Presented thesis focuses on civil society within the context of ongoing processes of globalization. The core of disputed issues lies in creation of relationships between the actors of civil society (with stress on alter-globalization movement) and institutions of international governance (with accent on multilateral economic institutions -- WB, IMF, WTO). The thesis analyzes concepts of (global) civil society and functions which civil society fulfills in relations to centres of political power -- traditionally towards the state, currently also towards international governance institutions. It deals also with preconditions of creation and existence of global civil society (post-material middle-class, cosmopolitism and the role of the internet). Theoretical chapters are supported by empirical datas which are analysed especially regarding alter-globalist discourse, self-definition of the actors and current state of relationships between civil society and WB, IMF and WTO. Applied research shows that these institutions open themselves to the control of public and civil society (although with different pace) in levels of transparency, accountability and access, and thus civil society contributes to their democratization.

This thesis is devoted to the issue of non-violent resistance. It focuses on identifying factors that affect the success of non-violent campaigns. The paper presents and compares different types of resistance in achieving strategic objectives, particularly in terms of post-conflict democratic order of the country. The central premise of this thesis is that nonviolent campaigns bring a more fertile ground for developing a democratic regime opposed to their violent counterparts. The analyzed object in this paper is the Arab Spring in Egypt, specifically the course and the outcome of this non-violent revolution of 2011. The aim of this study is to identify the factors that influenced the course of the uprising and which ultimately led to the backfiring of this seemingly successful non-violent struggle in Egypt.

The thesis examines the process of recruiting new political elites, which is considered as an essential prerequisite for the restoration of a democratic society in the Czech Republic. The work examines the civic society and its involvement in the political life and activities on the municipal political level. The case study concerns the village of Dolní Břežany where the significant processes have taken place since the year 2002 in order to strengthen the transparency of politics. A questionnaire was distributed in Dolní Břežany where the questions dealt with the citizens´ life satisfaction in the village, their participation in public life and it investigated whether their involvement is or is not connected with an interest in politics or it is just connected with the existence of problems and their solution. Furthermore, the interviews with the executive representatives (between the years 2002 and 2014) gather their views on politics, the public and political participation in general. The aim was to find out what inspired the new political elites to enter the politics and stay politically active for such a long time. The work confirms a hypothesis that a goal of the new political representatives, who were elected in Dolní Břežany in 2002, was to improve their life conditions in the village. The elites remained politically active due to their clear conception of the future village development. The citizens´ confidence in political leaders and a high satisfaction with the community life increased also their interest in politics and public affairs.

The main objective of this thesis is the identification and understanding of the mechanisms of recruiting local political elites and their role in the process of democratization of local politics, and in the process of strengthening local civil society on concrete example selected municipality. The case study concerns with the municipality Semily, which was chosen to work as a community with exemplary transparent and open manner of governance. In 2006 there was a significant change in political representation when recruiting new political elites was a top down process led by a particular person according to predetermined priorities.

This dissertation deals with the civil society in Cambodia, according to the democratization of the country. After the turbulent times that were full of bloody conflicts the country in 1991 initially joined the path of democracy, but soon after that the governing regime shifted the orientation of the country toward authoritarianism. This complicated situation in the country after several decades was making the existence of civil society and western type non-profit sector impossible. Also, the situation concerning civil and political freedoms in the country was very controversial. The aim of the thesis is, through a secondary source analysis to describe the structure of civil society and the obstacles that it must deal with, in the background of the democratization process of the country.

This thesis analyses the interception of the social change in the social science and politically expert literature from a historical perspective of the post-soviet development of the Republic of Moldova. The first chapter introduces the main hypotheses and the research design of the master thesis. The following chapter offers the development of the concept social change in a larger context of the classical and new theories. The aim of the thesis is to find out theories of social change in the Moldovan literature between after 1991. The results of a content analysis will be presented in the third chapter. Finally, the last section of the thesis focuses on suggestions for the further development of this analysis.

This diploma thesis deals with Ukraine and its political transition to democracy, which is linked to the declaration of independence in the 1990s. Presently, the political system in Ukraine, despite its liberalization efforts, is ranked among hybrid regimes as it fulfills the elements of both, democracy and competitive authoritarianism. Key terms: democracy, liberalism and neo- liberalism, for this one-case study, are defined in the theoretical part of the thesis. These concepts are used in a practical part that deals with political development since the declaration of independence to the Maidan and the subsequent five years up to the presidential elections held in March 2019. In conclusion, it is shown whether the political system in Ukraine inclines towards the liberal democracy, or, on the contrary, if it has turned back to the authoritarian and nationalist regime.

This diploma thesis is devoted to the comparative analysis of presidential elections in Ukraine in relation to the theory of hybrid regimes. First, the thesis illuminates the events that happened in the beginning of the Ukrainian independence which affected the distribution of power between executive and legislative branches. The comparative analysis is applied to the particular elections in the years 1999, 2004 and 2010 with emphasis on the pre-electoral campaigns, legislative changes, election process, respect to rules, election results and the fundamental events which influenced the elections. Next, the thesis analyses elections mentioned above on the ground of the elected theories of hybrid regimes with the goal to assess to their democratic character.

The thesis focuses on European countries which underwent so-called partial democratization in the last quarter of the 20th century. It starts from the polemic with Mansfield and Snyder who claim that a (partial) democratization leads to war. The development in Europe of the last quarter of the 20th century, however, seems to contradict this notion. The aim of the thesis is, thus, to contribute to the debate of war-proneness of democratizing states by answering the following question: What caused that the democratization did not lead to war in many cases? Due to the nature of the research question as well as to the number of cases (i.e. 20) the method applied here is qualitative comparative analysis using the so-called fuzzy set method. The application of this method as such is a secondary aim of the thesis. Possible causal conditions of the absence of war which are under study here also derive mostly from the conclusions made by Mansfield and Snyder. The main focus is put on the so-called golden parachute. Among other causes are strong institutions - conceptualized here as weak and weakened executive, political integration into international community, duration of independent statehood and at least some experience with democracy - and developed economy - conceptualized through GDP, economic...

This Master thesis deals with the phenomenon of political movements and their impact on the rising party systems in the Central and Eastern Europe countries. Movements were found in the context of social and geopolitical changes in this region and they represented the original type of political organization that was different from other political parties of Western type. The first part contains an analysis of the general theory of political parties and movements and their role in the process of democratic consolidation and stabilization of party systems. Part of the first ration that categorizes political movements in the context of theories of party families and the chapter containing the characteristics of political movements and rising party systems of selected countries in the region. In the next section follows a study of selected texts of Czech political scientists concerning issues of political movement called Civic Forum (OF), which is used as a theoretical introduction to the chapter analyzing OF. Similar target implements the part examining the ideological roots of the movement and specific anti-political politics in the Czech political system. The second part describes the effect of Civic Forum in the first two stages of the Czech party system development. In this part there is an...