Michal Plaček

Bio: Michal Plaček is an academic researcher from Charles University in Prague. The author has contributed to research in topics: Czech & Decentralization. The author has an hindex of 8, co-authored 80 publications receiving 246 citations. Previous affiliations of Michal Plaček include Národní muzeum.

Public leadership and strategies of Czech municipalities during the COVID-19 pandemic – municipal activism vs municipal passivism

Abstract: Purpose This paper discusses the role of public leadership and the strategic response of local governments to the external shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic The authors examine the typical Czech response with regard to how the leadership of municipalities in the Czech Republic responded to this extremely negative external stimulus Design/methodology/approach The authors use qualitative research methods for this investigation They have chosen the case study method (see Yin, 2009;Stake, 1995;Klonoski, 2013) The general case is the Czech Republic Mini-cases consist of municipalities from the Znojmo region, municipalities of the Central Bohemian region and the municipal districts in the capital city of Prague Furthermore, the method of participant observation was used Findings The authors' analysis of the problem of local government responses to the pandemic crisis shows that municipal leaders responded with a variety of (non-)adaptation strategies It appears that certain framework factors influenced the various local governments' behavior Originality/value The article examines the strategic behavior of Czech municipal leaders regarding the pandemic crisis based on the observation of the reactions of local governments in the Czech Republic to the pandemic crisis and strives to define their basic strategies

Identifying Corruption Risk: A Comparison of Bulgaria and the Czech Republic

Abstract: The article focuses on risk assessment of individual and systematic corruption at the municipal level in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. For this purpose, it uses the method of Corruption ...

Economies of scale - empirical evidence from the Czech Republic

Abstract: In accordance to the principle of decentralization, local governments play important role in the economy and public administration since 1990 in the Czech Republic. The country belongs to countries with the most territorial fragmentation of municipalities (with Slovakia, Hungary or Austria). In this context, there is the relationship between economic performance and the size of a municipality very often discussed and thus the problem of existence of economies of scale in current high territorial fragmentation of municipalities. The issue becomes very relevant in the present time after global financial crisis which has had a significant impact on local governments in the conditions of the Czech Republic. The paper analyzes the dependence of the per capita costs on choosing public service of local government and the size of municipality in terms of number of inhabitants. Based on the results authors try to determine the optimal size of municipality.

Do performance management schemes deliver results in the public sector? Observations from the Czech Republic

Abstract: Our paper presents an analysis of the impact of performance management tools on the performance of public sector institutions in the Czech Republic. We were unable to document their impacts on organisational performance using standard quantitative analysis. Expert opinions indicate that such a situation is at least partly a real one, not caused by methodology biases, but by the very specific behaviour of public organisations in the public-sector system, where accountability and responsibility are limited.

Analysis of Factors of Overpricing in Public Procurement: A Study for Low-performing EU Countries

Abstract: The paper deals with the issue of overpricing of public procurement in low-performing EU countries. It examines a uniquely large sample of public procurement in 11 Central and Eastern European countries. Hierarchical regression is used to analyze the factors that influence public contract. Our results indicate that institutional factors have a greater impact on overpricing than individual decisions by the contracting authority. Our analysis for low-performing EU countries provides interesting results and also draws attention to behavior that is not typical of the better established and more advanced EU countries. Our results are particularly important for public policy in each country, as they show the direction of regulatory action in the field of public procurement. The results introduce a debate on the appropriateness of “one size fits all” regulations within the EU.

Input Output Analysis Foundations And Extensions

Abstract: Thank you very much for reading input output analysis foundations and extensions. As you may know, people have search hundreds times for their chosen readings like this input output analysis foundations and extensions, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they are facing with some malicious virus inside their desktop computer.

Corruption and government : causes, consequences, and reform

Abstract: ROSE-ACKERMAN Susan, PALIFKA Bonnie J. Corruption and government : causes, consequences, and reform Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2016, XXIII-618 p. ISBN 978-1-107-44109-5 MOND 723 Resume editeur : The second edition of Corruption and Government updates Susan Rose-Ackerman's 1999 book to address emerging issues and to rethink old questions in light of new data. The book analyzes the research explosion that accompanied the fall of the Berlin Wall, the founding of Transparency Intern...

ธรรมาภิบาลของภาครัฐ: นัยจาก Worldwide Governance Indicators

Abstract: ธรรมาภบาลของภาครฐเปนหนงในปจจยสำคญทสงอทธพลตอการพฒนาเศรษฐกจและสงคมของประเทศ บทความเรองนไดทำการพจารณาธรรมาภบาลของภาครฐใน 213 ประเทศทวโลก ซงแบงออกเปน 6 มต ไดแก การควบคมการคอรปชนความมประสทธผลของภาครฐ การปราศจากความรนแรงและการกอการรายคณภาพในการควบคม การบงคบใชกฎหมาย และเสรภาพของประชาชนในการแสดงความคดเหน ซงทำการศกษาโดยธนาคารโลกภายใตโครงการ Worldwide Governance Indicators จากการพจารณาพบวาประเทศทพฒนาแลวมธรรมาภบาลของ ภาครฐสงกวาประเทศกำลงพฒนาเปนอยางมาก สะทอนใหเหนวา ธรรมาภบาลของภาครฐคอหนงในปจจยทชวยขบเคลอนการพฒนาเศรษฐกจและสงคมของประเทศนอกจากนยงพบวาประเทศไทยยงไมสามารถพงพอใจกบระดบของธรรมาภบาลของประเทศในปจจบนได เนองจากยงอยในระดบคอนขางตา Government Governance: An Implication from Worldwide Governance Indicators Government governance is one of the major determinants of the economic and social development of the nations. This article reviewed government governance of 213 countries worldwide which was categorized into six dimensions, including control of corruption, government effectiveness, political stability and absence of violence/terrorism, regulatory quality, rule of law and voice and accountability, based on the study of the World Bank under Worldwide Governance Indicators project. After the revision, it was found that developed countries had far higher government governance than developing countries, implying that government governance is one of the factors which drive the economic and social development of the nations. Moreover, Thailand could not yet be satisfied with its current government governance since its rank was quite low.

