Smer-Sd and Fidesz: The National Interests and Populism in the 2010 Parliamentary Elections

Newcomers in Politics? The Success of New Political Parties in the Slovak and Czech Republic after 2010?

“…Lucardie points out that if a party wants to be successful in a campaign and win seats, it needs "a minimal number of members, a minimal campaign budget and a minimal amount of publicity". 11 As Anthony Downs observes in his book An Economic Theory of Democracy, new political parties emerge and establish themselves at the moment when they are able to snip a large number of electorate from some other (established) political party. This means that a new movement must also have political opportunities to do so and to transform it into a new political subject.…”

“…10 Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy (New York: Harper and Row, 1957). 11 Paul Lucardie, supra note 2: 179. 12 Herbert Kitschelt, "Formation of Party Cleavages in Post-Communist Democracies: Theoretical Proposition," Party Politics Vol.…”

The Dynamics of Slovak-Hungarian Relations – The Shift from Language Issues to Legal and Symbolic Questions

“…10 The legal regulations of the language situation were based on the domestic legal norms, mainly on the Language Act adopted on 29 February 1920 as the Constitutional Act. 11 According to the Constitution citizens were allowed to use any language in the framework of the general laws -even in the public sphere; however the Language law legalized the supremacy of the Czechoslovak language which had been recognized as the official one. The minority languages were used at the courts, the citizens were allowed to address the courts as well as all other public institutions in their own language in the ethnically mixed municipalities with 20% or more of the inhabitants from the respected minority.…”

“…In addition to external factors, the situation is positively affected by various elements of civil (open) society established in the nation states 46. …”