Political Science (e-books)

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Drahomíra Ondrová Katarína Miňová

Súčasne potreba vytvoriť učebnicu pre vysoké školy uvedeného typu bola motivovaná požiadavkami a značným záujmom pomerne veľkého počtu samotných študentov a absolventov o danú problematiku v súvislosti s nedostatkom podobnej  učebnice zameranej na potreby Fakulty verejnej správy, ktorá by zodpovedala stanovenému obsahu a rozsahu spracovania so zameraním sa na najpodstatnejšie problémové okruhy diplomacie v prepojení na oblasť verejnej správy.

Okrem zabezpečenia potrebnej učebnice pre vysoké školy, hlavný cieľ spočíva v snahe podať študentom a mladým vedeckým pracovníkom základnú orientáciu v danej problematike, a to tak v pojmovej oblasti, ako aj v teoretickej. V neposlednom rade  učebnica napĺňa ambíciu motivovať záujem k ďalšej tvorivej akademickej práce a v rozširovaní vedomostí z oblasti zahraničnej, bezpečnostnej a medzinárodnej politiky v prepojení na diplomaciou.

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Michal Jesenko - Martina Kantorová - Jana Volochová - Viktória Ferková (eds.)

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Martina Hurčalová- Lukáš Jakabovič- Jana Kseňák Gregová (eds.)

Proceedings of the XIIth International Scientific Conference of Students and Young Scientists organized on the 19th of May 2023 at the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice in cooperation with Institute of Political Science and Public Administration, Faculty of Political Science and Journalism, Marie Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts, University of Miskolc, Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy, Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas and the Res Publica civic association. The aim of the present publication Firewall of Democracy is to highlight the distortions of democracy and its defense mechanisms in the contemporary world, Europe or even Slovakia itself. The collection consists of 13 contributions, mainly in Slovak, but also in English and Czech languages. The authors of the individual contributions dealt with the state of democracy and its problems not only in the domestic but also in the global environment.

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Alexander Onufrák - Ján Ruman - Jana Šutajová - Peter Getlík

The presented textbook aims to introduce students to the issue of political extremism from various perspectives—namely, normative, historical, and discursive-empirical.

It addresses the significance and role of active citizenship, which, as one of several potential solutions, has the capacity to a certain extent to eliminate the rise of manifestations of political extremism in society by deepening democratic principles in practice.

The presented textbook is a direct output of the KEGA grant project "Innovative Model of Education Leading to Active Citizenship as a Prevention of the Rise of Political Extremism among Students" (014UPJŠ-4/2020). The principal investigator of the project is Assoc. Prof. Mgr. Gabriel Eštok, PhD. The project was carried out in the years 2020–2022.

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Gabriel Eštok

The university textbook Citizenship of the European Union is structured into four parts. The first chapter focuses on the characteristics of citizenship in a historical context (concepts of citizenship in the ancient, medieval and modern periods).

The second chapter deals with a theoretical introduction to citizenship. It comes up with the characteristics of citizenship, introduces the ways of acquiring and losing citizenship and the transformations of citizenship in the context of globalization and multiculturalism.

The third chapter focuses on European Union citizenship itself, its historical development and the process of introducing and strengthening citizenship in the European Union.

The fourth chapter presents the specific rights of citizens deriving from European Union citizenship - the right to free movement, the right to vote and stand as a candidate in municipal and European Parliament elections, the right to diplomatic and consular protection in the territory of a third country, the right to petition the institutions of the European Union, the right of access to documents of the institutions and bodies of the Union, and the right of initiative of the citizens of the European Union.

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Barbora Linhartová - Peter Dubóczi - Dávid Gajdoščík (eds.)

Proceedings of the Xth Annual International Scientific Conference of Students and Young Researchers organized on October 1, 2021, by the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Arts at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, in cooperation with the Institute of Political Science and Public Administration of the Faculty of Political Science and Journalism at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, the Institute of Social Studies of the Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies at Mendel University in Brno, the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Miskolc, and the Res Publica Civic Association.

