In the last thirty years, since the transformation period, several attempts have been made to change Czech hospitals' organizational, legal form. The thesis targets two such efforts after 2000. Only one was successful both in the agenda-setting and decision-making process and led to the enactment of a new organizational form. The main aim of the thesis is to identify contextual factors of success or failure of efforts to change the organizational and legal form of hospitals. The thesis is based on the Multiple Stream Framework to explain how different streams (policy, politics and problem stream) couple and open a policy window that allows a policy change. It works with the modified framework, which broadens the concept by including agenda-setting and decision-making and offers two coupling processes. Comparing two cases of the policy process led to the identification of the factors causing closing the window before the agenda was set.

In order to understand how policies are made, analysts need to be able to explain and describe the policy making process. This is a complex task due to the variety and complexity of policy making environments. The difficulty lies in accounting for the multiple actors who come and go, differing preferences, and impending problems and solutions sets which vary by policy environment. Therefore, there is a need to approach the understanding of policy processes from several different theoretical perspectives to aid in evaluating the multifaceted variations which ultimately affect policy making. An improved description of processes can lead to more accurate predictions of possible future policies, improved advocacy efforts, and enhanced problem solving. Two policy process frameworks, the Multiple Stream Framework (MSF) and the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, were applied to a recent significant change in science policy. An understanding is developed to explain how federal science funding survived within the highly controversial and costly American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The volatile and unpredictable nature of science policy lends itself well to the MSF, while the more static IAD is less useful to explain how and why the funds stayed in the bill. This is telling about the scope and adaptability of the two frameworks, where each may be better suited for different policy environments. The MSF being more appropriate for unstable and capricious policy issues and the IAD better matched for policy issues which have a somewhat more stable environment.

This diploma thesis is a case study dealing with the role of the European Union in the adoption of the Czech Civil Service Act in 2014. The author follows the question why the Act was adopted ten years after the Czech Republic joined the European Union. The first part of the thesis deals with the European administrative area and individual models of public administration in Europe. It also discusses the use of various forms of influencing the policies of the member states with different instruments. Further, the work analyzes the development of the service law in the Czech Republic and examines the strategies and approaches of the main actors in the legislative process. In order to find out how the issue was framed by political actors, the individual verbal speeches at the plenary sittings of the Czech Parliament are examined. In the last part, the findings are generalized to represent individual strategies and the dynamics of their change. In order to respond to the research goal, the data is interpreted on the basis of the Multiple Streams Framework, demonstrating a change in the status quo in the field of public service performance regulation.

Evidence-informed health policy making contributes to improved health outcomes by strengthening health systems. In addition, health policy decisions should take into consideration the needs and priorities of users of healthcare services. However, little research has been done to find best ways to facilitate evidence-informed and participatory health policymaking, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This thesis is written based on three studies done in Ethiopia to fill this knowledge gap. In the first study, we examined whether, how and under what conditions evidence was used and service-users participated during the agenda-setting and policy formulation phases of selected policies in the ‘prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV’ program in Ethiopia using a multiple-case study design. In the second study, we identified strategies to facilitate evidence-informed health policy making using an online survey. In the third study, we identified strategies to facilitate participatory health policy making using a combined paper-based and Internet-based Delphi approach. The thesis does not have direct theoretical contribution. However, it will draw on two theoretical frameworks, namely Kingdon’s framework and the 3I+E framework. and use them in a setting from where they were originally developed. This thesis has two substantive and three methodological contributions. Substantively, the first study provides empirical evidence about the current practice of evidence-informed and participatory health policy making in a low-income, ‘revolutionary’ democratic country (Ethiopia). In addition, the studies have identified strategies to concretize the constitutional and policy provisions for evidence-informed and participatory health policy making in Ethiopia. The thesis has the following three methodological contributions. First, the studies explored the use of Kingdon’s multiple-streams framework and the 3I+E framework in predicting factors influencing agenda-setting and policy formulation phases, respectively, and in explaining the use of research evidence in informing these two phases in a ‘revolutionary’ democratic country where they have not previously been used. Second, the thesis has shown that paper-based and Internet-based Delphi could be combined in contexts with limited resources. Third, the thesis has demonstrated the possibility of training service-users as ‘peer’ researchers to collect and analyze data to inform their participation and maximize their contribution in surveys, forming a pyramid of participation. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Evidence-informed health policy making can contribute to improved health outcomes by strengthening health systems. In addition, health policy decisions ultimately affect users of healthcare services. Thus, such decisions should take into consideration their needs and priorities. However, little research has been done to find best ways to facilitate evidence-informed and participatory health policymaking, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This thesis is written based on three studies done in Ethiopia. In the first study, we examined whether, how and under what conditions evidence was used and service-users participated in the ‘prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV’ program in Ethiopia. In the second and third studies, we identified strategies to facilitate evidence-informed and participatory health policy making. In addition, we explored the possibility of combining Internet- and paper-based methods for consensus-building among policymakers, program managers, researchers, healthcare providers and service-users in settings with limited resources.

The theme of the diploma thesis is the policy-making process, specifically the process of making of the National Action Plan for Positive Ageing for the Period 2013 - 2017. It's about exploring its creation from the viewpoint of active members of the Government Council for Seniors and Population Ageing, who was discussing it at meetings. The theoretical framework - Multiple Streams Framework deals with the aspect of policy entrepreneurs. Using qualitative, semi-structured interviews and then analysis of qualitative data, it was possible to explore the means, used by policy entrepreneurs to promote their ideas at meetings. This diploma thesis does not only study the creation of an action plan, but also the identification of policy entrepreneurs, through document analysis. After that were analysed primary data from interviews with members of the Government Council for Seniors and Population Ageing, who had been appointed by The Ministry of labour and social affairs. The studied, strategic document is the answer to the demographic ageing phenomenon the population of the Czech Republic.