Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 16/05/2026Also other background information about Polish and Hungarian characters seems unlikely. Stay-at-home mom in a family of teachers in 1990s Hungary? Polish plumbers praising Budvar (of all the beers)? 000
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 16/05/2026Nothing gives me more confidence in the quality of writer's background research when creating Polish characters like f-ing up their last names (in a similar way US migration office scrambled Polish last names in the 19th century, I guess). (from John Lanchester's Capital) 240
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 19/04/2026ngl, 'Is Slovakia going the Greek way?' is such a 2010 idea for a debate. (obviously, someone from INESS takes part) 000
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 28/03/2026Czech ultra-conservative Movement For Life is copying Hungarian family policies. I was wondering why those and not e.g. Polish family benefits. This is a nice explanation. (Association of using welfare benefits with the Roma minority in both HU and CZ is a complementary explanation, I guess). 010
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 12/03/2026Today I learned that the UK government has Metascience Unit, which sounds cool. After another round of re-organization/purges, the Czech government will, however, have fuck all. www.seznamzpravy.cz/clanek/domac... 030
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 16/02/2026ICYMI, Macinka is defending his exchange with Sikorski by referring to his thesis on EU democratic deficit which got an A from prof. Novák, allegedly "the most cited francophone political scientist in the world". With respect to Novák, that is not even close. But you can just say (deranged) things! 010
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 08/12/2025ngl, my Gallic (Asterix & Obelix) name would be Appendix 000
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 20/10/2025no, sorry. btw. current proposal for distributing money from cohesion funds in 2028-34 still uses AROPE in rural areas (eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-conten...)eur-lex.europa.euEUR-Lex - 52025PC0565 - EN - EUR-Lex 010
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 15/10/2025After visiting National Gallery in London, I realised that my thoughts about the post-election situation in the Czech Republic can be summarised like this: 062
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 06/10/2025fwiw in 2021, in every stage of Pirates' party primaries the share of women increased (a bit) and the Pirates achieved parity with 2 men and 2 women among their MPs (by accident by being outvoted by STAN on their joint list). Maybe it's time to reconsider quotas/zipper 🙃 (chart from my dissertation) 000
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 05/10/20254/ Babiš is not Czech Trump, ffs. www.economist.com/europe/2025/...economist.comThe Czech Trump wins an election, againAndrej Babis, a populist billionaire, looks set to return after a term out of power 000
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 05/10/2025And also in the case of STAN preferential voting helped mostly young candidates. In 2021, voters used preferential votes to support candidates from the party they identify with and candidates residing in their home towns. Did it change? Idk, can't wait for data from the post-election survey. 100
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 05/10/2025Preferential voting also altered who won the seats in the case of Pirates where women almost obliterated men with 15 women elected (including 2 Green MPs) out of 18 Pirate MPs. 100
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 05/10/20253/ Spolu is also electorally favourable for KDU-ČSL who gained more seats due to preferential voting, while ODS probably loses. 100
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 05/10/2025Especially in the case of those underperforming their expectations. Leader of Stačilo! Sterzik asks for money, which is quite funny. Grifters keep grifting, I suppose. www.seznamzpravy.cz/clanek/volby...seznamzpravy.czSterzikovi z hnutí Stačilo! došly peníze. Žádá o příspěvek dětem na klavír - Seznam ZprávyNěkolik málo hodin po vyhlášení výsledků voleb, který nepustil hnutí Stačilo! do Sněmovny, jeho předseda Daniel Sterzik začal počítat. Nikoli hlasy voličů, ale zůstatek vlastních financí. A prosí příz... 100
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 05/10/20252/ Most of the parties ran as pre-electoral coalitions: Spolu (ODS, KDU-ČSL, TOP 09), Pirates (with Greens), SPD (with PRO, Trikolora and Svobodní), Stačilo! (KSČM, SOCDEM and other microparties) and also technically STAN (with SLK). It will be interesting to watch if the coalitions survive. 100
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 05/10/2025ANO also possibly attracted some voters who considered voting for Stačilo! (and SPD). Babiš claiming that he will not form a government with the communists worked, I guess. 100
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 05/10/2025Clearly, if non-populist parties want to win again, doing nothing to broaden your electoral support/demobilise your opponents and hoping for the best is not a winning strategy. (Yes, their position was hard due to war, inflation etc). 100
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 05/10/2025The win of Spolu in 2021 was a result of demobilisation of ANO voters and failure of other potential ANO allies to cross the electoral threshold. 100
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 05/10/2025Hot takes on Czech elections: 1/ the outcomes were driven by voter mobilisation in economic peripheries which are ANO strongholds. Pre-election polls suggested that ANO is able to mobilise their voters from 2017 who abstained in 2021 and also non-voters from 2021. 122
Reposted by Michael ŠkvrňákPAQ Research @paqresearch.cz · 04/10/2025ANO vysálo antisystémové strany. Pětikoalice naráží na malou podporu v chudších mikroregionech, kde navíc vzrostla účast Vydali jsme první analýzu voleb. Hodně důležitých grafů. Tady: www.paqresearch.cz/post/ano-vys...paqresearch.czANO vysálo antisystémové strany. Pětikoalice naráží na malou podporu v chudších mikroregionech, kde navíc vzrostla účastAnalyzujeme sněmovní volby. 0115
