Selection of public policy actors at the level of local government
Author(s): Ján Machyniak,Leon Richvalský / Language(s): English
/ Issue: 1/2023
Keywords: Self-government; actors of public policy; democracy; decentralization
Territorial self-government has a significant place in the political system of the Slovak Republic. This fact is confirmed by its emplacement in the Constitution of the Slovak Republic. An inseparable part of self-government are the actors who shape it through their daily activities, most often by their governance in the public interest. This presented paper deals with the issue of local self-government in the conditions of the Slovak Republic, with an emphasis on the selection of its key actors. While expressing our considerations we identify with the assumption that local self-government is a space for political participation of its inhabitants, and in many ways can serve as a model of public administration for actors of public policy at higher levels of the state
as well. Due to this reason, our ambition is to provide comprehensive information about the method of selection of directly elected representatives of the local self-government and to conduct critical reflections on the current conditions of this selection.
Vertical Integration & Performance in Residential Real Estate
Author(s): Grant Alexander Wilson,Jason Jogia,Gabriel Millard / Language(s): English
/ Issue: 1/2023
Keywords: vertical integration; real estate; property management; rental affordability
Vertical integration is a growth strategy whereby a firm engages in multiple stages of the value chain. Although the benefits of vertical integration are well documented, few studies have examined its relevance in real estate. In response to this lack of research, this paper explores tenant perceptions of property managers’ vertical integration and effectiveness. The results of this international study show the benefits of vertical integration extend to residential real estate, such that renters are more trusting, loyal, committed, and desirable when they perceive their property manager as vertically integrated. This paper also uncovers a concering finding that many tenants are living in unaffordable rental accomodations, requiring further research. This study contributes to a large body of vertical integration literature and extends the empirical examinations to real estate and property management.
Applying the AD-AS Model to the Housing Market of Post-Socialist Economies
Author(s): Jacek Łaszek,Krzysztof Olszewski / Language(s): English
/ Issue: 1/2023
Keywords: : aggregate demand and aggregate supply; comparison of the economy with the housing market
We propose applying the standard aggregate demand and aggregate supply model (AD-AS) to the housing market. It is a very simple and intuitive tool that can help shed light on the major forces at play in the market and that can supplement the use of the general equilibrium and dynamic stochastic equilibrium models (DSGE). The latter models are very sophisticated and aim to cover many aspects of the economy, but they require a significant number of long time series to estimate the model parameters. However, in many countries, such as post-socialist countries, the time series are short. Those models moreover cover only real house prices, but in certain situations we should consider real and nominal prices at the same time.
Many aspects of the global economy changed during the Covid-19 pandemic, including the real estate market. This study examines the primary residential property market in Opole during the Covid-19 pandemic. It uses property transaction data from 2018 to 2021 to conduct statistical analyses and independent group tests and also takes into account the real-estate price trend from 2014 to 2020. The study finds that both property prices and preferences relating to the structure and location of housing changed during the pandemic. In the case of Opole, the number of transactions involving residential units in the primary market increased in 2020 compared to previous years. After adjusting the unit price value of residential properties for the trend in the pre-pandemic period, the study finds that there was also an increase in property transaction prices. The study confirms three important facts relating to phenomena that are occurring globally in cities today. First, local communities are more diverse in terms of the economic heterogeneity of real estate buyers. Second, unlike big urban areas, small cities may be more resistant to the process of citizens migrating to suburban areas, thereby limiting the negative phenomenon of urban sprawl. Third, the housing real estate market in small cities is considered a reliable form of investment of assets, as real estate prices increased during the Covid-19 pandemic.
This paper explores the sociotechnical change necessary for the introduction of collaborative housing projects into the Czech super-homeownership housing regime. To better understand the obduracy of the current housing system, we examine the major barriers and threats to the implementation of such projects through a series of workshops with non-experts in selected cities. Our findings suggest that the housing system’s obduracy is related to social imaginaries that we conceptualise as the ‘imaginary of social inertia’. This form of imaginary, along with other factors such as a lack of supporting legal and financial infrastructures, creates a complex network of obstacles that reduce the likelihood of such housing projects gaining ground. In conclusion, our research emphasises the role of imaginaries in studying obduracy and thus provides valuable insights into the processes of urban sociotechnical change.
