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L’objet de cette thèse est de modéliser l’économie tunisienne dans le cadre d’une approche post keynésienne stock-flux cohérente en économie ouverte afin de fournir une analyse des faits stylisés observés depuis 2001. Ce type de modélisation macro économique post keynésienne se distingue par le fait qu’il tient compte non seulement de la dimension flux mais également de la dimension stock de l’économie tunisienne. Il constitue en fait un nouveau cadre d’analyse des effets de de la crise financière et économique mondiale de 2007-2008 et des conséquences économiques issues de la récente révolution tunisienne de 2011. Notre modèle se compose de six secteurs : les entreprises, les ménages, les banques, la banque centrale, l’Etat et enfin le reste du monde. Ce dernier représente l’Union Européenne étant donnée la forte dépendance de l’économie tunisienne vis-à-vis de l’économie des pays européens. Nous avons essayé alors d’expliquer l’évolution du PIB tunisien à travers quatre types de chocs à savoir : les variations du taux de croissance de l’Europe et ce, pour prendre en compte l’impact de la crise économique mondiale, les modifications du taux d’intérêt et du taux de change issues des changements dans la politique monétaire tunisienne ainsi que la réaction de la politique budgétaire et enfin le choc de confiance et de productivité pour évaluer l’impact de la crise économique lors de la révolution tunisienne de 2011. Ces quatre chocs nous ont permis de reproduire les faits stylisés de l’économie tunisienne et de comprendre les effets des crises de la dernière décennie. Puis, nous avons envisagé trois scénarios pour l’économie tunisienne, un premier scénario optimiste, un second pessimiste et un troisième scénario intermédiaire. / The purpose of this thesis is to model the Tunisian economy in a post Keynesian stock-flow consistent approach in order to provide an analysis of the observed stylized facts since 2001. This kind of post Keynesian macroeconomic model retains not only the stock dimension but also the flow dimension of the Tunisian economy. Thus it is a new framework for analyzing the effects of the financial and economic crisis of 2007-2008 and economic consequences resulting from the recent Tunisian revolution of 2011. Six sectors make our economy: households, firms, banks, central bank, government and the rest of the world. The rest of the world represents the European Union given the strong dependence of the Tunisian economy on European economies. In order to explain the trend of the Tunisian GDP, four shocks are considered namely the impact on the growth rate in European Union to take into account the global crisis, the changes in interest rate and exchange rate to explain the impact of monetary policy and the response of fiscal policy and finally the shock in the state of confidence and productivity to understand the effects of the economic crisis during the Tunisian revolution. These four shocks have allowed us to reproduce the stylized facts of the Tunisian economy and understand the effects of the crisis of the last decade. Then we consider three scenarios for the Tunisian economy: an optimistic scenario, a pessimistic scenario and intermediate scenario.

The purpose of my dissertation was to examine the competition between the U.S.-led Western bloc and the Soviet bloc in the less developed world during Détente. I assessed whether or not the Soviet bloc pushed for strategic gains in the less developed world in the middle-to-late 1970’s and whether this contributed to the U.S. decision to abandon Détente in 1979. I made the attempt to test the international relations theory of balance of threat realism (Walt, 1992). I accomplished the test in two ways. First, I measured the foreign aid allocations (military and economic) made by each respective bloc towards the Third World by using a quantitative approach. Second, I examined U.S. archives using the process-tracing/historical method. The U.S. archives gave me the ability to evaluate how U.S. decision-makers and U.S. intelligence agencies interpreted the actions of the Soviet bloc. They also gave me the chance to examine the U.S. response as we evaluated the policies that were pushed by key U.S. decision-makers and intelligence agencies. On the question of whether or not the Soviet bloc was aggressive, the quantitative evidence suggested that it was not. Instead, the evidence found the Western-bloc to have been more aggressive in the less developed world. The U.S. archives also showed Soviet actions to have been defensive. Key U.S. decision-makers and intelligence agencies attested to this. Finally, the archives show that U.S. officials pushed for aggressive actions against the Third World during the final years of Détente. Thus, balance of threat realism produced an incorrect assessment that U.S. aggression in the late 1970’s was a response to Soviet aggression during Détente. The evidence suggests structural Marxism and domestic politics can better explain U.S./Western actions. The aggressive foreign aid allocations of the West, coupled with evidence of U.S. decision-makers/agencies vehemently concerned about the long-term prospects of the West, strengthened structural Marxism. Domestic politics can also claim to explain the actions of U.S. decision-makers. I found extensive archival evidence of bureaucratic inter-agency conflict between the State Department and other intelligence agencies in areas of strategic concern to the U.S.

