<b>Background &amp; Problem</b>: Democracy in the Arab world has received much attention since the Kuwait war in 1991, both in academics and in the public debate. Lebanon in particular has through its history in the 20th century constantly been facing new challenges for its multicultural society of minorities. Conflicts have dominated several periods with a horrible experience of 15 years of civil war between 1975-1990. Religion and confessional belonging have large influence in the political system, giving Lebanon a character of confessional state. How the political system and civil society is related to concept of democracy is the main object of this study. <b>Purpose</b>: The main purpose of this study is to examine the political structure, civil society and democracy in Lebanon. A literature study is combined with a field study in order to deepen the understanding of the political system, civil society and process of democracy through interviews with actors within civil society, politicians and academics. <b>Method</b>: The scientific approach and method used in this study has a qualitative character with focus on hermeneutics and more specifically on the hermeneutic circle. <b>Theoretical Framework</b>: This chapter introduces the theoretical tools of the theory and concepts used in the study. Focus is on liberal democracy and deliberative democracy, and briefly on consociational democracy. Clarification of concept of state, civil society and democracy is used for further introduction in the case of Lebanon, which are also a part of this chapter. Primary and secondary sources are brought into light in the case of Lebanon, in which the interviews that are conducted during the field study are firmly a background for analysis. <b>Analysis &amp; Conclusions</b>: In the analysis, the focus is on understanding the text (primary and secondary data) in search for fulfilling the purpose and reach for an understanding of civil society and democracy in Lebanon. This chapter deals with the interpretation of the case Lebanon in evaluation of the theoretical framework with discussion on civil society, de-mocracy and political system. Conclusions and reflection upon the study and its results are presented in a final chapter.

Latin America cannot be conceived without acknowledging the social movements, which are often the engines of political and social changes on the continent. Until recently, Chile appeared to be the country where the social order was perceived as the most accomplished in relation to its politically unstable neighbouring countries, as well as in relation to its proper history. The 2011 student movement, which is the most significant social movement within the last twenty years of the Chilean history, can be completely understood only from a broader perspective of the 20th century. In order to understand the recent changes, the thesis deals with the phenomenon of the Chilean student movement studying its origins, historical trajectory and impact. The aim of the thesis is to explore the continuities and changes of the student movement and question why the 2011 protests are treated as a separate collective action in relation to the cycles of contention experienced in the 20th century.

