This article deals with the constitutional developments and legal policy in Central Europe since 1989 and focuses on a temporal analysis of and the difference between the demos and ethnos concepts of the nation in the political and legal systems. Drawing on several social theories of time, identity and the codification of social traditions, the author claims that the difference between the civic and the ethnic concepts of the nation does not relate just to the conflict between the liberal-democratic aspirations and ethno-nationalistic myths of authoritarian politicians. The concepts rather represent two distinct traditions, manipulated by political officials and codified in the constitutional processes. The political manipulation of the past and the process of selecting from among different traditions are manifest at the level of constitutional symbolism and in the specific government programmes that have arisen in post-communist Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and the Czech Republic. In the concluding part the author presents an analysis of the relationship between the abstract and symbolic language of constitutional documents and the concrete, ethnically determined legal policies in Central European countries.
Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of mortality and morbidity in most populations. As the traditional modifiable risk factors (smoking, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, and obesity) were defined decades ago, we decided to analyze recent data in patients who survived acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The Czech part of the study included data from 999 males, and compared them with the post-MONICA study (1,259 males, representing general population). The Lithuanian study included 479 male patients and 456 age-matched controls. The Kazakhstan part included 232 patients and 413 controls. In two countries, the most robust ACS risk factor was smoking (OR 3.85 in the Czech study and 5.76 in the Lithuanian study), followed by diabetes (OR 2.26 and 2.07) and hypertension (moderate risk elevation with OR 1.43 and 1.49). These factors did not influence the ACS risk in Kazakhstan. BMI had no significant effect on ACS and plasma cholesterol was surprisingly significantly lower (P<0.001) in patients than in controls in all countries (4.80 ±1.11 vs. 5.76 ±1.06 mmol /l in Czechs; 5.32 ±1.32 vs. 5.71 ±1.08 mmol /l in Lithuanians; 4.88 ±1.05 vs. 5.38±1.13 mmol /l in Kazakhs/Russians). Results from our study indicate substantial heterogeneity regarding major CVD risk factors in different populations with the exception of plasma total cholesterol which was inversely associated with ACS risk in all involved groups. These data reflect ethnical and geographical differences as well as changing pattern of cardiovascular risk profiles., J. A. Hubacek, V. Stanek, M. Gebauerova, V. Adamkova, V. Lesauskaite, D. Zaliaduonyte-Peksiene, A. Tamosiunas, A. Supiyev, A. Kossumov, A. Zhumadilova, J. Pitha., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The specific feature of the tramping is the fact that, in špite of its 80-year-tradition and a reál mass character, it has always verged on becoming illegal. This is a consequence of the very substance of the activity - a free camping outdoors, outside the parcels or objects sanctioned for this purpose by competent statě authorities or private owners. The intensity of the restrictive measures of the administrativě machinery towards tramping is unsteady - sometimes the activity has been tolerated, sometimes sujfered in silence, but also occasionally or systematically persecuted. This occurred during all regimes - at the times of the first Czechoslovak Republic, during Nazi occupation, during the „ building of the socialism “ times, but also nowadays. The motives that drove the oppression of the tramp movement for part of the statě organs of course differed considerably. Between the wars the tramp movement has been restricted by the police, who applied especially the so called „ Kubát ’s law forbidding the camping and outdoor activities of the single youths of the opposite sex. During the occupation times the tramps háve been persecuted by the security organs of the protectorate police and by the German Gestapo, who suspected them of being involved in the resistance movement and helping the partyzans. In the socialist era the tramps had to liide from the foresters, police forces and their wardens stationed in the villages, who resented the existence of the relatively informal tramp movement outside the oficial structures, their free movement over the country as well as their traditional sympathies toward the heroes of the American West, showed by their clothing and other atributes. In the last tenyears, the tramps are being accused of breaking the nátuře protection laws and they are persecuted especially by the representatives of the State conservation department.
