The aim of the Master's thesis is to analyze the growing interest of the global economic system centers in the region of developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa with the account on weakening position of the West in relation to this region. The thesis will be structured into two sections. The first part will focus on the relationship between the West and countries of the African continent and the circumstances allowing not only the access of new challengers, but also alternative development models. In this respect the thesis will use the theoretical works of Adrian Leftwich and Claus Offe dealing with the issues of democratization and economic development and their mutual incompatibility. The second part of the thesis will analyze relations with these emerging, non-western power centers and their alternative development models. The research question of the thesis is formulated whether these alternative centers of the global economic system in the region of sub-Saharan Africa propagate their own conception of development models, with proclaimed respect for local conditions, as a challenger to the Western concept of development policy. The hypothesis assumes a certain degree of autonomy in case of developing countries in choosing "their" partner center. These centers are forced to offer certain...

This graduation thesis is trying to examine the work of the American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington and refers to his contribution to the historical sociology. This work presents the most important theses, sets them into the context, possibly compares them with ideas or works of another social scientists. The first part of the work deals with this author as a person, with his professional life and makes clear a selection of the studies, which forms a skeleton of this thesis. The work is trying to describe concepts, which are in some relation with social change. First of all it means modernization, democratization, civil-military relations, civilizations analysis, multiculturalism, crisis of democracy and crisis of american identity. The work follows the chronology, in which author's books were being out. This is a reason, why the themes are presented in order, in which Huntington was focusing on them. The chronological aspect falls back, when the themes are mentioned by author in another books. The end of the work points out the contribution of Samuel Huntington to the historical sociology and in general adverts to importance of his work. Keywords: civil-military relations, modernization, democratization, civilization, identity, political order, multiculturalism, uni-multipolar system, islam

The thesis compares two different modes of state disintegration of post-communist federations. Yugoslavia is an example of a violent breakup, Czechoslovakia stands for a peaceful way, how to split a state. Using the Level of Analysis concept the study looks for differences at five levels focusing mainly on the change caused by the process of democratic transition in both states that removed the old regime and brought a competitive atmosphere among the old and new elites representing various ethnic groups. The outcome of the analysis is that the role of the army, the length of the liberalization process and the different historical experience are factors that matter most.

The diploma paper addresses the issue of civil-military relations in the Turkish Republic, whose nature is one of the obstacles to the democratic consolidation. The aim of the study is to analyze the period from 2002 to the present, in which the Justice and Development Party has launched a new era in the civil-military relations and began working to end the dominant role of the army within the Turkish state and the regime, and its subordination to the civilian and democratic control. The work examines adopted reforms and the current role of the army. It assesses if the Republic of Turkey is closer to the democratic model of the civil-military relations.

The key approach of this thesis is to define closer discourse and importance of civic engagement in the media from the point of view of journalistic practice. This study examines trends of citizen journalism and community media that support active citizen participation and contribute to diversity of media content. The vision of traditional journalism disruption and enforcement of news agenda focusing on public interest became the key message of alternative media. The first two chapters concentrate on the origins of public interest involvement in the history of media discourse. They also highlight the alternative journalism characteristics, its current typology and the role of citizens supporting the concept of media democratization. They also specify the character of transformation of on-line professional journalism and its relationship to user-generated content in journalistic practices. Further four chapters determine specific demonstrations of citizen engagement in public media space and its concepts - public journalism, citizen journalism and community media. These chapters refer to characteristic of these phenonenons, they evaluate their contribution to the public life, concrete performance and practical applications abroad and in the Czech Republic. They also mention the key critical...