In this dissertation, the socio-ecological transformations that occurred during Cuba’s Revolución Agrícola are explored, against the backdrop of the historical subalternisation of the country as a consequence of Spanish and American imperialism, and in relation to the continuing subalternisation of the country and its people through the neoliberal mass media. To contextualize such exploration, the origins of large-scale privatization of common land, and the subsequent process of urbanization in the West, are investigated, before Cuba’s similar developmental path – as a result of Spanish colonialism, U.S. imperialism, and communist influence – is detailed. Thereafter, the way in which Cuba established an alternative food paradigm, characterised by local, communal, and urban production during the country’s ‘Special Period’ in the 1990s, is discussed, with a view to illustrating how this eco-socialist model of food production, in both rural and urban areas, led to new relations between people and nature. This Cuban model is then posited as a socio-ecologically sustainable model of food production, deserving of the attention of communities around the world, who seek to gain a degree of autonomy from neoliberal agribusiness. Conversely, the efforts of mainstream neoliberal mass media to silence the immensely positive characteristics of the revolution are also investigated, and framed in terms of the historical subjugation of Cuban voices in the American mass media, and the contemporary marginalisation of the country and its people in the neoliberal mass media. Finally, the dissertation concludes by examining the alternative media response, on the part of several prominent Cubans and those sympathetic to their cause, to bring attention to the value of the socio-ecological transformations that have occurred on the island, against the backdrop of various theorisations of the importance of alternative media platforms as a radical counterforce to neoliberal mass media hegemony.

The climate and vegetation history of the Middle Pleistocene transition in the interior of British Columbia (BC) is poorly understood due largely to the lack of records. Sediments from the overburden of the Teck Highland Valley Copper mine (HVC) of British Columbia straddle the Brunhes-Matuyama paleomagnetic transition, providing a opportunity to study this critical Pleistocene interval. The stratigraphy was described and sampled for paleomagnetic and pollen/spore analysis at reconnaissance scale. The HVC sediments consist mainly of (from bottom to top) a lower glacial drift, >50 m of lakebed sediments, ~50 m of gravel fan deposits, and a >60 m thick drift of mostly glacial till. These units were deposited by a valley glacier, lake, fluvial/debris flow events, and an ice sheet, respectively. Pollen and spore analyses, reveal at least 11 climate-vegetation intervals (9 zones, 2 more possible ones). These are broadly classified as either warm Pinus-Picea parkland and forest, cold Selaginella-rich steppe or arid Artemisia-Poaceae steppe. These intervals suggest a long paleo-environmental record at HVC and indicate fluctuations between glacial and interglacial climates which can tentatively be placed with Marine Isotope Stages 23 through 16 and younger. The HVC record is a unique sequence with the potential to reveal a much more detailed history of this critical time in Earth’s past. Implications of these findings are discussed. / Graduate / 2018-12-06

This dissertation explores and analyzes anti-imperial sentiments in Britain throughout the long eighteenth century. During this period of major British state formation and imperial expansion, there were a surprisingly large number of observers who voiced notable and varied concerns and opposition towards numerous overseas ventures, yet who have not since received significant attention within the historical record. Indeed, many critics of British imperialism and empire-building, from within Britain itself, formed extensive and thoughtful assessments of their own nation’s conduct in the world. Criticism ranged widely, from those who opposed the high economic costs of imperial expansion to those worried that a divine retribution would rain down upon Britain for injustices committed by Britons abroad. Such diversity of anti-imperial perspectives came from a clearly enlightened minority, whose limited influences upon broader public opinions had little effect on policies at the time. Successive British administrations and self-interested Britons who sought their fortunes and adventures abroad, often with little regard for the damage inflicted on those whom they encountered, won the political debate over empire-building. However, in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, the perspectives of many of these individuals would increasingly become highly regarded. Later generations of reformers, particularly “Little Englanders”, or classical liberals and radicals, would look back reverently to these critics to draw inspiration for refashioning the empire and Britain’s position in the world. These eighteenth century ideas continued to present powerful counter-arguments to the trends then in place and served to inspire those, in the centuries that followed, who sought to break the heavy chains of often despotic colonial rule and mitigate the ravages of war and conquest.