The Role of Mortgage Subsidies in the Croatian Economic Growth Strategy: a Political-Economy Approach to the SSK
Author(s): Alejandro Fernández,Gojko Bežovan / Language(s): English
/ Issue: 1/2023
Keywords: housing policy; financialisation; mortgage subsidy; growth regime; welfare state
Since 2017, Croatian housing policy has focused on promoting homeownership through the SSK programme – a form of mortgage subsidisation that covers a proportion of housing costs. Although this policy aimed to improve affordability and increase homeownership, a recent economic evaluation has shown that the SSK has in fact contributed to rising house prices and has been ineffective at raising the homeownership rate. While econometric research has identified the impact that the SSK has had on house price volatility and affordability, the underlying factors leading to the implementation of this subsidy, as well as its broader societal impacts, remain under-researched. Through a political-economy lens, this paper analyses the context that led to the inception of the SSK, its core targeting principles, and its impact on the housing market. We ask: How does this subsidy position the Croatian housing market within the national strategy for economic growth and social policy provision? We argue that this policy’s impact on housing markets is twofold. First, the SSK reinforces a shift towards financialised growth through increased asset prices. Second, this subsidy shifts the focus of social policy towards mortgage markets, thereby furthering the privatisation of the welfare state and favouring middle-income groups. This paper’s contribution resides in critically discussing the SSK beyond its stated goals and contextualising it within the broader model of economic growth dependent on private finance. Through interviews with relevant stakeholders, descriptive data indicators, and a review of policy documents, this paper characterises the Croatian growth strategy as a form of small-scale financialisation that relies on aligning social policy with mortgage markets. Finally, we position the SSK within a wider array of finance-led housing policies and suggest the formulation of a comprehensive housing strategy tailored to the broader segments of Croatian society.
Landlords vs Tenants = Top vs Bottom? Class Positions in Rental Housing in Germany
Author(s): Philipp Kadelke / Language(s): English
/ Issue: 1/2023
Keywords: housing; private rental sector; landlord-tenant relation; class; social inequality dynamics; German
Home ownership status is closely linked to social inequality in Germany, where tenants face several disadvantages in multiple dimensions. Even though Germany is one of the biggest renter and therefore landlord nations, in the context of the housing question it is the demand side that has been discussed and studied most. Less attention has been given to the supply side, particularly individual small-scale landlords. This article is one of the first attempts to shed light on the largest provider group that literally holds the keys to homes in its hands. Drawing on quantitative data, this article examines the socioeconomic profiles of landlords compared to tenants over time, finding landlords in the upper strata and witnessing long-term wealth divides in relation to tenants. Coupled with structural power imbalances during tenancies, this research seeks to stimulate research on private renting in the future from a class perspective.
Constitutional status and criminal law protection of the rights of national minorities and ethnic groups in the Slovak Republic
Author(s): Matúš Vyrostko,Igor Palúš / Language(s): English
/ Issue: 1/2023
Keywords: national minority; ethnic group; constitutional status; protection of rights
The matter and significance of the issue of the rights of national minorities belongs not only to the traditional subject matter of legal and socio-political sciences, but due to its legislative anchoring and actual implementation, it is included among topics that are often problematic, or have a controversial interpretation, which is manifested in plurality, or rather in the difference of opinion on their essence and meaning. However, lawyers, political scientists, sociologists, and also politicians agree on one thing – the rights of national minorities and ethnic groups are subject to constitutional regulation in the domestic environment, they are part of the constitution as the basic law of a democratic state. In this indicated sense, the concept of their constitutional adjustment can be understood in two directions. In general sense – when the status of national minorities and ethnic groups can be characterized as part of the constitutional principles of fundamental rights and freedoms; and in the specific sense – when constitutions grant national minorities and ethnic groups certain specific rights linked to their nationality, or ethnicity (Fridrich, 2013).
Ritual and Otherness in Human Relations: The Human-Person Philosophy of Byung-Chul Han
Author(s): Jason Morgan / Language(s): English
/ Issue: 2/2023
Keywords: Byung-Chul Han; neoliberalism; capitalism; dataism; human person;
Contemporary Korean-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han covers a wide range of topics in his many books, ranging from time to death to beauty to power, among others. While Han couches his investigations and critiques, mainly into and of present-day society, in the language of anti-neoliberalism, anti-capitalism, and other standards of the day, I understand Han’s hidden preoccupation to be the human person. In this essay I examine some of Han’s books to draw out his personalist philosophy more clearly.
