the differences among parliamentary parties. The analysis proved that the structure of professions of parliamentary representatives changed dramatically over time. The professions of representatives in the interwar period tended to resemble the professions of their core voters, and hence were rather different across political parties. In contrast, the professions of parliamentary representatives elected on the party list of different parties became rather similar after 1989. A clear tendency towards the emergence of professional politicians can be observed. A descriptive type of representation is on the decline.

The Spatial Context of Voter Behaviour: How Do Local and Regional Factors Impact Voter Decisions

Among the many factors that infl uence the voting behaviour of individual voters, various spatial characteristics have repeatedly been cited as important factors. The diverse impacts of spatial characteristics are collec- tively referred to as contextual effects. Contextual effects impact voters in dif- ferent ways: through differences in the local geographical and socio-economic conditions, the varying infl uence of local communication interactions, obser- vational infl uences, differences in local political socialisation and local cam- paigning, or through the effect of candidate residency. This article presents an overview of the most frequently discussed contextual effects and formulates a general typology of them.