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Patrik Furik - Michaela Ružičková - Dávid Gajdoščík - Peter Dubóczi - Barbora Linhartová - Lucia Grieger

The textbook entitled Political Systems of the BRICS States is published as an output of the KEGA 014UPJŠ-4/2020 Innovative Model of Education Leading to Active Citizenship as a Prevention of the Rise of Political Extremism among Students. The aim of the given publication is to present the basic principles of the political systems of the BRICS bloc states and to provide the reader with the nature and character of the bloc's functioning.

The textbook consists of an introduction and five further chapters. All sections are written in Slovak. The individual chapters focus primarily on characterizing the historical development of the BRICS states, the evolution of their constitutionalism, public administration, and on defining the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of power

The individual chapters describe the political systems of the states: Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa. The introductory chapter of the textbook contains the characteristics of the development and formation of the bloc, as well as information on the cooperation among the BRICS members.

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Tomáš Dvorský

The attention devoted to the issue of Chinese activity is highly relevant. Creating a positive reputation abroad is a legitimate tool of every state in its effort to generate influence. The People's Republic of China has been very successful in this regard since the beginning of the millennium, which has allowed it to start occupying positions in the international system that it legitimately claims based on its own history, size, and potential.

Examples from abroad also highlight the fact that Chinese foreign policy should not be accepted uncritically and deserves a cautious approach and thoughtful discussion. All of this must be done while respecting not only China's particularity but also taking into account the realities of the great power rivalry visible at the beginning of the 21st century.

In this context, one cannot abstract from a detailed look at Chinese soft power as one of the key tools for generating influence in the world. Understanding it is an essential prerequisite for a relevant evaluation of the practices and motivations of China's foreign policy, while it can also serve as a guideline in the effort to create an adequate approach toward this resurgent global great power.

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Michal Jesenko - Rastislav Král (eds.)

Peer-reviewed proceedings of contributions from the 7th year of the international scientific conference for doctoral students, February 11, 2022 The work titled "Theory and Practice of Public Administration. Peer-reviewed proceedings of contributions from the 7th year of the international scientific conference for doctoral students held on February 11, 2022" is a comprehensive output of 29 contributions presented at the international scientific conference, which took place online on February 11, 2022. The conference is a traditional activity that is annually organized by the Faculty of Public Administration, P.J. Šafárik University in Košice. It is primarily intended for doctoral students and young researchers to facilitate open discussion, exchange of views, and mutual confrontation of the results of creative scientific activities.

This includes not only colleagues from Slovakia but also participants from abroad. The peer-reviewed articles provide, on one hand, a multidisciplinary perspective on the theoretical definition of public administration in the context of a functioning legal state. On the other hand, they also highlight practical aspects of public administration in everyday societal life. The contributions analyze the issues from the perspective of legal, economic, sociological, and political sciences.

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Stanislav Konečný

The goal of this monograph is to interpret the context of the emergence of public policy theory and the basic parameters of its subject matter—public interest, actors, and tools—as well as its methodological equipment.

The publication is also a response to the current state of development of public policy and its theory in our context, compared to its development worldwide. Today, when there is not only a very developed theory but also practice of public policy abroad, making it accessible to our readers in its full scope in the form of domestic production is almost impossible, also due to the quantitative parameters of our domestic authorial potential.

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Katarína Duffeková - Benita Feketeová - Katarína Lörincová (eds.)

The presented work is a collection of contributions from the 9th International Online Scientific Conference of Students and Young Scientists, organized on December 4, 2020 by the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, the Faculty of Social Sciences UCM in Trnava and the OZ Res Publica.

The aim of the publication is to provide a platform to discuss important issues which could influence the course of events in next decade in Slovakia, Europe and world.

The publication consists of more than twenty articles, which are primarily in Slovak but also in English. The contributions deal with both domestic and foreign policy with focus on the third decade of the 21st century.

In addition to geopolitical issues, the contributions also cover migration, regional integration, populism and nationalism, the influence of the media and social networks in the political sphere and also the development of liberal democracy. The authors also address issues of municipal policy, the electoral system and the referendum.

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Lukáš Šutor (ed.)

