Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T19:48:07.670Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Three - Development of Czech policy analysis: social and political factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

Arnošt Veselý
Affiliation:
Fakulta sociálních ved, Univerzity Karlovy, The Netherlands
Martin Nekola
Affiliation:
Fakulta sociálních ved, Univerzity Karlovy, The Netherlands
Eva M. Hejzlarová
Affiliation:
Fakulta sociálních ved, Univerzity Karlovy, The Netherlands
Get access

Summary

Introduction

Policy analysis is one of the largest and most dynamically developing areas of the study of policy in Western democracies in recent years. This dynamic is caused not only by growing demands for solutions to acute social and political problems but also by attempts to understand the changing world and society we live in. The Czech Republic recently celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Like liberal democracies in the West, the country went through many transitions and faced many problems during those 25 years, for example economic transformation, EU enlargement, the effects of globalisation and regionalisation, security threats after 9/11, the world economic crisis after 2008. Thus, one might expect the kinds of pressures that stimulated the quick development of science-based policy-related advising in the form of policy analysis in the Euro-Atlantic area to bring about a similar need for expert policy advice and policy research in the Czech Republic as well.

In this respect, I should ask about the contemporary state of Czech policy analysis and its development. I attempt to grasp the development of Czech policy analysis from science-based policy-related knowledge (until World War II) over professional policy-related work activities during the communist regime to the establishment of a specific academic (sub)discipline dealing with policy problem solving after 1989. The goal of this text is to try to define the nature and state of Czech policy analysis, primarily from the perspective of the demand and context factors (see below) behind its historical development. Here I emphasise this perspective because other chapters deal with other aspects and meanings of policy analysis. Based on a review of related literature and my own observations, my underlying assumption is that the development of policy analysis as science-based policy-related knowledge used for political advising is a result of the interaction between academic (sub)disciplines dealing with policy problem solving and their social and political environments. For conceptualisation I rely on approaches working with the supply-demand model discussed below. Applying these lenses, I subsequently draft a historical overview of the development of policy analysis in the Czech Republic, especially in the inter-war period, the communist regime and the renewed democracy after 1989. This is especially interesting in a country that went through so many political changes in the 20th century.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×