Religion and post-communist transition are two of the many issues that have earned attention of economists and social scientist in the recent decades. This dissertation collects three papers dealing with different issues concerning religion and the transition. The first one attempts to assess the role of religion in the transition and its impact on country's success in this process; it also outlines opportunities for research in this field. The second paper tries to uncover the role of religion in formation of economic and social attitudes of the people in post-communist countries. Both papers conclude that religion matters; Western Christianity appears to be more compatible with market economy than Orthodox Christianity and Islam, although these two religions are not necessarily an obstacle. Finally, the third paper deals with religious participation in post-communist countries. It shows that religious behavior is not completely independent of economic conditions and religious revivals in the post-communist era can be interpreted in economic terms.

The thesis examines the expressions and origins of negative attitudes to gender equality in the Czech Republic, which have been noticeable especially in the process of implementation of the EU sex equality acquis. It asks whether and how they can be explained with reference to socio-legal developments that started during Czechoslovakia’s State Socialist past, but are still relevant today. In order to answer these research questions, the thesis examines how gender equality has been regulated through law and how it has been understood by law-makers, judges and legal scholars in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic during State Socialism (1948-1989) and Transition (1989-today). The thesis examines legal developments in gender-relevant areas, most importantly in antidiscrimination law. It also excavates the underlying, sometimes hidden, but crucial understandings of key concepts such as ‘women’, ‘gender’, ‘equality’, ‘discrimination’ and ‘rights’. The thesis argues that while formal legal guarantees for women have largely been satisfactory in the Czech Republic by international standards, the way these formal legal guarantees are understood, interpreted and applied has not been gender-progressive. It argues that the reasons for this are: (i) entrenched patriarchal ideas about women’s appropriate role both in private and public life; (ii) a failure to understand gender as a social construct and to recognize gender order as a pervasive social structure; (iii) an inadequate conceptualization of equality and a refusal to combat sex discrimination; and (iv) a limited understanding of the role of law and of rights in the shaping of social relations. It argues that these understandings have been considerably path-dependent on State Socialism, be it through a rejection of anything perceived as State Socialist (which has harmed redistributive policies), as well as through the mostly unconscious retention of ideas or their absence (which has led to a blindness to the cultural aspects of patriarchy).

法治國原則作為當代政府治理所不可或缺之憲法規範，其之精義涵括了課予政府依法行政、恪守現行法律規範及法律原則等義務；承上所述，倘一國公部門行政為諸多貪腐情事所囿，其不僅意謂著違法行政與牴觸法治國原則之狀態，其猶與國家制度發展的健全性與否相涉。 再者，學界為求分析前開指涉的不利情狀，業已有繁多的相關文獻證實貪腐對經濟及社會環境造成的損害；於此，本研究對貪腐所進行之研究的動機，蓋可歸因於國際透明組織所釋出的貪腐印象指數報告；詳言之，除探索部分後共國家為何特別易於為貪腐所囿乃係本研究之所由外，此等國家的公部門於千囍年後的發展亦為所欲考查之部分。 總此，有鑑於對前述的後共貪腐情形為審慎評估之必要性，本研究應用了文獻分析、個案分析及法律分析方法進行諸多探討；又本研究作為和政府廉政與否具關聯性之議題，不僅政府與社會關係乃係觀察重點，公部門貪腐現象、警察制度發展、抑或是政府肅貪辭令及現實，亦為本研究就後共俄羅斯與喬治亞於斯範疇所欲分析之課題。 / The principle of rule of law acts as a crucial constitutional element in contemporary governance, it requires the government to exercise its power in accordance with well-established and clearly written rules, regulations, and legal principles, hence if a state's public sector has been affected by entrenched corruption, it not only means equally to the illegal status of administration, the breach of rule of law, but also correlates with the quality of a state's institutional development. In view of those aforementioned detrimental conditions, since lots of research effort had already verified the disastrous economic and social consequences of corruption, this study’s research motive was inspired by corruption perceptions index released by transparency international; in other words, why some post-communist states had been bothered with various corruptions after dissolution of the Soviet Union, and how do their public sectors evolve after Millennium. In order to make proper assessment on those illegal phenomena above, this study was constructed by document Analysis, case study analysis and legal analysis. As a study relates with government’s integrity issues, this case study surveys on the relationship between government and society. And by means of exploring corruption phenomena in public sector, the development of police institutions, as well as anti-corruption rhetoric and its realities in Russia and Georgia during the post-communist period. Keywords: Corruption; Anti-corruption; Integrity; Post-communist transition; police institution