The current sixth volume of the Doctoral Miscellanea consists of eight contributions from four study programs, with two contributions also involving authors outside of doctoral studies. Given the limitations on the length of individual contributions and the uniqueness of the research, the authors have chosen varying widths and depths in presenting their dissertation topics. Some contributions serve as an introduction to the issues, others provide a summary of previous results, and still others focus on a detailed analysis of a specific problem. These three approaches may not only reveal the stage of research in which the doctoral candidate finds themselves but also their potential research priorities.

The main commonality across all issues of the proceedings remains interdisciplinary diversity, which shows a certain continuity. Specific themes appear regularly. In these cases, alongside alternating doctoral candidates, the key figure is the supervisor (in the role of co-author) and their research focus/project in which the doctoral candidates participate. This development of research continuity is particularly evident in contributions from the field of social work.

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Milan Douša - Tatiana Gmitrová - Oskar Tóth - Matúš Vyrostko (eds.)

Peer-reviewed proceedings of contributions from the 5th year of the doctoral students' scientific conference, February 6, 2020

The dynamically evolving contemporary society creates expectations and demands among citizens for public administration to be efficient, reliable, open, professional, and fast. New theories of knowledge, in connection with constant changes, must also include practical application and reflection of these characteristics in the public administration system in practice. For this reason, it is important to pay attention to new approaches from both theoretical and practical perspectives to the application of modern public administration in the conditions of the V4 countries.

Given that public administration is an interdisciplinary scientific discipline that utilizes knowledge from a wide range of scientific fields and thus enables a comprehensive approach to solving problems of modern public administration, the peer-reviewed proceedings of contributions from the doctoral students' scientific conference are divided into three sections: socio-economic, political science, and legal. The sections eruditely respond to current public administration problems from both theoretical and practical perspectives.

PhDr. Milan Douša
Chairman of the Organizing Committee

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Tomáš Dvorský - Lucia Laczkó - Katarína Lörincová (eds.)

The collection of articles from the VIII. International Scientific Conference for Students and Young Scientists, organized by the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Arts of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, in cooperation with the Res Publica Civic Association the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, held on 16 May 2019 in Košice.

The aim of this publication, entitled Slovakia-Europe-World, is to point out a complex of diverse topics that are actual in the world, in Europe and in the Slovak republic.

The publication consists of 15 articles, which are primarily written in Slovak. The individual contributions deal with selected topics and aspects of national and foreign policy.

The topics of the articles are human rights, freedom of expression, the rise of religiously motivated nationalism, the issue of unemployment, parliamentary elections and election research. The publication also contains contributions focused on topics in the field of environmental policy, cultural policy or migration policy.

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Jana Šutajová

From January 1, 1969, the Constitutional Act on the Status of Nationalities in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR) and the Constitutional Act on the Federation came into effect. The Constitutional Act on the Status of Nationalities represented at least a formal significant step forward in the legal regulation of minority rights. However, this law was intended to serve as a foundation for further legal adjustments. It was declared that additional steps and negotiations for the adoption of implementing regulations would follow and that further laws would be enacted at both the federal and national levels. Nevertheless, no additional law or government regulation related to the constitutional act on the status of nationalities in the ČSSR was ever issued.

During the normalization period, issues concerning further legislation related to national minorities were not addressed. However, in the brief period following the adoption of the constitutional act in 1968 until the end of 1969, some institutions attempted to prepare and promote such legal norms. One of these institutions was the Government Council of the Slovak Socialist Republic (SSR) for Nationalities (hereafter referred to as the Council or the Government Council for Nationalities). The monograph provides an insight into the development of additional legal norms arising from the constitutional act on the status of nationalities in the Slovak Socialist Republic, prepared by the Government Council of SSR for Nationalities. This council was one of the institutions established in Slovakia after the formation of the Czechoslovak federation and dealt with nationality issues.

In addressing further legal norms stemming from the constitutional act on nationalities in ČSSR, it was necessary to consider prior developments. Therefore, the first part of the monograph examines the status of minorities in Czechoslovakia before adopting the constitutional act, activities of nationalities preceding its adoption, and its enactment itself. Subsequent sections focus on institutional changes in SSR following federalization, the establishment of the Government Council of SSR for Nationalities, and specific actions taken by this Council and its expert bodies in drafting proposals for laws concerning nationalities in the Slovak Socialist Republic.