No abstract included. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

The technological revolution that is currently underway is building on the foundations of machine learning, exponential speed of technological development and digitalization. Machines in near future will become cheaper and more efficient and will replace human workers in a wide range of disciplines. Diploma thesis summarizes the reasons and consequences of current technological development and presents an unconditional basic income as the tool for ensuring a sustainable level of social equality. Using the real numbers from the Czech Republic it shows that the introduction of an unconditional basic income is rather a problem of cultural and social than economic. Basic income in future may become an effective tool in the fight against human poverty, especially in the environment where demand for human labor becomes scarce.

Le constitutionnalisme révolutionnaire en France et en Chine est enraciné profondément dans l’histoire pré-moderne. La Révolution de 1789, ainsi que les trois Constitutions consécutives, en 1791, 1793 et 1795, ont combiné la « Constitution » et la « révolution » d’une façon sans précédent. Une logique semblable s’expose dans le parcours historique de ces deux pays. La Déclaration de 1789 et la Constitution de 1791 ont ouvert la voie vers un futur idéal, qui fut bientôt désenchanté par les conflits réels, surtout par la lutte entre l’autorité royale et le pouvoir législatif. De même, après la fin de la dynastie en Chine, on a aperçu également le conflit entre les pouvoirs exécutif et législatif, par lequel la « Première République » a été conduite dans une impasse. Au fur et à mesure de la turbulence de la Révolution, on assiste à la succession de plusieurs textes constitutionnels des deux côtés, qui reflètent la ressemblance non seulement entre les girondins et le Kuomintang, mais aussi entre les Montagnards et le Parti communiste chinois. Inaugurés semblablement par un coup d’État, les régimes « thermidoriens » ont été mis sur pied tant en France qu’en Chine. La Constitution de 1795 a tenté de maintenir le pouvoir aux mains des thermidoriens pour éviter la nouvelle dictature, mais sans succès. Au contraire, le régime communiste chinois s’efforce également de contrôler le pouvoir, avec succès, grâce à l’institution révisée selon la circonstance. Ainsi, compte tenu du rôle du Parti, le processus du constitutionnalisme se présente plus étendu en Chine. Pour ces deux pays, le constitutionnalisme révolutionnaire révèle effectivement le destin commun dans l’ère de modernité. / The revolutionary constitutionalism in France and in China is deeply rooted in the pre-modern history. The Revolution of 1789 and the three consecutive Constitutions in 1791, 1793 and 1795, combined the "Constitution" and the "revolution" an unprecedented way. The same logic is exposed in the historic journey in France and in China. The Declaration of 1789 and the Constitution of 1791 have paved the way toward an ideal future, which was soon disillusioned by the real conflicts, especially the struggle between the royal authority and the legislature. Similarly, after the end of the dynasty in China, we also saw the conflict between the executive and legislative branches, by which the "First Republic" has been led to an impasse. As the turbulence of the Revolution went on, several constitutions of both sides have been promulgated, which reflect the similarity not only between the Girondins and the Kuomintang, but also between the Montagnards and the Chinese Communist Party. Similarly resulted by a coup d’etat, the "Thermidorian" regime was established in France and China. The Constitution of 1795 sought to maintain the power in the hands of the Thermidorians to avoid new dictatorship, but without success. Instead, the Chinese Communist regime is also trying to control the power, successfully, by means of the constitution revised according to circumstances. Thus, given the role of the Party, the process of constitutionalism appears more dimensions in China. After all, for both countries, the revolutionary constitutionalism actually reveals the common destiny in the era of modernity.

The aim of this thesis is to summarize and extend the findings of the second demographic transition in the Czech Republic. To show sociological changes that occurred after the beginning of the second demographic transition. The aim is to estimate time series models of individual demographic indicators before and after the second demographic transition. Predictions of selected demographic indicators are based on Swedis demographic time series.