The change of the political regime in Czechoslovakia, called the Velvet Revolution, is considered as a success story of transformation after 1989. However, in nowadays Czech Republic, the Communist Party still exists – this is the only such case among democratic countries of Central Europe. It makes us ask the question: is the Velvet Revolution completed? The author treats the activities of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia as a criterion for the assessment of changes in the Czech Republic after 1989 and wonders how strong for the assessment of the transformation influences the relics of the former regime. He stresses that transformation in the Czech Republic can’t be assessed on a comparative scale, because pace and effects of changes were different in different countries, as different was the nature of the previous regimes. The author concludes that the existence of the Communist Party is the natural element of contemporary political reality of the Czech Republic, which negates the achievements of transformation in no way. 

Contemporary democratization process challenges the trends of regress or stagnation in the world. The Central European Countries face this problem as well, yet they differ in the depth of changes. The article addresses the problems of quality of democracy regarded as a political regime and the values of constitutional order of the Czech Republic and Hungary. As post-communist, the two countries have been regarded as democratic leaders for a long time. But the Czech Republic has the same Constitution from the beginning of democratization process, while Hungary passed the new Constitution in 2011. The Czech constitutional order reflects liberal democratic rules and values both in axiological and institutional dimension. The Hungarian one mirrors conservative and illiberal axiological values. In the institutional dimension both constitutions seem to maintain specific democratic regime, but in Hungary the executive power is dominant. The methods used in the research were: analysis, synthesis, institutional approach and comparative method.

Life in a culturally diverse environment and being a national minority member causes the socialization of young people to occur in more than one language. Language is not only a medium of culture but also a core element of identity. This article discusses the implementation of the right of national minorities to education in their languages. In Belarus, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Ukraine, there are national minorities of autochthonous character, along with schools with the language of a particular minority as the teaching language. The most developed and numerous network of schools operating in the official school system is in the Czech Republic. In Belarus and Ukraine, the legal possibility of opening and running minority schools was introduced several years ago. Not without significance is the functioning of parish schools, Saturday-Sunday schools, national or ethnic clubs. Apart from family, school is the basic place of learning the minority language, an important element of national identity. At school, learners deepen their cultural competences, within their national, majority group and European culture.

In the paper we focused on the personality of the teacher and his/her motivation for professional performance depending on the length of teaching practice. The aim of the research was to find out the profile of the motivational structure of performance in the professional context of primary education teachers and to determine the specifics of individual dimensions related to the motivation for performance. The results showed that the motivational structure of performance is very similar for primary education teachers in the Slovakia and the Czech Republic. For teachers in the Czech Republic, the profile of the motivational structure of their performance does not change with the length of teaching practice. On the other hand, in Slovakia, motivational performance structures change in context depending on the length of teaching practice.

Why is it so good when it is so bad – integration activity of local government units in agglomerations in the Czech Republic and Poland

When pursuing the aim of the paper – to determine the sustainability of cooperation between local governments in agglomerations – an attempt was made to establish: What is the future of cooperation between agglomerations in the Czech Republic and Poland? Do partnerships under Integrated Territorial Investments foster a culture of cooperation? What kind of barriers must be overcome by local governments in connection with integration activities in agglomerations? The paper uses the comparative and diagnostic survey methods (an online survey in the Czech Republic and a postal survey in Poland). The empirical research was conducted among the members of the structures of Integrated Territorial Investments. It was found that integration problems in agglomerations include: financial difficulties of smaller municipalities, dominant position of the main city/cities, leadership style, trust, authorities’ fears about limiting their independence in the field of cooperation, influence of political views on relationships.

The article is a summary of the extensive research into a technical competence and technical profession preference of the senior primary grades. In total, 1650 pupils from 6th, 7th and 8th grades of the Moravian Silesian Region of the Czech Republic participated in the survey. Standard psycho-diagnostic methods were used. In addition, a new method for measurement of technical and practical comprehension was created. Our results show that there are no differences between girls and boys in intellectual abilities within the frame of single subtests. However, statistically significant differences only appear in psychomotor tempos kills and visual perception in favor of girls. Boys have got higher performance in the test of technical and practical understanding.