a1_Polistopadový český environmentalismus je myšlenkově v mnoha směrech kompatibilní s ekologickou modernizací, která je od osmdesátých let určujícím diskurzem o životním prostředí na Západě. Autoři tvrdí a v článku dovozují, že tato kompatibilita není jen výsledkem importu těchto idejí do českého prostředí po roce 1989 a že základy pro přijetí paradigmatu ekologické modernizace položila svébytná forma environmentalismu, která se v Československu rozvinula v období socialismu. Jejím jádrem bylo propojení dvou zdánlivě neslučitelných složek: působila zde jednak meziválečná romantická tradice výchovy jednotlivce k environmentálně citlivému jednání prostřednictvím znalosti a pobytu v přírodě, jejíž kořeny vedou do prostředí severoamerických hnutí ,,lesní moudrosti'' (woodcraft) a trampingu, jednak přírodovědecky a technokraticky racionální pohled na životní prostředí v odborných kruzích, od sedmdesátých let silně ovlivněný sovětskou školou krajinné ekologie. Jeho předností bylo pevné vědecké analytické ukotvení, nedostatkem nemožnost uplatnění poznatků do praktické roviny veřejné politiky a rozhodování z důvodu nepřijatelnosti společenské kritiky v tehdejším režimu. Východiskem byl prohloubený důraz na uvědomělé jednání jednotlivce jako odpověď na ekologické výzvy v iniciativách, jako byl Tis - Svaz pro ochranu přírody a krajiny, Český svaz ochránců přírody a hnutí Brontosaurus., a2_Klíčové pro pochopení souběžného působení romantické a vědecké složky v českém environmentalismu je jejich propojení v rovině osobní zkušenosti mnoha protagonistů (včetně pronásledování některých ekologických aktivit v období socialismu). Díky kombinaci odporu k etatistickému řešení problémů životního prostředí a úsilí o změnu vztahu společnosti k přírodě formou individuální zážitkové výchovy dospěl český environmentalismus intelektuálně do stejného bodu a ve stejnou dobu jako západoevropská ekologická modernizace, i když velmi odlišnou cestou. Zároveň však takto zformovaný český environmentalismus nebyl podle autorů vybaven k tomu, aby se po návratu země ke kapitalismu zapojil jako vyzrálý kritický aktér do řešení širších strukturálních aspektů krize životního prostředí, která neskončila spolu s bývalým režimem., a1_In terms of its mindset and mental setup, the post-November Czech environmentalism is in many respects compatible with the ecological modernization which has been the determining environmental discourse in the West since the 1980s. The authors claim, and attempt to infer so in their article, that the acompatibility is not just a result of imports of these ideas into the Czech environment since 1989, but rather that the groundwork for the acceptance of the ecological modernization paradigm was laid by a specific form of environmentalism which developed in Czechoslovakia during the socialist era. Its core was a combination of two seemingly incongruous elements; the inter-war romantic tradition of individual education toward environmentally concientious behavior through knowledge of and time spent in nature, rooted in the environment of North American ''woodcraft'' movements and in the Czech tramping movement, and the natural scientific and technocratic, rational attitude to the living environment haboured by the professional community, strongly influenced by the Soviet school of landscape ecology. The latter element´s strenght was its firm scientific ancoring; its weakness the impossibility to apply knowledge at the practical level of public policy and decision-making, as any social criticism of the then ruling regime was unacceptable. The solution was an increased emphasis on conscientious behavior of an individual reacting to ecological challenges, promoted by initiatives such as The Yew - The Union for the Protection of nature and landscape (TIS - Svaz pro ochranu přírody a krajiny), Czech Union for Nature Conservation (Český svaz ochránců přírody), or Brontosaurus Movement ( hnutí Brontosaurus)., a2_The key to understanding the parallel coexistence of the romantic and the scientific components in the Czech environmentalism is their connection at the level of personal experience of many of its protagonists (including persecution of some ecological initiatives during the socialist era). Thanks to a combination of resistance against etatistic solutions of environmental problems and efforts aimed at changing the society´s attitude to nature through individual experience-based eduction, the Czech environmentalism reached the same intellectual point at the same time as the Western European ecological modernization although each used a very different route to get there. However, the authors claim that the Czech environmentalism that had formed in the manner outlined above was not adequately equipped or prepared to participate in solving broader structural aspects of the environmental crisis (which did not end with the demise of the previous regime) after the return of the country to capitalism., Petr Jehlička, Joe Smith., and Obsahuje bibliografii a bibliografické odkazy