Modern democracies rest on a foundation of values essential to their prosperity. Two of those values are freedom of speech and political equality. To many, these values appear to coexist effortlessly. However, what this thesis aims to expose are some of the problems that quickly arise when attempts to interpret the values fail. The thesis investigates a specific US Supreme Court ruling called Citizens United. The ruling enabled corporations and unions to use their own treasuries for unlimited independent political expenditures. Previous laws that prohibited such corporate and union expenditures were deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court for violating the First Amendment’s right to freedom of speech. The ruling also paved the way for another court ruling in the US called SpeechNow.org. Facilitated by the two court rulings the so called Super PACs and 501(c)(4) organizations could receive and spend unlimited money to expressly support or oppose political candidates and parties in American elections. With an analytical framework consisting of John Rawls’s theories the Veil of Ignorance and the Difference Principle a conclusion concerning Citizens United’s righteousness can be made. The thesis concludes that the Supreme Court based its ruling on a misinterpretation of the value of freedom of speech and that Citizens United resulted in greater political inequality in the US.

Community planning of social services is not the current topic in the society. The diploma thesis goal is to realize a study review of community planning of social services in the Czech Republic and to describe the actual social situation in Praha-Suchdol municipal district according to community plan creation methodology. First part describes social services system and its legislation in the Czech Republic. Community planning of social services correlates with community and community social work. So I pay attention to them in the second part of the thesis. The community planning of social services can be described with respect to different views. I focused on such themes that are connected with a process of identifying the needs. This thesis analyses the actual social situation in Praha-Suchdol municipal district by secondary data and finally the thesis analyses results of the survey created for the thesis purpose of Praha-Suchdol citizen's opinions and needs.

[pt] Este trabalho aborda o consumo de lazer sob a ótica de dois grupos dos consumidores de mais idade, comparando as expectativas de um grupo antes da Aposentadoria e as percepções de outro grupo após a aposentadoria. Os resultados, obtidos através de questionários com 202 pessoas, mostraram que há diferenças significativas entre as expectativas e as percepções dos consumidores em relação à prática do lazer após a aposentadoria. Particularmente, nível de satisfação com o lazer encontrado após a aposentadoria supera o nível encontrado entre aqueles prestes a se aposentar. / [en] This study considers leisure from the elderly consumers` point of view, comparing two groups. The expectations of one group before retirement and reality of the other group after retirement. The results were obtained trough questionnaires distributed among 202 people and show that there are significant differences between the consumers` expectations in relation to leisure practice before retirement and the reality they face afterretirement. Moreover the level of satisfaction regarding leisure after retirement overcomes the level of satisfaction found among those who are about to retire. / [es] Este trabajo aborda el consumo de actividades de esparcimiento bajo la óptica de dos grupos de los consumidores de más edad, comparando las expectativas de un grupo antes del Retiro Laboral y las percepciones de otro grupo después del Retiro laboral. Los resultados, obtidos a través de cuestionarios con 202 personas, muestran que existen diferencias significativas entre las expectativas y las percepciones de los consumidores en relación a la práctica de actividades de esparcimiento después del Retiro Laboral. Particularmente, el nível de satisfación con actividades de esparcimiento encontrado después del Retiro laboral supera el nível encontrado entre aquellos prestes a se retirar.

