This Dissertation explores the impact of the European Union's (EU) Cohesion Policy (and its structural and investment funds) on the transnationalization and subsequent transformation of state in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The Cohesion Policy is commonly known as a redistribution framework which transfers developmental aid from the West European core to the less developed periphery of South Europe and CEE through the EU budget. The dissertation explores the impact of this core-peripheral redistribution from a critical perspective in the Comparative Capitalism (CC) scholarship. More concretely, it focuses on the so-called Visegrád states - Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia - and their dependent market economies between the EU eastern enlargement in 2004 and the mid-2010s. This generates the first main contribution by bringing the EU structural funds into the CC debates on CEE which are mostly preoccupied with the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the transnationalization of Visegrád states. The contribution is impossible without historicizing the role of Cohesion Policy in shaping the EU historical core-peripheral relations since the late 1980s. Such a historization facilitates the second main contribution when examining how the post-2004 CEE integration transforms these...

S U M M A R Y This submitted dissertation thesis deals with the problematics of social cohesion through effects analysis of cultural values on the development of social and political relations in a society as such. The efforts of the thesis are not only directed towards articulation of Rawls's principals of justice, but they also reveal the desire to connect with the topic of the basic human rights from which questions of a suitable concept of societies derive. It actually means that the suitable concept in which it would be possible to achieve, from the point of view of intersubjective relations, a sufficient level of social cohesion and that way to strengthen an important factor for sustainability of social relations in societies as such. From the point of view of methodology, these thesis are for sufficient review as well as easier orientation in the whole work divided into 4 parts, which split further into 5 chapters. Before the four parts, the INTRODUCTION comes and it tries to be not only practical, but also academic in style to provide an introductory beginning of my work. Then, it is possible to say that every part of the four in my thesis deals with a research area of social sciences that is related to politological research as such. Nevertheless, my intention is to persuade readers that there is a...

The thesis analyzes the theory of Steady-State Economy based on a research of literature as well as principles and starting points for its application in practice. The central question revolves around the viability of the theory. First, however, the thesis focuses on the context, i.e. the background and needs for the emergence of this theory. Thus, the research begins at a time of industrial revolution and the rise of modern economies. In the course of the research, the analysis also points out the phenomenon of cooperatives, which arise in the early days of industrialization, as examined at the start of the work. Later, after a comprehensive introduction of the steady-state economy theory, the thesis returns to cooperatives, as during the research certain parallels in both of the phenomena emerge. Consequently, the conclusion recapitulates and examines whether steady state economy has been proven to be viable, what could support its functioning and whether one of the answers might be cooperatives - considered they have been shown to realize certain assumptions of this economic theory in practice. After a review of criticism of both of the phenomena, a final evaluation and decision may be reached, i.e. the research questions may be answered.

The author valorizes also his practical experiences of a left-oriented politician and first results from sociological research has set an objective to check two hypotheses: 1) that in the conditions of global capitalism development to save and fully revitalize the social state in his conception of a factor that is not only mitigating urgent social inequalities, but also raise the society and cultivates the human being, 2) that in the process of capitalist crises and the crises of a social state, senior citizens living from their pensions belong to the most threatened social groups. Methodologically the author claims to belong to modern Marxism and critically demarcate himself both from stalinism as well as from the recent official ideology, above all neoliberalism. The author refuses also the attempts to equate Marxism and the policy of KSČM to the ideology of the past governing class of controlling apparatus and comprehend the KSČM as a party disguised as Stalinist, anti human and non-democratic and in agreement with the program of this party that it represent in the Parliament of Czech Republic belongs to the self- managed socialism as a long-term objective of a societal transformation. As far as the method is concerned, in the view of a certain interdisciplinarity of the present publication, the...

This thesis is a theoretical-historical attribute and focuses on the theory of classes and class conflict, on the genesis of the concept of class. The thesis will analyze the authors and directions-schools that have had an impact on the ideological founder of the concept Karl Marx and also how they developed their thinking. Marx nor any other author of the term "class, classes, class" never clearly defined. It is a historical and sociological perspective on the concept of "class", which is often defined differently, and still there is any clear definition, which would approve whole academic community. In modern societies, the term "class" is not used so often and has been replaced by the concept of social stratification. In recent years, the "classes" being discussed by worldwide experts, but the solution is still not found. Nevertheless, this work is optimistic and the author clearly advocates that the term "class" will not vanish from professional sociological discourse.

This thesis is a theoretical-historical attribute and focuses on the theory of classes and class conflict, on the genesis of the concept of class. The thesis will analyze the authors and directions-schools that have had an impact on the ideological founder of the concept Karl Marx and also how they developed their thinking. Marx nor any other author of the term "class, classes, class" never clearly defined. It is a historical and sociological perspective on the concept of "class", which is often defined differently, and still there is any clear definition, which would approve whole academic community. In modern societies, the term "class" is not used so often and has been replaced by the concept of social stratification. In recent years, the "classes" being discussed by worldwide experts, but the solution is still not found. Nevertheless, this work is optimistic and the author clearly advocates that the term "class" will not vanish from professional sociological discourse.

Abstract in English language This work depicts the life story story of a "self-made man" Jaroslav Salda, the creator and director of the Melantrich, the biggest printing company in Czechoslovak time of so called First Republic. It is doing so by compiling interviews with period witnesses, archival documents and literary sources. Each chapter is a part of the answer to the question: How is it possible that the illegitimate child without funds and university education had become the man with extensive expertise, the frequent guest of Ministers and the President and the powerful head of the media industry? This text as a whole, firmly tied to the history of the Czech nation and Melantrich, reflects the experience of the man who dedicated his life to building, because he considered the constructive, innovative, diligent and hard work the main means of fulfillment in life and the key to success. It shows a person which embodies the adage: Where there is a will, there is a way. Key words Jaroslav Salda, Melantrich, Czech National Socialist Party, Ceske slovo, Svobodne slovo, Hvezda, Vaclavske namesti, a time of so called First Republic, capitalism, business, director, print, newspapers, Publishing Company, resistance activity.

Both the theoretical outlines of a solution to the climate and ecological crisis, as well as concrete efforts at environmental reform and energy transformation, often run into the ambivalent role of organised labour, particularly trade unions, in todays growth-oriented, fossil-fuel based economy. On the one hand, trade unions often already formally endorse the ideal of sustainability, on the other hand, in concrete environmental conflicts, they often the side with "jobs" against climate and environmental protections, and thus serve as a support of the growth-oriented fossil economy. The concept of a just transition, embodying the attempts at creating a framework in which the interests of workers and climate protection can be reconciled, thus also becomes ambivalent, serving often as a basis for arguments against more ambitious decarbonization. The aim of this thesis, drawing on the theoretical framework of critical political ecology, is to explore the possibilities of solving this dilemma in the case of Czech trade unions. On the basis of interviews with their various representatives, it will try to answer the questions: 1) what political strategy is shaping the policies of Czech trade unions in the sphere of climate and energy policy, 2) how do these trade unions see their role in the proces of a...