La bataille décisive est une notion vague mais immédiatement intelligible par tout un chacun. Elle fonctionne à la manière d’un comprimé idéologique. Son utilisation discursive renvoie à l’imagerie populaire des exploits de grands capitaines, ou à des points chauds de rencontre entre armées titanesques, aux visages innombrables tendus par la conscience de jouer la survie de son roi ou de sa nation. La bataille décisive reste également chez les auteurs spécialisés une notion communément admise mêlant concentration géographique et accélération historique, la raison d’être de la guerre. Mais si l’on considère que les belligérants, en l’occurrence les collectivités politiques, procèdent d’uns substance psychique et non plus d’une simple structure sociale, la notion de bataille décisive prend une autre profondeur. L’être psychique collectif acquiert en effet un patrimoine archétypal absent de la politie vue comme un acteur purement rationnel. L’empirisme historique et un certain nombre d’auteurs philosophes, psychologues et anthropologues, montrent que ces archétypes seraient les pôles animus et anima siégeant dans l’inconscient collectif. Les formes politiques des collectivités exprimeraient directement ces archétypes, habituellement dilués en chacun de nous par l’écran de l’inconscient individuel. A chaque forme politique, clan, tribu, nation, correspondrait une relation spécifique entre les deux pôles. Les avatars historiques du Père Totémique freudien sont le chef, le roi, Dieu-le-Père, etc. Contre lui, les avatars de la Déesse-Mère matricielle se décantent en territoire, sanctuaire, Mère-Patrie, etc. C’est lorsqu’il y a correspondance géographique entre deux avatars, en l’occurrence lorsque le pouvoir homogène du chef correspond d’une manière nette au territoire collectif matriciel, les murs de la Cité ou les frontières de l’Etat, par exemple, que le bataille décisive apparaît à la pointe de la théorie et de la pratique. Cette perspective pourrait projeter une lumière nouvelle sur les relations internationales. Le recours à la bataille décisive marque l’intention fébrile d’annihiler définitivement l’ennemi afin de maintenir la pureté de sa matrice maternelle, originelle et performatrice. Cette angoisse de la souillure du viol, certes spatial mais également culturel, dénote le caractère sexuel collectif de la guerre, en ce sens que la guerre serait la pratique sexuelle des collectivités politiques. Cette pratique anthropologique s’avère plus profonde que la guerre elle-même. Le paroxysme de la crise internationale remplace actuellement la bataille décisive de la guerre, et corrobore en effet l’idée de pilotes archétypaux clandestins, sans que ces derniers ne soient cependant déterministes et fatals. / The decisive battle is a vague but at once understandable notion by everyone. It works in the style of an ideological tablet. Its discursive use sends back to the popular imaging of the exploits of big captains, or to the trouble spots of meeting between titanic armies, to the uncountable faces tightened by the consciousness to play the survival of his king or its nation. The decisive battle also stays at the specialized author’s a notion collectively admitted mixing geographical concentration and historic acceleration, the reason for being of the war. But if we consider that belligerent parties, in this particular case the political communities, proceed of some psychic substance and either of a simple social order, the notion of decisive battle takes another depth. The psychic collective being indeed acquires an archetypal heritage absent in the politie seen as a purely rational actor. The historic empiricism and certain number of philosophers, psychologists and anthropologists authors, show that these archetypes would be the animus and anima poles sitting in the collective unconscious. The political forms of communities would express directly these archetypes, usually diluted in each of us with the screen of the individual unconscious. In every political shape, clan, tribe, nation, would correspond a specific relation between both poles. The historic adversities of Freudian Father Totemic are the chief, the king, God-the-Father, etc. Against him, the adversities of the matrix Goddness-Mother settle on territory, sanctuary, Mother-homeland, etc. It’s when there is geographical correspondence between two adversities, in this particular case when the homogeneous power of the chief corresponds in a clear way to the matrix collective territory, the walls of the City, or the borders of the State, for example, when decisive battle appears in the forefront of the theory and of the practice. This prospect could throw a new light on the international relations. The appeal to the decisive battle marks the feverish intention to annul definitively the enemy to maintain the purity of its maternal, original and performatrice matrix. This anxiety of the stain of the rape, certainly spatial but also cultural, denotes the collective sexual character of the war, in the sense that the war would be the sexual practice of the political communities. This anthropological practice turns out deeper than the war itself. The paroxysm of the international crisis replaces at present the decisive battle of the war, and indeed confirms the idea of secret archetypal drivers, without that these last ones are however determinist and fatal.

The main goal of this thesis is to describe the use of obstruction mechanisms in the Czech legislative system, where in the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, as key legislative institutions of the parliamentary system, has been making massive damages in the form of blocking the negotiation of draft laws for many years. The reasons that led to the Rules of Procedure of the Chamber of Deputies permitting the existence of this phenomenon are not quite obvious, but they are an integral part of the parliamentary culture of our country, which existence is mainly used by the legislative minority. Even though the Rules of Procedure have a clear wording, which allow the existence of obstructions, their use is often considered as unconstitutional, as their use often exceeds the affordable limit. The main objective of this theses is to introduce to the reader all the instruments that help to obstructions and subsequently to show their use in practice during the meetings of the Chamber of Deputies within the last three parliamentary term, including the period in progress.

Die Dissertation untersucht in nationaler Perspektive am Beispiel Deutschlands im 20. Jahrhundert Voraussetzungen und Entwicklungen einer Verwissenschaftlichung der industriellen Arbeit. Gefragt wird nach Zusammenhängen zwischen politischen Systembrüchen und Arbeitsforschung von der Weimarer Republik, über das NS-Regime, zur Deutschen Demokratischen Republik und der Bundesrepublik Deutschland bis 1990. Es werden personelle und institutionelle Brüche und Kontinuitäten untersucht und in einem Exkurs mit der Arbeitsforschung in der Schweiz verglichen. Erörtert wird die Frage, in welchem Maße sich die Arbeitsforschung in Deutschland in einer permanenten „Dilemma-Situation“ befand - zwischen Kapital und Arbeit, Volk und Klasse, Wissenschaft und Politik, Führung und Freiheit, Leistung und Ausbeutung, männlicher Dominanz und weiblicher Chancensuche. Inwieweit kann von ideologischer und politischer Instrumentalisierung der Arbeitsforschung oder auch von gewollter Bereitstellung ihrer Ressourcen für die jeweils politisch Herrschenden gesprochen werden? / Using the example of Germany in the 20th century, the doctoral thesis examines the conditions and developments in the scientification of industrial labour from a national perspective. Questions are asked about the connections between political system discontinuities and labour research from the Weimar Republic, through the Nazi regime, to the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany until 1990. Personal and institutional breaks and continuities are examined and compared in an excursus with labour research in Switzerland. The question discussed is to which extent labour research in Germany was in a permanent "dilemma situation" - between capital and labour, people and class, science and politics, leadership and freedom, performance and exploitation, male dominance and female search for opportunities. To what extent can one speak of ideological and political instrumentalization of labour research or also of the deliberate provision of its resources for the respective political rulers?