Das Fahrrad ist ein attraktives Verkehrsmittel für Menschen jeden Alters. Es ermöglicht Mo-bilität und damit gesellschaftliche Teilhabe bis ins hohe Alter, ist preiswert, und die regel-mäßige Bewegung verbessert die Gesundheit und macht Spaß. Da allerdings Radfahrerinnen und Radfahrer ab 60 Jahren besonders von schweren Unfallfolgen betroffen sind, ist bei ihnen die Verhütung von Unfällen wichtig. Typische Unfälle älterer Radfahrender hängen mit körperlichen Schwierigkeiten zusammen, die mit zunehmendem Alter häufiger werden. Die Beweglichkeit nimmt ab, was das Auf- und Absteigen erschwert und auch den Schulterblick beim Linksabbiegen. Etwa jeder sechste Unfall, aufgrund dessen ältere Radfahrer im Kran-kenhaus behandelt werden, ist dadurch entstanden, dass der Radfahrer beim Auf- oder Ab-steigen von der Pedale gerutscht ist. Weitere typische Unfallursachen sind Schwierigkeiten mit der Oberfläche (Schlaglöcher, Bordsteinkanten u.ä.) aufgrund abnehmender Koordinati-onsfähigkeit und fehlendes Umschauen beim Linksabbiegen. Durch die körperlichen Verän-derungen wird das Radfahren im Alter nicht nur gefährlicher, sondern auch mühsamer und damit auch weniger attraktiv als in jüngeren Jahren. Kraft und Kondition nehmen ab, wodurch lange Touren und Anstiege weniger attraktiv sind. In Zusammenarbeit mit der Universität Leipzig wurde ein motorisches Training für ältere Radfahrerinnen und Radfahrer entwickelt, das die motorischen Schwierigkeiten beseitigen sollte. Dieses Training wurde in 14 mittleren und kleinen Städten in Sachsen und Sachsen-Anhalt experimentell geprüft. An dem Training nahmen ein halbes Jahr lang 147 Radfahrende ab 60 Jahren teil, die in 7 Orten oder deren Umgebung lebten. Sie wurden mit 167 un-trainierten Radfahrenden ab 60 Jahren verglichen, die in oder bei 7 anderen Orten lebten. Es fanden drei Testungen und Befragungen statt, vor dem Training, direkt danach und vier Mo-nate nach Abschluss des Trainings. Die Projektpartnerinnen der Technischen Universität Dresden waren zuständig für die Prüfung der Effekte hinsichtlich Intensität der Radnutzung, geschilderter körperlicher Beschwerden und darauf resultierender Beeinträchtigungen im Straßenverkehr, erlebte Schwierigkeiten beim Radfahren und die Leistung in einem Fahrradparcours. Es konnte kein Effekt des Trainings auf diese Maße gezeigt werden. Schon bei der ersten Testung berichteten die Teilnehmenden insgesamt keine bis wenig körperliche Beschwerden und nur geringe Schwierigkeiten beim Radfahren, so dass hier von einem Bodeneffekt auszugehen ist. Ähnliches galt für die Fahrleistung. Viele Teilnehmende wurden über Sportvereine rekrutiert, um nicht nur extrem aktive Radfahrende für die Untersuchung zu gewinnen. Allerdings zeigte sich, dass die Teilnehmenden das Fahrrad auch schon vorher für viele Wege nutzten. Ent-sprechend erhöhte das Training die Fahrleistung nicht. Auch die Leistung im Fahrrad-Parcours wurde durch das Training nicht verbessert, obwohl hier so viele Fehler gemacht wurden, dass Spielraum für eine Verbesserung gewesen wäre. Die Befragten wurden nach Alleinunfällen und Zusammenstößen mit anderen Verkehrsteil-nehmenden nach dem 59. Geburtstag gefragt; 81% dieser Unfälle waren Alleinunfälle. Das Fahrrad hatte viele Teilnehmende über ihr gesamtes Leben begleitet, wie die Mobilitätsbio-grafien zeigten. Die Wegetagebücher zeigten, dass die Gewohnheit den stärksten Einfluss bei der Verkehrsmittelwahl hatte. Das Rad, das Zu-Fuß-Gehen und das Auto waren für die Teilnehmenden sehr wichtig, öffentliche Verkehrsmittel im Nah- und Fernverkehr kaum. Die subjektive Bedeutung des Radfahrens zeigte sich in den Faktoren Praktischer Nutzen, Le-bensqualität, Kontakte/Aktivitäten und einem Faktor, der auch auch positive Folgen des Auf-hörens (Fahrrad nicht mehr reparieren müssen) beschreibt. Stärkere Auswirkungen des Auf-hörens erwarten Personen, die das Rad mehr nutzen und seltener Auto fahren. / Cycling is an attractive mode of transport for persons of any age. It offers mobility and there-fore participation in society up to old age and is inexpensive. Regular physical activity improves health and is fun. On the other hand, cyclists aged 60 and older tend to suffer severe consequences when they are involved in accidents. For this reason accident prevention is especially important for this group. Typical accidents involving older cyclists are related to physical difficulties which are more frequent in older persons. About one in six accidents requiring physical treatment in hospital is due to slipping from the foot pedal while mounting a bike or dismounting from it. Further typical causes of accidents are difficulties with the surface (potholes, curbs, etc.) and not turning round before an offside turn. Physical changes make cycling not only more dangerous for older persons but also more strenuous and for this reason also less attractive. Strength and fitness decrease, making longer cycling tours and hills less attractive. Physical flexibility decreases, making mounting and dismounting and turning round before an offside turn more difficult. As coordination decreases, dealing with bad surfaces becomes harder. In cooperation with Leipzig University, a motor training concept for older cyclists was devel-oped. The aim of this training program was to reduce the motor difficulties of older cyclists. The training program was tested in an experimental design in 14 medium and small cities in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. 