Cette thèse propose une analyse des transformations postcommunistes en Roumanie à partir d’une étude de la structuration de trajectoires familiales. La réflexion sur les itinéraires très variés de ces trajectoires familiales met en valeur les pratiques développées par les familles dans la construction de leur mode de vie quotidienne après la chute du communisme. L’approche utilisée privilégie deux axes d’analyse. Le premier vise les aspects socio-structurels concernant les cadres de la vie incluant les aspects matériels, alors que le deuxième, l’axe socio-symbolique, concerne les aspects subjectifs liés au vécu des acteurs en corrélation avec le contexte social en mutation. L’analyse est fondée sur des éléments issus de la théorie de la structuration qui ont contribué à la construction du cadre conceptuel. Elle s’appuie aussi sur la méthodologie qualitative qui comprend des récits de vie obtenus à partir des entretiens semi-dirigés réalisés avec les membres de 11 familles. Les thématiques retenues après l’analyse du corpus de données nous ont permis d’identifier des stratégies que les familles ont mises en place et les projets familiaux qui ont orienté leur parcours de vie durant la période de transition postcommuniste. Ces deux concepts révèlent des éléments liés à l’ordre général permettant ainsi la mise en évidence des tendances structurelles de la société postcommuniste. / This thesis presents an analysis of the process of post-communist transformation in Romania, through a study of the structure of family trajectories. An examination of the wide variety of family trajectories highlights the practices developed by families in rebuilding their way of life after the fall of communism. The approach adopts two axes of analysis. The first is the socio-structural framework for life including material aspects, while the second axis, the socio-symbolic axis addresses subjective aspects related to the experiences of actors within their changing social context. The analysis draws on the theory of structuration in its conceptual framework. It is also based on qualitative methodology which includes life stories obtained from semi-structured interviews conducted with members of 11 families. The themes selected after analysis of the data corpus allows us to identify strategies that families have put in place and family plans that have shaped their life course during the post-communist transition. These two concepts reveal elements related to the general order allowing the identification of structural trends of post-communist society in Romania.

Cette thèse propose une analyse des transformations postcommunistes en Roumanie à partir d’une étude de la structuration de trajectoires familiales. La réflexion sur les itinéraires très variés de ces trajectoires familiales met en valeur les pratiques développées par les familles dans la construction de leur mode de vie quotidienne après la chute du communisme. L’approche utilisée privilégie deux axes d’analyse. Le premier vise les aspects socio-structurels concernant les cadres de la vie incluant les aspects matériels, alors que le deuxième, l’axe socio-symbolique, concerne les aspects subjectifs liés au vécu des acteurs en corrélation avec le contexte social en mutation. L’analyse est fondée sur des éléments issus de la théorie de la structuration qui ont contribué à la construction du cadre conceptuel. Elle s’appuie aussi sur la méthodologie qualitative qui comprend des récits de vie obtenus à partir des entretiens semi-dirigés réalisés avec les membres de 11 familles. Les thématiques retenues après l’analyse du corpus de données nous ont permis d’identifier des stratégies que les familles ont mises en place et les projets familiaux qui ont orienté leur parcours de vie durant la période de transition postcommuniste. Ces deux concepts révèlent des éléments liés à l’ordre général permettant ainsi la mise en évidence des tendances structurelles de la société postcommuniste. / This thesis presents an analysis of the process of post-communist transformation in Romania, through a study of the structure of family trajectories. An examination of the wide variety of family trajectories highlights the practices developed by families in rebuilding their way of life after the fall of communism. The approach adopts two axes of analysis. The first is the socio-structural framework for life including material aspects, while the second axis, the socio-symbolic axis addresses subjective aspects related to the experiences of actors within their changing social context. The analysis draws on the theory of structuration in its conceptual framework. It is also based on qualitative methodology which includes life stories obtained from semi-structured interviews conducted with members of 11 families. The themes selected after analysis of the data corpus allows us to identify strategies that families have put in place and family plans that have shaped their life course during the post-communist transition. These two concepts reveal elements related to the general order allowing the identification of structural trends of post-communist society in Romania.