The motivation for writing this monograph stemmed from the fact that this topic has so far received attention only in a few studies in Slovakia, which primarily focused on the Hungarian minority during either the Prague Spring or normalization periods.

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Jana Volochová - Lucia Rožová (eds.)

A peer-reviewed collection of contributions from the 4th year of the doctoral students' scientific conference, which took place on February 13, 2019, at the Faculty of Public Administration of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Popradská 66, 040 11 Košice.

The content of the proceedings of the conference consist of contributions presented on scientific conference Theory and Practice of the Public Administration: The Scientific Conference for PhD. Students held by the Faculty of Public Administration University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik in Kosice on 13th of February 2019. The conference proceedings consist of 28 contributions, which are according to its content divided in to the politological, legal and social-economic section.

Participants aimed their contribution on the current professional topics, which are important for the current theory and practice of public administration. Authors in their conference papers also included a number of important observations, opinions, experiences and knowledge. All published contributions provides space for the deeper qualified discussion.

Compilers

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Tomáš Dvorský - Lucia Laczkó - Mária Petriková  (eds.)

The collection of articles from the VII. International Scientific Conference for Students and Young Scientists, organized by the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Arts of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, in cooperation with the Res Publica Civic Association the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, held on 17 May 2019 in Košice.

The aim of this publication, entitled The Turning Eights, is to point out the importance of the years ending with number eight, which have significantly affected historical development and appear to be justified in the current political context.

The almanac consists of 11 articles, which are primarily in the Slovak language. The individual contributions deal with aspects of national and foreign policies that are united in theme called The Turning Eightswith the individual interest of each author.

The topics of the almanac are the municipal elections, the position of municipalities at the public administration system, development in self-governing regions and the non-governmental organizations. The presented publication also contains articles that deal with topics in specific countries, such as China, Israel and Russia.

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Eliška Župová

The scientific monograph examines the issue of competencies among mayors in municipalities of the Slovak Republic. At its core is interpersonal (social) competence, characterized by a set of competencies (interpersonal skills and abilities) formed by comfort in social (interpersonal) situations that mayors encounter daily in performing their duties.

Social (interpersonal) competence is an essential skill for any manager. A mayor should also act as a manager, operating within a social environment, where the level of mastering interpersonal competencies predicts successful behavior in interpersonal situations. Through their actions in these situations, they influence the internal environment of the municipality, including municipal office employees, members of the municipal council, local residents, and external environments—such as collaborations with other municipalities, higher territorial units, contractual agreements with private organizations, or representatives of the third sector.

The central focus of the scientific monograph is the exploration of interpersonal competencies. A pivotal research question addressed was: What is the level of mastery of interpersonal competencies among mayors in municipalities of the Slovak Republic?

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Daniel Dobiaš

The work deals with the evolution in theory and practice of democracy, open society and humanism which is marked by dichotomy of its own progressive and regressive features. Civilization trajectory of human reality, the implementation strategy thought overlaps through a reality in the form of freedom, solidarity and human rights, formulation of normative ideas of man and his/her nature, rationalistic universalism and voluntaristic individualism created preconditions for the political background of modern societies which established democratic order with rules allowing to dispose with freedom to which the individual, as a rational being, is authorized. Moreover, the perspective of awareness of ambiguity and paradoxical content of individual parameters of democracy, open society and humanism, ideologically shaped and fixed by worldviews of economic and political elites, from our point of view, is a mirror image of how those conditions differ from the standard assumptions formulated in theory. 

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Gabriel Eštok - Mária Hrehová - Renáta Bzdilová (eds.)

Collection of contributions from II. year of the Student Scientific Conference held on May 17, 2013 by the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Pavel Jozef Šafárik in Košice

The collection was created on the basis of an event with a thematically defined and political science, perhaps the most frequently discussed issue of democracy. I would add that the event was also attended by doctoral students of other fields of study, who analyzed the topic of democracy from positions other than political science. I very much welcomed the fact that a contribution from the legal issues of the European Union appeared in the proceedings. Enriching the collection is also a contribution from international political issues, which sheds light on democratic rules applied in territory other than European. Other contributions focus on various aspects of the creation of a democratic political environment in Slovakia and the European Union, while several sympathetic attempts at non-traditional perspectives on the development of civil society, public and party politics appear in them.