147 cyclists aged 60 or older participated in a half-year training program. These subjects lived in or close to seven cities. They were compared to 167 cyclists aged 60 and older who lived in or close to 7 other cities. The participants took tests and answered questionnaires three times, before the training program, immediately after the training program and four months after the training program. The project partners from Technische Universität Dresden were responsible for testing the effects of the training on intensity of bike use, reported physical problems and their conse-quences in traffic, perceived difficulties in traffic situations and performance in a cycling course. No effect of the training on these measures could be shown. Already in the first test period the participants reported too few physical problems and resulting difficulties in traffic, and only few problems in traffic situations. Here a ceiling effect was found. A similar result was found for cycled distance. Many participants were recruited via sports clubs in order to ensure that not all participants were highly active cyclists. But the first survey shows that the participants already used their bike for many trips before the training program. For this reason the training program did not increase cycled distance. The training program did not improve performance in the cycling course, although so many mistakes were made that there was certainly plenty of scope for improvement. The participants were questioned about single bike crashes and crashes with other road users after their 59th birthday; 81 per cent of these crashes were single bike crashes. For many participants, their bike had been an accompanying feature during their whole life, as their mobility biographies showed. The trip diaries showed that habits had the most important influence on choice of transport mode. Cycling, walking and driving were very important for the participants, public transport was relatively unimportant for short as well as for long dis-tances. The subjective importance of cycling was evident in terms of the factors practical benefit, quality of life, contacts/activity and a factor which comprised positive consequences of giving up cycling as well (no more bike repair). Persons who use their bike more and drive less expect more severe consequences if they stop bicycling.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / The essence of e-government is to link government activities with the advanced technology that the world is having today. This technology has already shown a remarkable job in bringing efficiency in private sector through e-business, e-banking, e-procurement etc.It is, therefore, recommended by this study that government and its agencies could utilize e-government initiatives to bring service delivery closer to citizens. By so doing government officials and citizens would become much closer and perform their duties well and efficiently.The experience from various countries shows that there are various Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and e-government initiatives even in poor countries. In rural areas of Tanzania where electricity has never been thought to reach where illiteracy rates are increasing and where poverty is high, people are using mobile phones for their activities. This is possible as the prices of mobile phones are low and networks are available in such rural part of the country. Tanzania enacted ICT policy in 2003 which, among other things, emphasizes the need to have success in e-government services. Experience on ground, though, reveals that this policy is often not implemented. What seems in the implementation of ICT policy in Tanzania difficult is the lack of political will and the will to agree to change.On the other hand, Tanzanian citizens have been for a long time ready for change. A good example may be advent of the mobile phone industry in the country. Many respondents in this research expressed the need to adopt ICT to advance ordinary people.These respondents recommended that government officials accept change with regard to ICT, to introduce developmental plans and be innovative and creative enough in establishing service delivery programmes. As borne out by this study, ICT can also be used to link the private sector, public sector and service delivery to citizens.Still though, poor countries, apart from having many priorities to contend with, have to acknowledge that the world is changing rapidly and in order to combat poverty more effectively, technology is useful as it makes people understand the trends and changes that the world is witnessing today. Indeed, Tanzania can use ICT to move ahead in e-government because it has a good telecommunication system, a factor that would allow for the success of online services.

