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‘I am De Facto a Thief in this Matter’: Thesis Plagiarism Cases of Elected Representatives and the Concept of Political Accountability (Case Study of Slovakia and the Czech Republic)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2022

Marián Sekerák Open the ORCID record for Marián Sekerák [Opens in a new window]
Marián Sekerák*
Affiliation:
Centre for Higher Education Studies, Jankovcova 933/63, 170 00 Prague 7 – Holešovice, Czech Republic. Email: sekerak@csvs.cz
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Abstract

Numerous cases of thesis plagiarism by senior public officials in many European countries have attracted significant public attention in recent years. Such different cases, however, have had different political and legal consequences. This article elucidates some of the cases through the examples of Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Based on the theory of political accountability, it is clarified that the reactions of politicians to the exposure of their plagiarism cases were fundamentally different. Almost no common pattern of reactions can be found in the two countries. It is explained that the only solution in both countries was to adopt legislation allowing subsequent withdrawal of a university degree once acquired.

Type
Article
Information
European Review , Volume 30 , Issue 6 , December 2022 , pp. 872 - 893
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Academia Europaea

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