The paper examines Jean Baudrillard’s conception of society as the silent majority. Thus conceived society has been shaped against the background of digital media transformations. Paying attention to the relationship between citizens perceiving media messages, and the media themselves and the power creating spectacular media messages, became the basis for Jean Baudrillard’s model of the relationship between power and society. This relationship takes on the function of the silent majority. A society with these characteristics emerged as a reaction to the simulative nature of power. For Baudrillard, simulation processes are the starting point of his analysis of the political sphere. Understanding society as the silent majority introduces a diagnosis of the functioning of the politician-voter relationship.
Wage Inequality in Bulgaria: Decomposition by Economic Sectors, Occupational Groups and Districts
Author(s): Svilena Mihaylova / Language(s): English
/ Issue: 5/2023
Keywords: income distribution; wage inequality; regional disparities
Given the pronounced income disparities in the Bulgarian economy, the paper explores wage inequality across economic sectors, occupational groups and districts in the country between 2008 and 2021. Using the between-group component of the Theil's T Statistic, the analysis reveals an overall upward trend in the evolution of wage inequality across sectors, occupational groups and districts. The largest positive contributor to inter-sectoral wage inequality is the highest paid information and communication sector. In terms of the wage disparities between occupational categories, the group of the managers has the largest weight. Finally, at a district level, the capital is the greatest positive contributor to between district wage inequality, due to offering the highest average wage, accounting for around one third of the employment in the country and boasting a concentration of the highest-paid economic activities.
Smaller syntax for English stative passives: A first report
Author(s): David Embick / Language(s): English
/ Issue: 3/2023
Keywords: word formation; syntax vs. lexicon; stative passive; Roots; complex head
One of the basic questions in the theory of morphology concerns the nature of word formation: how morphemes are assembled into larger objects, and—crucially—whether there are distinct systems in which this occurs (lexicon versus syntax), or just one. Stative (a.k.a. “adjectival”) passives like opened in the opened door, or flattened in the metal is flattened, have provided an interesting testing ground for questions of this type. Following a period in which such passives were argued to be formed lexically, much subsequent work has developed the idea that they are derived syntactically, in fully phrasal structures. This paper examines a number of properties of English stative passives which raise problems for a fully phrasal treatment. These include (but are not limited to) (i) modification asymmetries relative to eventive passives; and (ii) interactions with un-prefixation. The generalizations that are revealed suggest that stative passives are built syntactically, but without phrasal internal structure: what I call small(er) syntax. Importantly, small structures are not tantamount to a lexical analysis; I provide a direct comparison that argues that the evidence favors the smaller type of approach. The argument for small structures has implications for the syntax of Roots that are introduced throughout the discussion.
Keywords: gender variation; Russian indeclinable nouns; default gender; loanwords; corpus study
In this paper, the results of a large web-corpus study on gender of Russian inanimate indeclinable common nouns are presented. In most cases, neuter is assigned to indeclinables as a default. However, morphophonological and semantic analogy may lead to feminine and masculine gender assignment. An extensive variation is observed in the whole group of indeclinables and for particular words, which is much larger than anything that can be found in indeclinable nouns. These data support the idea that both masculine and neuter genders have a special status in the Russian gender system (Magomedova & Slioussar 2023). Masculine tends to be chosen in case of conflicting gender cues. When there are no strong cues pointing to any gender, neuter is assigned as the default option. The results of the study are hardly compatible with various structural approaches to gender assignment, but can be accounted for in competition-based models.
In Old Catalan, some verbs like beure ‘to drink’ display a velar consonant in the forms that come from Latin perfectum, such as 3sg.prt *ˈbibwit > bec [ˈbek] ‘s/he drank’. This velar was initially a perfect marker. However, the consonant spread analogically from perfective to imperfective forms through an exaptation process. In the present paper, we compare two different verb classes, and prove that the existence of syncretism between the first and third persons of the present indicative (1sg.prs.ind beu [ˈbew] ‘I drink’ vs. 3sg.prs.ind beu [ˈbew] ‘s/he drinks’) is a factor that accelerates the analogical process of velarization.