This dissertation aims to enrich the discussion about the role of social movements in the process of democratisation, ie. to assess their role in the transformation from authoritarian to democratic regime. In particular, it tries to find the way how to assess the impact of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) and related movement on the Mexican transition to democracy in 1990s. The analysis tries to identify possible impacts on three different levels -- political (which means regime transition), social (which is related with the change of the nature of the relations between state and society, once described as corporatist) and economical (which means the end of neoliberal policy promoted by recent Mexican governments and the introduction of more equal, "more democratic" policy in zapatista logic). It looks both at the formal (direct through bargaining) and informal (influence) impact of the zapatista movement. From the methodological point of view, the study is case analysis, in some parts it uses historical analysis. The text is structured into five chapters. The first chapter shows main theoretical and methodological approaches to the social movements with special focus on Latin American context. It is followed by explaining the principles of methods used to assessment of the zapatista impacts. The second chapter presents main approaches to social change and process of democratic transition. The third chapter contains the historical analysis of transformation of relation between state and society during 20th century, from the introduction of (state) corporatist model in 1930s to its gradual dismantling in the late 20th century. The fourth chapter analysis the evolution of EZLN from its beginning in Lacandon jungle in southern Mexican state of Chiapas. In relation with the emphasis of movement's goals, the period from 1994, when zapatista uprising in Chiapas started, to 2010 is divided into four stages. In the fifth chapter, theoretical findings are applied on EZLN and zapatista movement and formulated hypotheses are tested.

The work focuses on limitation of public officials' reelection eligibility in Mexican political system. The question of reelection is put into the context of both Latin American region and history of Mexico itself and of its constitution. It offers an overview of specific constitutional clauses that define the reelection rules, historical background and motivation of their genesis and also analyses their practical implementation and consequences. The topic is examined primarily with regard to the influence of reelection limitation on previous and future democratic development of the country.

The United States of America and the institutions of the European Union are the most prominent democracy assistance donors in third countries. Over the last two decades, they have spent tens of billions of dollars to support the formation and consolidation of democratic regimes around the world. In this sense, the US and the EU have seemingly shared interests - i.e. seeking to build democratic institutions in target countries so that these become part of the community of democracies and contribute to the stability of the world's economic and political system. However, if we look at the approaches and strategies used by the US and the EU to support democracy, we find that they are often quite different and, in some respects, clashing. Why are the approaches of both actors different if they strive to reach the same goal? Or - upon closer examination - are their goals indeed somewhat different? The key problem is that democracy as such is a contested concept, so it is necessary to ask the question: if we are promoting democracy, what kind of democracy do we mean? If we finance the development of one or the other institution, what model of democratic establishment will be created? The thesis takes a constructivist view of this issue and demonstrates how the different democratic identities of the two...

This thesis proposes a DIY environmental sensing approach that empowers citizens to reinvigorate people's awareness of, and concern for, pollution. Current air pollution measuring techniques are described, and a new concept of participatory sensing is presented. I argue that technological advances in sensing, computation, storage, and communication now have the power to turn the near-ubiquitous mobile phone into a global mobile sensing device, and commence the participatory paradigm employing amateurs in environmental data collection. To test the thesis, PAIR, a prototype with interchangeable sensor, was developed. It aims to enable people to sense environment on-the-go and provide users with immediate feedback. Such data can make people learn about their environment, make them aware of air pollution causes, and eventually even bring behavioral changes. Consequently, a user survey and interviews identify strengths and weaknesses of the mobile sensing device, and based on the usability requirements, we conclude design recommendations for further development. Finally, we identify the main benefits amateur data collection and participatory sensing represent for urban dwellers, and we evaluate issues and challenges they have yet to overcome.

This graduate thesis analyses the EU security policy towards the Maghreb between 2005 and 2010. It does so in order to ascertain to what extent the level of practical policy corresponds with the level of declarations. Also, by using the promotion of democratic governance in the Maghreb countries under the ENP as s case study, the thesis means to challenge the proposition that European Union can be described as a 'Normative Power'. First chapter briefly presents the concept of 'Normative Power Europe'. Following section looks at the European Security Strategy and localizes the primary position of the goal of democracy promotion in the document. Third part gives an overview of the European policy towards the Mediterranean under which EU relations with the Maghreb have been framed. Most attention is paid to the European Neighbourhood Policy. Next chapter examines the level of practical EU policy. It consists of three separate case studies of European policy towards Tunisia, Morocco and Libya between 2005 and 2010. The fifth and final part qualitatively analyses the way four factors (trade, energy, migration and terrorism) contributed to the structuring of relations of Tunisia, Morocco and Libya with Spain, France and Italy. The thesis arrives at the conclusion that while at the declaratory level the EU strives...