In the tradition of imagology, as it was elaborated in the works of V. Todorov and Z. Urban, the author presents an image of the Czech community living in a village of Vojvodovo in Bulgaria from the beginning of the 20th century till 1950, as it was seen through the eyes of their neighbors. As a source the author uses published texts as well as unpublished memoirs dealing with Vojvodovo, and testimonies gathered during his fieldwork in Vojvodovo in a period 1997–2009. Derived from the mentioned sources, the final image of the Czechs in Vojvodovo is very positive. It presents them as a noticeably united group of puritans, who were industrious in an exemplary manner, primarily peasants, nevertheless very good traders, neat and culturally advanced, honest and willing, which made them good neighbors, except the fact that they were not very hospital to strangers.
Podle recenzenta se volby v Československu do zastupitelských orgánů v době od potlačení pražského jara 1968 do demokratické revoluce 1989 na první pohled jeví jako formální rituál, avšak autor ve své důkladně empiricky založené práci ukázal, že plnily řadu důležitých funkcí, byť jiných než v demokratickém státě. Zachytil společné rysy i odlišnosti jednotlivých volebních aktů, odehrávajících se v pětiletých cyklech, a prozkoumal související aktivity bezpečnostních složek. V rámci výkladu o volbách přitom popsal důležité aspekty fungování komunistického režimu, všímal si různých forem odporu proti němu a vylíčil také příběhy obyčejných lidí, které se nějakým způsobem vázaly k volbám. Sedmdesátá a osmdesátá léta představil ve své knize z nového úhlu a nemálo přispěl k jejich lepšímu poznání., According to the reviewer, the elections to representative bodies in Czechoslovakia between the suppressionof the Prague Spring in 1968 and the democratic revolution in 1989 may at first sight seem to be a formal ritual. However, the author´s empirically well-founded work "All Communists to the polls!" Elections in Czechoslovakia in 1971-1989 as a phenomenon of society, politics and state security demonstrates that they had a number of important functions, albeit different from those in a democratic state. The author captured common features and differences of different election acts taking place in five-years cycles, and examined related activities of security forces and elements. In his account of the elections, he described impotant aspects of the operation of the Communist regime, noticed different forms of the opposition against it, and also mentioned stories of ordinary people which were somehow related to the elections. He presented the 1970s and 1980s from a different angle, making a substantial contribution to better knowledge of the period., [autor recenze] Petr Anev., and Obsahuje bibliografii a bibliografické odkazy
The article deals with the 2010 parliamentary elections in Myanmar, the first in more than twenty years. The author examines the Myanmar’ s pre-election political scene, the conduct and results of the elections and the situation after the elections. His main finding
is that while the elections provided some contesting parties with the representation in the new legislative bodies, they were basically designed to ensure the perpetuation of the leading role of the military in the post-election Myanmar.