On Evolutionary Epistemology

Abstract: by GABRIELLA EICHINGER FERRO-LUZZI via Mario Fascetti, 67, 00136 Rome, Italy. 24 ix 81 Cohen (CA 22:201-18) and all his commentators take it for granted that we know the mechanism of biological evolution. For him \"the basic mechanism, change resulting from reproductive success, is clear\" (p. 204), and commentator Swartz does not even want to speak of the theory of evolution because the \"facts are empirically established\" (p. 214). I think we have to distinguish between biological evolution and the explanation thereof. Biological evolution is a fact; general directional change towards greater complexity of organisms and, above all, towards greater complexity of the brain cannot be denied. Theory as to the mechanism of evolution, however, leaves much to be desired. Breeding success might at most be adduced to explain the survival of the species; it can never explain directional change unless we simultaneously assume that species become progressively fitter and hence survive longer, which is not borne out by paleontology. We have as a species little hope of matching the longevity of the scorpion, and the tortoise beats us in the longevity of the individual and the species. If reproductive success and the survival of the species were selected for, we would do well to return at least to the level of the rat, but unfortunately the general direction of evolution seems to be set once and for all, even if it means producing less and less viable species. Within the general direction of evolution, transient \"fashions\" are discernible, and these too cannot be explained in terms of fitness. After a long period in which the \"nude look\" was \"in,\" fur coats became fashionable, eventually to give way to another wave of nudism. At present ancient nudists, fur-clad beauties, and modern nudists may be found inhabiting the same environment, and therefore the appearance of the outermost layer of the body obviously cannot be said to possess survival or reproductive value. Also, Homo sapiens is evolving. We are getting taller, and our eyes and teeth are getting weaker. None of these changes has any influence on reproduction, and the latter two, at least, do not make us fitter. What could be better proof of the theory of selection through reproductive success than evolution towards a longer period of fertility? This is happening now, but the extra years the Western woman has gained at the beginning and end of her fertile period are not used for reproduction. I have recently pointed out (1980:247-56) the utter implausibility of all attempts to explain continued lactase activity throughout life by reference to survival and reproductive advantages. If, for instance, the Danes, who are among the best lactose absorbers in the world, had acquired this trait through selection for fitness, they would have to have lived for thousands of years in such precarious nutritional conditions that drinking or not drinking fresh milk made a difference to their survival and reproduction, which is obviously absurd; In my view, the Darwinian paradigm has lulled us into the false security of having found the answer to the evolutionary problem and thus prevented us from searching for internal mechanisms setting the evolutionary switches. One such switch seems to indicate the overall direction, others lead to temporary fashions, and still others, possibly, determine the life-spans of species. Change toward a drier climate may have been fatal for the Brontosaurus but was hardly so for the Ichthyosaurus, which probably died of old age after an enviably long lifetime as a species. If, as I hold, biological evolution is a fact but its mechanism totally unknown, the application of the evolutionary model to culture naturally becomes problematic. On this point, however, several reservations have been voiced by the commentators, and Cohen himself rightly insists that \"prediction of the future is impossible for human events\"; therefore I can limit myself to a few points. I suggest that we speak not of the evolution of culture as an omnibus category but of that of particular aspects of culture. Evolution in the direction of greater complexity and efficiency is clearly at work in technology. Number also imposes some constraints, and the state could develop only after the tribal band. This is about all, however, that can be said with certainty of cultural evolution; speculations about the evolution of family types, systems of reckoning descent, ways of thinking, and so forth I hold to be vain. Small autonomous villages in Africa may well have developed into a kingdom according to the sequence Cohen describes, but the postulate of \"selective factors\" implies that there was some kind of necessity at work, which, being concluded post hoc, can never be proven. Cohen cites a few options, it is true, but the very concept of \"pressure on the leaders to specialize\" so that they eventually transformed themselves into monarchs is questionable. If disputes had really been crucial, these could just as well have been settled by councils of elders or the like. In India, for instance, disputes have been very effectively settled by village and caste councils with or without the existence of monarchy, and Westerners have long been accustomed to consult lawyers. It is true that there have been \"attempts to create a basis for world order,\" but I would not conclude from these that there is an evolutionary trend in that direction. Attempts at world order (in the form of world domination) have repeatedly been made in the past; it is only that the known world, or the world that counted, was smaller then. Even if the existing states could be brought to abdicate voluntarily, a world government replacing them would be 'rather impracticable. Our minds have an innate tendency (only a tendency, not a necessity) to prefer unity to plurality, and attempts to create bigger states and international organizations participate in this tendency, which has little to do with the rational evaluation of advantages and disadvantages. Since smaller entities, however, are easier to administer, it is quite conceivable that some of the bigger existing states will shrink, judging from the diffusion of separatist movements all over the world. A parallel to this situation may be drawn in the economic field. There has been a tendency to create bigger and bigger industrial complexes, but it is unlikely that this tendency will continue. In Italy the big firms are in trouble, while family enterprises flourish. Similarly, the supermarket, which according to some prophets should long since have ousted the small shops, has not been able to do so, at least in Europe. I am glad that Cohen does not simplistically extend \"biological theory into sociocultural realms\" as some of his commentators are prone to, but the postulate that similar abstract principles govern \"the evolution of all things-inorganic, organic, and sociocultural\"-seems to be inspired more by the above-mentioned monistic tendency of our minds than by the observation of facts.