The thesis discusses the uprising of Zapatista Army of National Liberation and its impact on democratization and political transformation in Mexico. First, it looks into the context of the political situation in Mexico before 1994, history of Zapatista army and the election year of 1994. The reasons for the uprising were several - from neoliberalism in the Mexican economy and the completion of the land reform until the joining of NAFTA. During the uprising, Mexico was an authoritarian regime with a government of one party - the Institutional Revolutionary Party. The Zapatistas have tried to proclaim the change of direction of Mexican politics. The actual rebellion lasted only 12 days before the start of negotiations between the government and rebels. Thanks to the media and broad international support, the uprising evolved into a left-wing movement, fighting for the rights of the Indian population and the poorer Mexican inhabitants. Over the years the Zapatistas have achieved partial success and often provide direction for the political transition. The main subject of this thesis is examining the impact of democratization on the Zapatistas in Mexico.

This work deals with the European Union's relations with Morocco with regard to its approach to democracy. Morocco's political regime has maintained for a long time its continuity in its political structure, where king possesses a dominant position. The aim of my work is to determine whether the Union after the events of the Arab spring supports a change of the system of rules on which the Moroccan regime stands. Since the nineties, EU has emphasized in its mutual relations the need of democratization. Despite several selective political reforms Moroccan regime has not qualitatively changed its nature and the dominant position was still held by the unelected Moroccan king. After the Arab Spring, the European Union declared clearly its shift away from support for undemocratic regimes and introduced a new foreign policy framework and a range of new financial instruments, which should support the democratization efforts of its partners. As evidenced in my work, although there were several political reforms, the essence of the Moroccan system remained unchanged. Yet Morocco has benefited from EU finances via these new instruments. Furthermore, through the method of framing of public speeches of the King of Morocco and the EU leaders it is apparent that EU leaders are also largely in agreement with the...

In connection with the events of the Arab Spring in 2011, the region of northern Africa in particular underwent significant political changes. One of the states in which widespread protests caused the overturn of the authoritarian regime and subsequently established the democratization process was also Egypt, whose case is profoundly analysed in the second part of the thesis. Generally speaking, the thesis is concerned with the analysis of civil-military relations in states characterized by the low political culture. In the first place, it focuses on societies undergoing democratization process where the military traditionally maintains strong position within the state and hence often assumes the role of the leader of the transition. Therefore, the principal objective of the analysis constitutes the role of the army at the time of transition to democracy. At the same time, the thesis poses three research questions aiming partly at the military position, partly at the motives determining the willingness of the military to intervene. In the second part, the thesis analyses the given case through five defined factors which it subsequently examines in two levels: conceptual and interventionist. The goal of the thesis it to explain which factors determine strong position of the army in given praetorian...

This diploma thesis aims to map the work that Ronald Inglehart published after the year 2000 and to include it in the concept of historical sociology. In my work I deal with a total of seven books, which I subject to critical reflection and at the same time I compare with other authors who commented on the given topics. The work will touch on theories of modernization, democratization, secularization and to a lesser extent civilization analysis. I will also add remarks and observations from the point of view of quantitative methodology, as Inglehart's theories are based on a large amount of quantitative data based on questionnaire surveys. The first part of my work deals with modernization theory, the next part deals with secularization and the third part focuses on the analysis of civilization. In modernization and secularization, I will first introduce versions of the theories that Inglehart and co-authors published during the first decade of the 21st century. After that, I will always reflect on recent work (2017- 2021). In the civilization part, which is the shortest, I will summarize his findings across his work. At the end of his work, Inglehart also makes predictions about future society. I also intend to analyze these findings in my diploma thesis. At the end of the work I evaluate the...

This research aims to investigate the causal linkages between the EU democratic legitimacy and the crises of representative democracies in the field of anti-corruption. The threats of corruption to the EU democratic legitimacy and the approach in handling this negative phenomenon is seen as a symptom of a more profound crisis of the EU integration project. The mutual interdependence between the EU and it is member states in delivering the standards of democracy, it's values and principles is seen through legitimation as an act of actual justification. This actual exercise of the EU indirect legitimacy in normative terms is translated into action through the key actors of representative democracies on a national level, the national parliaments and the political parties. However, the role of the parliaments and the party democracy in the broader EU context, especially evident in Central-East Europe (CEE), has been challenged and weak, suggesting hollowness of democracy. This status has been also challenged by the misuse of political power for private gains, as a general understanding of corruption, also adopted by the EU. However, the mutual reinforcement of corruption and the hollowness of democracy have remained under-acknowledged in the broader neoliberal context. The reasons behind are few:...

The aim of this thesis is to numerically evaluate democratic consolidation in Eastern European countries of the former Eastern Bloc. To compare these countries with each other and decide which of these countries can be considered as consolidated democracies. Secondary aim is to find which factors supported this consolidation or at least correlate with it. Theoretical basis of this work is Wolfgang Merkel's theory of democratic consolidation. He divides democratic consolidation into four levels: constitutional consolidation, representative consolidation, behavioral consolidation and democratic consolidation of the political culture. Each level of democratic consolidation is numerically expressed, with usage of Bertelsmann's transformation index data, separately for all states in two-year intervals since 2005 to 2015. Based on that, overall democratic consolidation is calculated. Therefore, we can compare countries between each other and in time. Correlation between factors supporting consolidation and overall democratic consolidation is expressed by Pearson correlation coefficient. This work is beneficial in creating and describing method, which can be used for numerical expression of democratic consolidation in any state since 2005 to 2015 without author's subjective influence. Another benefit is...

Both the theoretical outlines of a solution to the climate and ecological crisis, as well as concrete efforts at environmental reform and energy transformation, often run into the ambivalent role of organised labour, particularly trade unions, in todays growth-oriented, fossil-fuel based economy. On the one hand, trade unions often already formally endorse the ideal of sustainability, on the other hand, in concrete environmental conflicts, they often the side with "jobs" against climate and environmental protections, and thus serve as a support of the growth-oriented fossil economy. The concept of a just transition, embodying the attempts at creating a framework in which the interests of workers and climate protection can be reconciled, thus also becomes ambivalent, serving often as a basis for arguments against more ambitious decarbonization. The aim of this thesis, drawing on the theoretical framework of critical political ecology, is to explore the possibilities of solving this dilemma in the case of Czech trade unions. On the basis of interviews with their various representatives, it will try to answer the questions: 1) what political strategy is shaping the policies of Czech trade unions in the sphere of climate and energy policy, 2) how do these trade unions see their role in the proces of a...