Czech Malaise and Europe

Problems of Post-Communism

Volumn 47, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 57-66

  Rhodes, Matthew ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0034147047     PISSN: 10758216     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10758216.2000.11655877     Document Type: Article

References (49)

1. The ODS shadow foreign minister, Jan Zahradil, claims that many passages of the government's February 1999 "Foreign Policy Concept" are direct translations from previous documents of the Socialist International (author interview).
2. See, for example, the "foreign policy concepts" approved as party and cabinet documents, respectively, in February 1998 and 1999.
3. Milada Vachudova, "Democratic Consolidation in Eastern Europe: The Influence of International Factors on the Czech Republic" (paper prepared for the authors' conference of the European University Institute's Democratic Consolidation Project (April 24-25, 1998), p. 9.
4. One representative example registered 59 percent opposed to NATO's action versus 30 percent in favor (Lidové noviny [May 25, 1999]).
5. Gliding over the fact that Tito was not a Serb and was heavily criticized and resented by Serbian nationalists in the 1980s and 1990s, many Czechs point out that his Yugoslav government was one of the few to unequivocally condemn the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia as illegitimate aggression.
6. Lidové noviny (April 10, 1999).
7. Ibid. (May 25, 1999).
8. This contrast was highlighted by the program "Valká, fakty a my" (The War, the Facts, and Us), aired on Czech public television, June 17, 1999.
9. Respekt (April 19, 1999): 2.
10. Ibid.
11. Author interview.
12. Grulich explained his stance by commenting that since "the political leaders of the Alliance and the European Union approved the air strikes in Yugoslavia, today they are responsible for the social consequences" (Respekt [June 7, 1999]).
13. Lidové noviny (April 14, 1999).
14. The author thanks Andrew Michta for sharing this insight.
15. See, for example, the polling results included by the Czech Policy Centre for the Promotion of Democracy in the background materials for its May 25, 1999 conference, "Jsme informovani o pohledech a nazorech na EU?" (Are we [well-] informed in our views and opinions about the EU?), p. 33.
16. From January to September 1999, 1,240 Czech Roma families applied for asylum in Great Britain alone (RFE/RL Newsline [October 26, 1999]).
17. In late November 1999, the Czech central government reached an agreement with officials in Usti nad Labem under which the wall will be torn down in exchange for an additional 10 million crowns ($300,000) for the city's social welfare budget. Approximately one-third of this money will apparently be used to purchase the three ethnic Czech residences so the owners can move.
18. See "A New Pace?" Economist (October 2, 1999): 54-55; Respekt (October 18, 1999): 11-13.
19. See "A New Pace?" Economist (October 2, 1999): 54-55; Respekt (October 18, 1999): 11-13.
20. Respekt (June 7, 1999): 5.
21. The tripartite classification of Czech political parties in the sections that follow was suggested to the author by Luboš Palata.
22. See Francis Harris, "Partial Paralysis," Business Central Europe 6 (May 1999): 41.
23. Most of these problems are shared to varying degrees by all the EU associates in Central and Eastern Europe. However, the European Commission's October 1999 progress report, for example, praised Hungary for improving the quality of its judiciary and bureaucracy by providing more computers and support staff. See Alan Mayhew, Recreating Europe: The European Union's Policy Towards Central and Eastern Europe (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 227-31; Respekt (October 18, 1999), 11.
24. Most of these problems are shared to varying degrees by all the EU associates in Central and Eastern Europe. However, the European Commission's October 1999 progress report, for example, praised Hungary for improving the quality of its judiciary and bureaucracy by providing more computers and support staff. See Alan Mayhew, Recreating Europe: The European Union's Policy Towards Central and Eastern Europe (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 227-31; Respekt (October 18, 1999), 11.
25. Hospodárské noviny (June 8, 1999).
26. Author interview with Luboš Palata.
27. Lidové noviny (March 30, 1999). See also the chronology by Nicole Rosenleaf, "Czech Reaction to the War in Yugoslavia," Transitions 1 (July 1999).
28. Lidové noviny (March 30, 1999). See also the chronology by Nicole Rosenleaf, "Czech Reaction to the War in Yugoslavia," Transitions 7 (July 1999).
29. Respekt (April 19, 1999).
30. Jiři Pehe, "Czech Elites Fight Their Own Civil War Over Kosovo," Prague Business Journal (April 12, 1999): 7.
31. Právo (June 5, 1999): 12.
32. Author interview with Jan Zahradil. See also Zahradil's article in Hospodárské noviny (June 10, 1999): 10, as well as Ondrej Neumann and Miroslav Motejlek's interview with Klaus, Lidové noviny (June 3, 1999): 1.
33. Author interview with Jan Zahradil. See also Zahradil's article in Hospodárské noviny (June 10, 1999): 10, as well as Ondrej Neumann and Miroslav Motejlek's interview with Klaus, Lidové noviny (June 3, 1999): 1.
34. At least one poll even showed the communists in first place. See RFE/RL Newsline (October 22, 1999).
35. Miroslav Mareš, "České politické strany a zahraniční politika" (Czech political parties and foreign policy), Mezinárodní vztahy 1 (1999): 14.
36. In September 1999, leaders of the Civic Democratic Alliance suggested that these four parties should formally merge into a new "Union for Europe."
37. See Václav Havel, "A Chance to Stop Exporting Wars and Violence," Transitions 4 (December 1997): 15-17.
38. Parliament subsequently authorized an additional 650 troops for KFOR, but without appropriating funding.
39. See Peter Bugge, "České vnímání perspektivy členství v EU" (Czech perceptions of the prospect of membership in the EU), Politilogicka revue (December 1998): 85-92.
40. Hospodárské noviny (June 18, 1999).
41. See Steven Erlanger, "A Decade After His Triumph, Václav Havel Is Crushed Velvet," New York Times (November 4, 1999): A1.
42. Lidové noviny (December 10, 1997).
43. Právo (June 5, 1999): 12.
44. However, any lingering strains did not prevent Havel and Kavan from high-profile joint trips to the United States and Great Britain in the fall of 1998.
45. Hospodárské noviny (June 14, 1999).
46. Lidové noviny (November 15, 1999). See also Klaus's commentary in Mladá fronta dnes (November 4, 1999).
47. Lidové noviny (November 15, 1999). See also Klaus's commentary in Mladá fronta dnes (November 4, 1999).
48. The author benefited from Josef Brada's discussion of economic issues in a roundtable on the Czech Republic at the annual convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, St. Louis, November 21, 1999.
49. The author benefited from Daniela Retkova's discussion of the three initiatives in a roundtable on the Czech Republic at the annual convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, St. Louis, November 21, 1999.