The aim of the diploma thesis is to map and evaluate the availability of social services in the Ústecký Region. Special attention is devoted to Šluknov -- an area, which is known as the northern-Czech end of the world and which is also facing social and ethnic problems. Theoretical part of the thesis introduces social services as a part of a social policy, describes their contemporary significance and concept and further confirms their impact on quality of life. It also presents the typology of social services with focus being placed on two selected users groups -- elderly citizens and ethnic minorities. The theoretical part further addresses the legislative grounding of social services in the Czech Republic and introduces a key process of community planning. The practical part of the thesis, based on publicly available data and interviews, analyzes the availability of each type of social services in the Ústecký Region and more deeply maps available social services in Šluknov area according to users groups which were established in the community plan. With respect to the specifics of the district, the thesis concludes that social services are provided in adequate structure. Nevertheless, most of them are situated in central part of Šluknov area, which leads to poor accessibility to residents in marginal areas of the region.

The thesis is devoted to theoretical problems of public administration in the Czech Republic, its institutions, instruments, exercised personnel activities and their peculiarities in the public administration, including defining the status of civil clerk. Further attention is paid to the management of organizational behavior in administrative organizations. In practical terms, the emphasis is primarily on how the ongoing activities of selected personnel, primarily evaluation, selected at public authorities (Generální finanční ředitelství and Úřad městského obvodu Ostrava-Jih) and what style of management executives of these agencies most frequently.

Many senior citizens are surviving on minimal Social Security benefits and as a result, struggle with food security. Metrocrest Services in Farmers Branch, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, is a non-profit organization that provides several food programs to residents of the community including some programs that are specifically tailored to the needs of senior citizens. This project was to provide Metrocrest with an assessment of the food security of their senior clientele as well as other elderly residents of the Metrocrest service area and to evaluate the current senior focused programs. The project utilized qualitative research including both Metrocrest clients and residents who were not Metrocrest clients bot whose demographics were similar. The objectives were to determine the coping skills used by senior citizens in obtaining food, to assess seniors' awareness of the programs offered by Metrocrest, to discover barriers to accessing needed resources and to make recommendations of how programs could be improved or modified if needed. Through my research, I was able to present Metrocrest with a number of recommendations to improve their existing programs. I was also able to recommend some potential new programs that could be designed in conjunction with local senior centers to better serve the community.

