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Methodologies and methods represent one of the most fundamental and persistent topics of scientific debates, especially in western political science. While Czech political science strives for deeper international integration, such an effort may be limited by (among other things) the insufficient methodological training of its scholars. Acknowledging this concern, the article compares the levels of methodological education at elite western universities and selected Czech universities. The resulting comparison shows that Czech political science programs offer (i) less methodological courses in general, (ii) but especially in the realm of quantitative methodologies, and (iii) above all, they do not provide training in advanced (qualitative as well as quantitative) methods at all. The long term effects include the limited ability of Czech researchers to productively use works utilizing more sophisticated methods, which may in turn negatively affect their chances of publishing research in some of the prestigious international journals. Under these adverse conditions researchers may unwittingly eschew research questions whose solutions presume the employment of an advanced method. Considering, however, on the one hand, the deep rooted and self-reproducing historical embeddedness of the Czech way of methodological education, and the financial weakness of Czech universities on the other, one apprehends that there will not be a significant improvement in this area in the middle-term horizon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particular scientific disciplines focus on issues related to the financial autonomy of municipalities, but still interdisciplinary approach of research is completely unique or even missing. Political science overshadowed this topic in the past and other topics dominated political research (mainly in the Czech Republic). Nevertheless, it is evident that there is a close relationship between the political and fi nancial autonomy because the allocation of funds is a purely political decision. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the construction of fi nancial autonomy's relation to political science and clarify the relationship of local autonomy and local democracy. Th e political science is viewed through the prism of Alker, Berg-Schlosser and Stamenn and Raymond Aron's primacy of politics. This text is patterned on partial knowledge about the financial aspects of the research project on municipal autonomy in the political system of the Czech Republic supported by the Grant Agency of the Charles University and is composed on the basis of the research of the theoretical literature of various social science disciplines and the study of research team around K. Verhoest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study focused on the definition, political discussion, application, and experience with direct elections and referenda on local, regional and national levels of the Czech political system in the context of participation and elements of direct democracy. The first part of the article (Part I) contains theoretical background, research design of the case study and data for local referenda based on authors' own research; they are divided by topics into the original typology. The added value of the article should culminate in its second part (Part II, to be published in the next issue) with the analysis of electoral participation in local referenda, and this will bring us to the direct elections. At the end of Part II, an application of selected elements of direct democracy and direct elections is embedded in a European context and the main trends are analyzed. Such trends as well as the topic itself demonstrate the motivations of political actors and the relations among the different levels of governance in the Czech Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]