The Nanny State Index 2019 measures the level of restrictive regulations governing the sale and consumption of food, non-alcoholic beverages, alcohol, tobacco, and e-cigarettes. The higher a country’s ranking, the more restrictive the regulations.
Looking at the results in the V4 countries (Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary) helps gain a better understanding of the popularity of liberals. In the 2019 European elections, liberal parties performed quite well, especially in light of the popularity of the far-right in the region.
Czechs are often labelled as the biggest Eurosceptics in the whole Europe. However, the new research suggests otherwise. Almost two thirds of the nation are proud to be part of Europe and more than half of the the people are happy with the EU membership. So what is the problem?
The aim of this article is to explain why Czech media and politicians even raised the possibility of leaving the EU (calling it Czexit), to focus on the debate surrounding this subject, and to try evaluating if or when such a debate might become an issue before the 2019 European Parliamentary elections.
I’m writing this article from the point of view of a Czech libertarian. It’s meant for foreigners, not necessarily libertarians, to get a better grasp of Czech politics than what they can get from their usual sources of information.
The two potential coalition parties (the ANO movement and the Social Democrats) have finally reached the consensus on how the country should look like under their second term of governance. But the fate of the coalition will be decided similarly as in Germany – by social democrats’ internal referendum.
This article summarizes the main legal forms of enterprises (state enterprises, national enterprises, and state shareholdings in private companies) through which the Czech state operates inside the economy, and provides important examples in each category.
Fortunately, this time, the Slovaks are actually doing something right. Despite all the protracted protests of taxi drivers, liberals from the ranks of the opposition decided to amend the Road Transport Act. The aim of this legislative endeavor is to address precisely the issues that were brought up at the inception of the backlash against Uber.
Equally promising is that many politicians have clearly understood what clever solutions are: connecting the already existing services, using of the current state of knowledge, putting pressure on solutions implemented through open online platforms, encouraging interactions with citizens, among others.
In recent weeks, Prague City councillors have found a new hobby – they verbally attack the popular Airbnb sharing platform, which brings annually more than 700,000 foreigners to the Czech Republic. However, the arguments used to support an immediate regulation of Airbnb are definitely not based on rational analysis of the topic.