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 17/09/2025Yeah, sure, publishing a paper in Party Politics is great, but have you tried to overtook a car belonging to Motorists for Themselves while on your bike. (I managed to do both today) journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...journals.sagepub.comThe negative effect of state funding on electoral support of new parties in post-communist countries - Lukáš Linek, Michael Škvrňák, 2025Does state funding of parties lead to petrification of the party systems with very few new parties, or to competition that is more open where new parties prolif... 020
Reposted by Michael ŠkvrňákPAQ Research @paqresearch.cz · 11/09/2025Posílení růstu, méně chudoby a výjimek, dost peněz na veřejné investice💸 Vychází nejpodrobnější daňová studie v Česku. Modelujeme společně s @verejnefinance.bsky.social a IDEA při CERGE-EI. Vše představujeme na chytrejsidane.cz, kde si může každý otestovat vlastní kombinaci🎯 1/chytrejsidane.czChytřejší daněČesko může prosperovat, potřebuje ale chytřejší daně. Máme propracovaný plán. Vyzkoušejte si na webu vlastní kombinaci reforem 185
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 03/09/2025Once again, from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. 030
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 25/08/2025All motivation letters should be abolished and replaced by motivation haiku: Give me money please Pretty please, I am not an idiot Most of the time 010
Reposted by Michael ŠkvrňákRobert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 05/08/2025The rich must be incentivised; the poor must be disciplined. The political economy of the super-elite in one headline. 801126183935
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 29/07/2025trying to displace Prawdziwy kebab u prawdziwego Polaka 030
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 22/07/2025Stanové město je okolo 500 metrů od festivalu, cca v severní třetině letiště. Se špunty do uší jsem se vyspal (ale to může být dost individuální). 010
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 21/07/2025Also the spike around 0.04-0.05 is driven by 3 municipalities, excluding them makes the effect not statistically significant. 000
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 20/07/2025I looked at the replication materials and as far as I can tell they use number of homicides in absolute numbers (the number of homicides are all integers). That seems like a strange choice to me as population of municipalities vary. Quick and dirty standardization per voter attenuates the effect. 100
Reposted by Michael ŠkvrňákEast European Politics @eepolitics.bsky.social · 14/07/2025👌NEW article: 'Development of new party support in post-communist Europe and the effect of the 2008 economic crisis' by Lukáš Linek & Michael Škvrňák (@czechacademy.bsky.social)👉 doi.org/10.1080/2159... ✨ 001
Reposted by Michael ŠkvrňákPolitical Science Research and Methods @psrm.bsky.social · 07/07/2025🗳️Satisfaction boosts turnout, or voting boosts satisfaction? ➡️@filipkostelka.bsky.social L.Linek @jrovny.bsky.social @skvrnami.bsky.social find both in Central-Eastern Europe. Satisfaction spurs turnout, voting raises satisfaction, especially for winners www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView 052
Reposted by Michael ŠkvrňákFilip Kostelka @filipkostelka.bsky.social · 01/07/2025Does democratic satisfaction drive voter turnout, or does voting increase dem. satisfaction? Using 7 election panels, Lukas Linek, @jrovny.bsky.social, @skvrnami.bsky.social, and I find that—unlike in the West—both mechanisms may operate in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). 1/n @eui-sps.bsky.social 13410
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 01/07/2025Dear Springer Nature, UTF-8 is a better way of character encoding than ASCII because letters such as š, ň and á exist in the real world. Also, 6 months ago is not recent. 010
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 13/06/2025Czech ex-prime minister made an explicit comment about research I worked on. 020
Reposted by Michael ŠkvrňákPAQ Research @paqresearch.cz · 11/06/2025Paušály 4x vyšší než náklady. Přes 100 tisíc lidí ve švarcsystému. Řemeslník odvádí násobně větší procenta než konzultant. Nová studie! Stavíme na výzkumu skutečných výdajů. Reforma by omezila nerovnosti mezi OSVČ i vůči zaměstnancům a ulevila nízkopříjmovým. 1/ www.paqresearch.cz/post/pausaly...paqresearch.czPaušály i čtyřikrát vyšší než skutečné náklady. Reforma danění OSVČ by omezila švarcsystém a ulevila nízkopříjmovýmNávrh staví na unikátním výzkumu mezi živnostníky. Ukázal nerovnosti mezi různými skupinami OSVČ i vůči zaměstnancům a 100 tisíc lidí ve švarcsystému. 171
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 06/06/2025Did the party support for new parties decreased/increased in post-communist countries over the last 30 years? It depends. Partially new parties lost electoral support, genuinely new parties gained support with varying effects of economic crisis across countries. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/5UHPJ... 000
Reposted by Michael Škvrňákjan vlček @janvlcek.bsky.social · 01/06/2025Reforma sociálních dávek (tzv. superdávka) má díry ⛳ Je dobré, že zjednodušuje proces žádosti nebo omezuje vyplácení bohatším. Ale pro některé podporu snižuje natolik, že jim nemusí zůstat ani na základní potřeby. I proto jsme zveřejnili Kalkulačku dávky, daně, exekuce 1/10 131
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 30/05/2025Já když vidím reklamy politických stran zmiňující jakýkoliv ekonomický indikátor: 000
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 27/05/2025Also economic stats count for little in general, if you use nominal and not real values 🤔 020
Reposted by Michael ŠkvrňákDavid Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 20/05/2025French footballer Marcus Thuram brings his shopping home from Goyard in Milan in a Ferra…uh, bicycle, because it's the most efficient way to get around cities. 1253870
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 09/05/2025Obvykle se mě o rekreačním potenciálu zemědělské půdy snaží přesvědčit můj otec, když potřebuje, abych zryl záhon. Teď to dělají pražští radní, když prohlašují pole mezi Chodovcem a Hostivaří za nezastavitelné. Jako vždy pochybuju o tom. 000
Michael Škvrňák @skvrnami.bsky.social · 08/05/2025At-risk-of-poverty rate is not the only dubious statistics from Hungary based on the EU-SILC data. Overcrowding rate dropped from 41 to 24% in 2018. Data here: ec.europa.eu/eurostat/dat... 000