Dans le cadre de la procédure administrative contentieuse, les recours ne sont pas pourvus d’un effet suspensif. Par conséquent, les autorités administratives ont la possibilité d’exécuter les décisions contestées jusqu’à la décision juridictionnelle. Cette situation, constitutive d’un principe, est le produit d’une philosophie contentieuse marquée par un déséquilibre à l’avantage de l’administration. Le principe de l’absence d’effet suspensif en est une des formes d’expression les plus directes tant il est susceptible de grever la protection des droits des requérants. Son étude permet indirectement de questionner la pertinence contemporaine des fondements idéologiques du droit et du contentieux administratif. Sa déconstruction fait apparaitre son caractère désuet au regard des évolutions en cours. Celles-ci, qu’elles soient propres au phénomène juridique ou qu’elles le dépassent, servent à déterminer les caractéristiques attendues des recours contentieux. La recherche d’une solution équilibrée, à mi-chemin entre efficacité administrative et protection des requérants, devient un impératif. Celui-ci sera atteint à partir d’une reconstruction de cet aspect épineux de la procédure administrative contentieuse en s’appuyant sur une analyse matérielle de la situation litigieuse. / In contentious administrative disputes, appeal actions do not trigger any suspensive effect on the case. As a consequence, the administrative authorities can enforce the appealed decisions until the court gives its final decision. This position constitutes a principle and is due to a highly unbalanced dispute philosophy, as it tends to be favourable to the administration. The non-suspensive effect principle is one of the most direct expressions of this phenomenon as it is most likely to encumber the protection of the plaintiff rights. Studying this principle allows to question the relevance, nowadays, of the ideological basis on which law and administrative disputes are built. A deconstructive analysis shows that, due to several evolutions, this principle seems to be “outdated”. These developments, whether they are part of the legal dimension or part of something bigger, help shaping the expected features of the dispute actions. Finding a balanced solution, between administrative effectiveness and protection of plaintiffs, has become an essential requirement. And this may be reached through rebuilding this rather thorny aspect of the administrative proceedings from a legal analysis of the position in controversy.

PhDRDV / Institute for Rural Development / The need for sustaining the provision of high quality education in all countries cannot be overemphasised. Linked to this is the centrality of ensuring that effective governance prevails. In an effort to address the latter challenge in South Africa, School Governing Bodies (SGBs) were introduced through the South African Schools Act (SASA) 84 of 1996. A SGB is composed of democratically elected members, viz. Principal who serves in an ex officio capacity, teacher representatives, learner representatives in secondary schools, and parent representatives. The parent representatives are the majority in this body. The current case study was carried out to analyse the effectiveness of SGBs in rural secondary schools with respect to their designated roles and responsibilities. The mixed methods approach in two sequentially integrated phases was applied in the study undertaken in Vhembe District‟s Thulamela Municipality in Limpopo Province of South Africa. There were nine secondary schools located in rural areas from four circuits. In each circuit two schools were sampled, a performing and an underperforming. Principals, teacher governors and non-governors, learner governors and non-governors, teacher union representatives, a traditional leader, circuit managers, manager for governance, deputy managers for governance and parent governors participated in the study. Interviews were held with Principals, and the following governors; teachers, learners and parents, individually, and focus group interviews were held with the following non-governors: teachers and learners who were purposively sampled to take part in this study in Malamulele cluster of Vhembe Education District. A questionnaire was generated from the results of the qualitative data and completed by Principals, parent governors, teachers and learners. To analyse and organise qualitative data, Thematic Content Analysis was used and for quantitative data, the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0 was used. The results revealed that the governors related well with traditional leaders; parent governors‟ illiteracy impacted negatively on their performance; Principals and teachers were not supportive to parent governors; funding received from government was insufficient; and learner governors were passive during meetings with other governors. There were no statistically significant effects of schools and interest group or category of respondents on the views expressed. However, statistically significant effects (P < 0.05) were observed with regard to the following challenges: “some Principals are not conversant with Department of Basic Education (DBE) policies and may mislead SGBs in making informed decisions”; „„the writing of quarterly reports v by SGBs that would assess their progress in relation to their plans,‟‟ and “some teacher governors are bench warmers and are not interested in SGB activities”. It was recommend that Traditional leaders be represented in the SGB; parent governors be encouraged to further their studies to improve their literacy; training should address the needs of schools instead of using a one-size-fits-all type of training; and the funding model used by government be relooked into so that rural secondary schools and their communities could benefit more. The cordial relationship existing between traditional leaders and SGBs was crucial for improved disciplining of learners and nurturing strong bonds between schools and neighbouring communities. This work provides ingredients for formulating strategies for improving the performance of rural-based secondary SGBs and enhancing their contribution to local development.