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Drahomíra Ondrová - Veronika Džatková(eds.)

Perspektívy komunálnej politiky na Slovensku po voľbách v roku 2014

Peer-reviewed collection of works from the scientific conference with international participation held on May 28, 2015, in Košice

On May 28, 2015, the Department of Public Policy and Public Administration, in cooperation with the organizing and scientific committee, organized a scientific conference with international participation titled "Current Challenges and Problems of Public Administration II. – Perspectives of Municipal Policy in Slovakia after the 2014 Elections."

The conference content followed up on the conference "Current Problems and Challenges of Public Administration I.," which was held on November 21, 2012, and laid the foundation for a series of conferences dedicated to the important issue of public administration. The conference focused on a broad range of problems related to public administration from the perspective of its understanding as an academic discipline in connection with political science, law, ethical aspects, economics, digitalization, and public administration management, with a focus on the perspectives of municipal policy.

The authors in their contributions did not remain only at the theoretical and generally descriptive level but sought to address existing problems by formulating proposals and possible ways to solve them in the application to public administration practice. The authors and editors believe that this collection of papers will have a positive contribution not only for theorists and students of the Faculty of Public Administration but also for representatives and professionals from practice who are daily confronted with issues of public administration.

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Gabriel Eštok - Renáta Bzdilová - Jakub Bardovič

Proceedings of the 4th Annual Scientific Conference of Students and Young Scholars, held on May 14 and 15, 2015, by the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, in cooperation with the civic association Res Publica, are part of the project VVGS-2014-214. Title: The Electoral Census in the 21st Century.

This proceedings volume is the result of the fourth conference of its kind, which provides a platform for the young scientific community to meet and discuss political issues of the Slovak Republic as well as the international political scene. Once again, it can be stated that the discussion was stimulating and of a high qualitative level. The selection of topics reflects the interests of the young scientific community.

The resulting publication discusses and analyzes a wide range of diverse problems and issues that the young scientific community in Central Europe addresses in connection with citizenship and civil society. Topics such as civil society; the relationship between citizen and state; the hypersocial networked society; the potential of civil society in reducing corruption in public administration under the conditions of the Slovak Republic; barriers to political participation-the electoral census and its historical context in Slovak conditions; dual citizenship; protection of human rights in a democratic society; motherhood; the position of women in Islam or the status of Jewish women; protection of victims of crime; women in revolutions or the role of women’s civic associations in the context of the Ukrainian crisis; Chinese interests in the Arctic or the issue of labor camps and human rights violations-all enrich this publication with perspectives and analyses from young people with strong scientific potential.

Our common goal is to stimulate interest in the study of a wide range of societal issues and to contribute our perspectives to attempts at solving the topics raised.

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Gabriel Eštok- Mária Hrehová- Jakub Bardovič (eds.)

Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Scientific Conference of Students and Young Researchers held on May 23, 2014, by the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice

On May 23, 2014, the Department of Political Science at the Faculty of Arts, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice hosted a conference entitled “Challenges and Perspectives of Domestic and Foreign Policy.” This was the third conference for students and young researchers organized by the Department of Political Science in cooperation with the civic association Res Publica. The event featured numerous young people interested in contemporary political issues, each presenting on a topic related to domestic or foreign policy. It can be stated that these presentations were of a high professional standard and stimulated discussion on the topics and problems raised.

The publication you are holding is a collection of scholarly works by students and young experts who focused on a variety of subjects. Some authors addressed issues of foreign policy, particularly the analysis of selected countries’ policies (Slovak Republic, USA), examined the Iranian nuclear program, or explored the possibilities of federalizing Ukraine as a solution to the emerging situation. Another contribution offered a perspective on foreign policy from the viewpoint of Slovak emigrants in Australia. Despite the wide range of topics addressed in the individual contributions, a common denominator can be found: the effort to highlight a particular problem or propose its solution, thereby contributing to the fulfillment of the ideal of democracy, the improvement of policy-making and functioning, and, above all, making the world a better place for all of us.

Editors

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