This diploma thesis deals with the comparison of the political regimes of Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia and Franjo Tudjman in Croatia in the years 1991 - 1997 from the point of view of the theory of authoritarian regimes. The subject of the research was to determine the similarities and differences that the regimes showed in a given period. In the beginning of the work, the author approaches the theoretical core of the concepts of authoritarian regimes by Juan J. Linz and the competitive authoritarianism of Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way. The analytical part of the work consists of a synchronous dual-case study of Serbia and Croatia focused on the main aspects of authoritarian regimes and their subsequent comparison. The output of the thesis consists in a critical analysis of the features of both examined regimes at the level of limited political pluralism, the relationship between mentality and ideology and depoliticization versus mobilization and application of theories of authoritarian regimes to Serbia and Croatia in a given period. An important finding was that although the countries showed many similar features, the main differences were in the character of Slobodan Milosevic and Franjo Tudjman. The work concludes that Serbia and Croatia can be included in hybrid semi-competitive...

This essay aims to explain why Colombia has not consolidated into a liberal democracy between the years 1991 to 2015. To examine the purpose of this essay five interactive arenas are analyzed in order to describe to which extent Colombia is affected by the various arenas. Three questions are being discussed and answered; to which extent have the political society and civil society affected the consolidation of a liberal democracy, to which extent have rule of law and the state bureaucracy affected the consolidation of a liberal democracy and, to which extent have the economic society affected the consolidation of a liberal democracy.The theoretical framework is based upon theories regarding different types of democracy and democratic consolidation. The essay is a theory consuming case study, with descriptive questions and explanatory approach. The framework is used to qualitatively illuminate empirical material to the study research questions. The conclusions of this essay shows that Colombia has not consolidated into a liberal democracy because of large illegal activities, physical attacks from non-state groups, widespread distrust of the political system and absence of conflict resolution through a democratic process.

This essay aims to explore and analyze Ukraine’s democratic development over time. This will be done within two time periods from 2007 to 2014 and 2014 to 2019 to enable drawing reasonable conclusions regarding what challenges prevent further democratic development and what similarities and differences can be seen between the periods. Democracy is often described as a complex concept that can vary between being defined minimalistic and maximalistic. This essay will study the maximalistic perception through the theory of Linz and Stepans four arenas of democratic consolidation, political society, civil society, the rule of law and state bureaucracy and be doing so as a qualitative theory consuming diachronical comparative study. The arenas will in turn be broken down into statements to make them easier to measure. This essay concludes that both periods have had democratic problems regarding all arenas. The widespread corruption remains as a main problem through both periods as do the low institutional trust, although in the second period the Crimea-conflict becomes the bigger political priority which affects the ongoing democratic process. Despite this civil society has remained strong and forced forward change when needed. To conclude there has been improvements but Ukraine still faces large democratic challenges.

This essay aims to investigate and analyse the extent to which there are conditions in Guatemala and Honduras to introduce liberal democracy, how the countries conditions differ and to draw conclusions about which country  that has the most conditions and thus is the most likely to introduce liberal democracy. The theoretical framework that this essay is based on is Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan's four arenas; civil society, political society, the rule of law and the state bureaucracy. In order to reach the purpose, a comparative case study was done. The  conclusions  of  this  essay shows that both countries have, to some extent, conditions to introduce liberal democracy, however they also lack conditions within other areas.

This study aims to utilize Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan's (1996) theory of democratic consolidation with its five interactive arenas to comprehend how the Belarusian dictatorship consolidated during the 1990s. A crucial aspect to achieve this aim is to ascertain whether the theory can provide clarity on when autocratic consolidation has occurred, or if it rather elucidates the process of autocratization in Belarus. The paper adopts a descriptive qualitative case study methodology with a deductive approach. By flipping the theory's perspective and examining how the regime undermined the arenas to strengthen autocracy, the study reveals the extent to which Belarus fulfills Linz and Stepan's (1996) three criteria of behavioral, attitudinal, and constitutional consolidation to gain insights into the consolidation of the Belarusian dictatorship. The findings reveal that the Lukashenko-led Belarusian regime systematically eroded aspects across all five arenas to consolidate its dictatorship. However, given the unascertainable attitudinal consolidation that transpired in Belarus during the 1990s, the study cannot pinpoint when autocratic consolidation occurred. Instead, it concludes that an autocratization process began under Lukashenko's rule, facilitated by political, social, legal, institutional, and economic maneuvers aimed at consolidating power. Taken together, the results deepen our understanding of what strategies autocratic regimes may employ to strengthen autocracy.

The diploma thesis deals with pair of domestic regimes known as the second and third | Czechoslovakian republic. The choice of these periods of the national history was conditioned by a relative absence of comparative political scientific works on these periods and by timelessness and topicality of the studying of domestic regimes, that refused the idea of a liberal democracy twice in ten years. The goal of the diploma thesis is to analyze, compare and categorize the second and the third Czechoslovakian republic in the framework provided by the theory of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes by Juan J. Linz. In the first part the thesis describes the theoretical framework of the theory of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes with stress on the theory of authoritarian regimes, as it is the assumption of the thesis, that both the second and the third republic were cases of authoritarian regimes. The other parts of theory which deal with totalitarian and sultanistic regimes are only briefly mentioned. In the second part of the thesis there is an analysis and comparison of both regimes based on three research questions. In this part the thesis deals with the relationship of both studied regimes with the first republic and their relationship with a liberal democracy, then it deals with the very analysis in...