Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, 2009 (vol. 17), issue 5
Labour Market Reforms and Changes in Social Protection Systems: From Welfare to Workfare
Magdalena Kotýnková
Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2009, 17(5):3-19 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.280 
This paper deals with the situation on the European labour market and especially on the Czech labour market. It shows the impact of long-term unemployment - a crucial problem in contemporary European countries - on the economy and on the society and its integrity. Great attention is paid to the social parasitism of the long-term unemployed and to the conversion of social protection systems that started in the late 1990s, when the new principle of social protection systems - the coercive principle - was set up. The principal findings concern the decline in long-term unemployment both on the European labour market and on the Czech labour market after...
University-Educated Specialists, the Demand for Them and Their Standing on the Czech Labour Market
Jana Vavrečková
Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2009, 17(5):20-35 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.281
The paper deals with one of the biggest problems currently faced by the Czech labour market: namely, a shortage of labour with regard to specialists who have completed tertiary education. The introduction stresses the importance of knowledge capital both in contemporary society and in a knowledge-based economy. The need for university-educated labour on the Czech labour market was ascertained from the results of a Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs grant project entitled "Risk of a Brain Drain in the Czech Republic". The monitoring took place from the 2nd quarter of 2004 to the 2nd quarter of 2008. The results are based on an analysis of quantitative...
Quality of Community Planning in Social Services: A Case Study
Jaroslava Sedláková
Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2009, 17(5):36-52 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.282
The mutual agreement about priorities in the social area among representatives of customers (towns, municipal corporations), providers (organisations providing social services) and users (handicapped people) is an essential output of the process of social service community planning. This agreement about the vision in social services for a selected territory also involves action plans with solutions to identified deficiencies in social services -social service development plans (also called Community Plans).The paper suggests an evaluation of a process of social service community planning based on the assessment of compliance with specific principles...
Options for Setting Up An Effective EU Rural Development Policy
Martin Pělucha, Dana Viktorová, Zuzana Bednaříková
Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2009, 17(5):53-69 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.283
This paper presents an analysis of the available options for an effective EU rural development policy. A classification of the methods used to determine an optimal rural development policy can be viewed as the specific aim of the paper. This aim is achieved by discussing theoretical-methodological approaches to rural development, an analysis of the current situation in EU rural areas, including appropriate economic tools, and a partial analysis of existing methods for defining the optimal status in the rural areas. The paper also stresses the main economic determinants influencing conditions in EU rural areas. The authors point out a disproportion...
The Importance of Direct Democracy Tools for the Quality of Political Competition at the National and Local Levels
Petr Chmelík
Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2009, 17(5):70-88 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.284
Quality of political competition is the essential answer to the question of how people's wishes can be represented and coordinated in the public sphere in the most effective way. The paper defines the forms of political competition on political markets and shows referenda and initiatives as means to stabilize political business cycles and to break politicians' coalitions against the voters by destroying their monopoly on agenda setting and decision-making and by shrinking the informational advantage of the "classe politique" and well-organized interest groups. The mentioned positive effects on the quality of political competition can be demonstrated...