Author(s): Jan Don,Fenna Bergsma,Anne Merkuur,Meg Smith / Language(s): English
/ Issue: 3/2023
Keywords: verbal inflection; germanic; Frisian; syncretism; verb class
In this paper, we propose a comprehensive account of the paradigms of Frisian verb-classes. Verb-classes in Frisian are an example of a more general phenomenon of inflectional classes that we encounter in many natural languages across the major word classes. Members of different inflectional classes show different paradigms. Traditionally, inflectional classes have been analyzed using class-features (see e.g., Marzi et al. 2020). However, such features suffer from being ad hoc devices that seem to have no other function in the grammar than to code this difference. In the present analysis we propose that the verb stems from different classes show a difference in size. Using phrasal spell-out, we will show that these stems differ in the amount of morpho-syntactic structure that they may realize, rendering class-features superfluous.
Acquisition and processing of word formation in German
Author(s): Sabine Sommer-Lolei,Veronika Mattes,Katharina Korecky-Kröll,Wolfgang U. Dressler / Language(s): English
/ Issue: 3/2023
Keywords: cognitive preferences; first language acquisition; processing strategies; word-formation patterns; productivity; socio-economic status
Cognitive processing strategies can explain general word-formation preferences that influence the structures and their developments. They are based on simplicity, transparency, iconicity, salience, and frequency. We present and discuss evidence from our data on first language acquisition for how these cognitively based general preferences can explain the course of development of word formation and how they interact or compete. The analysis is based on the development of distributions of word formations in longitudinal data and panel data of child speech and their input from high and low socio-economic status families. In order to evaluate the productivity of a word-formation pattern in child speech, we applied the mini-paradigm criterion. Age-of-acquisition effects will be presented according to our own processing studies and to literature.
The paper investigates the relations between phonological form and information content within Latin verbal inflection from two interrelated points of view. It looks at conditional entropy relations within the present paradigm to see how these relate to the textual frequency of the individual forms; and it seeks to answer the question to what extent the phonological form of stems and endings has the potential to lead to ambiguity in morphological marking. The latter issue is approached from the angle of the information content that word forms taken in themselves have about their morphological status. The broader question of potential ambiguity is broken down into two separate questions: one concerns stems where intra-paradigmatic ambiguity would be possible; the other concerns stems that include phonological material that could itself be interpreted as a morphological marker. The absence of potential ambiguity in the first sense, and its severe restriction in the second sense is interpreted here as an emergent mechanism to enhance the information content of verb forms.
Author(s): Editorial Board / Language(s): English
/ Issue: 91/2023
Keywords: news;
Brief news:
1. Associate Professor Záboj Horák 20 Years Teaching at the Prague Faculty of Law
2. Professor Michal Tomášek Has Celebrated an Anniversary and Written a Monograph on his Life
3. Teaching of Courses in the Church Law profile module at the Prague Faculty of Law
4. Collaboration with the Department of Legal Skills at Charles University’s Faculty of Law
5. CLS Members at the International Conference on Canon Law in Olomouc
6. The official presentation of a book by Professor Ignác Antonín Hrdina
7. Rev. Klement Jaroslav Růžička, OPraem., Has Left Us
8. Mons. Tomáš Halík Has Celebrated His 75th Birthday
9. Congratulations to members of the Church Law Society
Situated within the fields of culinary history, memory studies, narrative studies and food studies, this research based upon a qualitative content analysis of the selected introductions to Irish cookbooks aims to outline the significance of food memories in culinary discourses. The analysed food memories, as I argue in the text, can be viewed as representations both of individual and collective accounts. They constitute a part of intangible culinary heritage as they construct the shared image of national cuisine, in this case Irish native cuisine. Furthermore, food memories can provide an alternative view on the history of everyday life and therefore can be treated as microhistories and micronarratives.
Putting into work the theories of Karen Barad (spacetimemattering) and Timothy Morton (ecognosis), the author of the article investigates the volume Polysaccharides (2020) by Szymon Szwarc. The Polish poet, like Barad, notices the connections and entanglements between various actors of the world (although he uses the language of molecular biology rather than the language of quantum physics). The portrayal of these connections serves him as the basis for a poetic critique of “agrilogistics”, which, according to Morton, has been a perpetual pattern of human activity since the Neolithic Revolution. The author of the article analyzes these issues, especially with regard to the poem Boiler Broad Bean. He comes to the conclusion that Szwarc develops his own consideration regarding agrilogistics, which is close to new materialism.
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