This thesis is focused on analysis of coalition behaviour in the Republic of Ireland in years 1937-2009 and individual governments in Ireland in the defined period. The work describes all aspects connected with this phenomenon. In the first part there are major institutions and fundamental characteristics of the Irish political system described. Also the development, main features and specifics of the party system is explained. This part includes the list of relevant parties, as the major participants of the government formation. In the main part of the work there are main factors identified and their influence on coalition behaviour and government's formation is evaluated. Specifically there is the influence of the political system, voting system, party system and also another factors analyzed. Substantial part of this work is concentrated on the typology of Irish governments and their classification according to the theory of coalitions. Especially role of two crucial parties - Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael - is emphasized. The work also explains the rules of government formation in Ireland, what is most common kind of government, how long is their durability and which specifics are with Irish government connected. During the writing of the thesis analytic and descriptive method has been used.

Diploma thesis "The role of regional political parties within the Spanish political scene in the period of 1993-2010" presents an analysis of the role of Spanish regional political parties, which play within the national political scene since 1993. The preliminary chapter of this thesis provides a brief description of the contemporary Spanish political system, the regional organization of Spain and the Spanish electoral system, which has considerable influence especially on the party system. I consider this general introduction relevant and important for a better understanding of the whole issue. The next section is devoted to the Spanish party system, its development, the typology and the main national political parties. Here I come to the conclusion that due to the specific configuration of the electoral system in Spain happens relatively complicated interpenetration of the national party system with the regional party systems. The final and the most important chapter deals with the regional political parties, which after 1993 came to the Spanish parliament, and especially about those that have influence on the government formation and the government policy. At the beginning of this chapter I define the regional political party, the regionalist and the nationalist political party and I try to...

This diploma thesis addresses the issue of assassination as a potential tool of political struggle, focusing on the assassination of senior state officials as a way to change the political regime. In the theoretical part the thesis deals with the theoretical topics such as: regime change, political violence, anarchism. The practical part focuses on three specific cases of assassinations in the history of modern political regimes during the 19th and 20th century. Selected leaders who have been attacked are represented by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin, Adolf Hitler and John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Was it possible by using assassination as a method of political struggle to overthrow the regime, that each of these leaders represent? Through above mentioned cases in this diploma thesis we can also observe the role of the individual in the political system, not only in terms of the state leader as a representative of the political regime, but also in terms of individuals, who have decided to change the regime by their act.

Master's thesis deals with the status of Israeli Arabs within the political system of the State of Israel. For analysis of this topic two approaches were selected. First, attention is concentrated on the historical development of status of Israeli Arabs from the establishment of Israel to the present day. Subsequently, selected problematic areas in the relationship between Israeli Arabs and Israel are analyzed. These areas include: obtaining Israeli citizenship, ownership of land, compulsory military service in Israeli army, participation in political and judicial institutions, official languages, and national symbols. As it turns out, Israel disadvantages status of Israeli Arabs in many areas. However, the whole issue is not entirely unequivocal because in some cases, Israeli Arabs cause their disadvantaged status by their attitude.

The Master thesis "The Europeanization of a political system of a federal state: the case of Belgium" investigates the Europeanization effect on a federal polity in Belgium. It discusses the relations between the federal government and the federated entities in Belgium. It addresses two questions. Firstly, what is the impact of European integration on the relations between the federal government and the federated entities in Belgium and secondly, does European integration strengthen or rather weaken the role of federal government towards regions and communities. In particular, it argues that the combination of two parallel processes - on the one hand, the deepening of European integration and on the other hand, the domestic devolution of powers in Belgium - resulted in a situation where the position of the federal government is strengthened despite the constant pressure of federated units on decentralization. Using Germany and Austria as typical cases of federations to compare, the thesis assumes that Belgium is an exceptional case of federation. While in Austria and Germany the European integration consolidates the existing relations between federal government and federated entities, in Belgium it completely changes them. It also argues that European integration shapes the dual nature of Belgian...