In the thesis we are going to focus on the topic of on-line political communication of 8 czech ballot leaders on the social network service Facebook during the 2019 European Parliament election campaign. On-line campaign is essential tool to gain the favor of the electorate in the 4th age of political communication. In long term perspective the European Parliament elections are suffering from the low interest of the electorate and from the trend of decreasing tournout in both pan-European and Czech political arenas. Our research is based on the theoretical concepts about main functions of on-line campaign in the 4th age of political communication. The mobilization of the electorate towards political participation is one of those functions. Next we base our research on the second order elections theory of Karlheinz Reif and Hermann Schmitt. The European Parliament elections are characterised by predominance of topics important to the local political system and by substituting as a referendum about the government of a member country. Last but not least, we base our research on the theory of Paul Taggart and Alexander Szczerbiak, who say that today, euroscepticism is an attractive mainstream topic, which can be found throughout the whole political spectrum. The goal of our research is to prove and...

The Translation of the Passive Voice in Simultaneous Interpreting Using Czech-German Material Abstract This thesis examines the transfer of passive diathesis from German to Czech in the process of simultaneous interpreting. The aim of the research in the empirical section of my thesis is to describe the main tendencies within the language transfer of the passive diathesis. The analysis is based on the records and transcripts of the European Parliament Plenary sessions. The analysis of the speeches focuses on three aspects 1) preserving or changing of the diathesis 2) expression of the agent 3) interference. The initial passive diathesis is mostly preserved. The target speech in Czech language contains more passive diathesis than common written or spoken Czech. If the agent in the original speech is expressed, in most cases it is preserved in the target speech. In case when the agent in the original speech is not stated and it is expressed only implicitly, in the target speech it is expressed directly. The occurrence of interference can be stated thanks to the overall high level of passive diathesis in the target speech compared with common written or spoken Czech. Most of the choices made by interpreters are examples of a positive language transfer.

This theoretical-empirical paper researches how simultaneous interpreters work with face threatening acts (FTAs). For this purpose we researched how FTAs that we identified in speeches given by native Spanish speakers at the European Parliament's plenary sittings are interpreted into Czech and English. This paper has been inspired by the study of Cédric Magnifico and Bart Defrancq from the University of Ghent "Impoliteness in Interpreting: A Question of Gender?" in which they carry out a similar research. In their study the authors research the simultaneous interpretation of French speeches given at the European Parliament's plenary sittings into English and Dutch in order to find out whether interpreters really engage in face work - by face work they mean mitigating (potential) FTAs. In this paper, however, we aimed at answering a more general research question: "How do simultaneous interpreters handle face threatening acts when interpreting at the European Parliament's plenaries?" Researching the interpretation of FTAs into two target languages, moreover, can show whether face work is influenced by the cultural norms used in the community of the target language. Even though some of our findings come close to those of Magnifico and Defrancq's, some are considerably different. Magnifico and...

This diploma thesis focuses on changes in voting behaviour among voters in the Visegrad Group states (V4), specifically electoral volatility between the European Parliament elections and the national elections in the particular state. The approach to examining electoral volatility in this work is based on the second-order national elections theory, which divides elections into less and more important ones. The aim of the work is first to describe the overall electoral volatility in the V4 states in a cross-section of all European elections based on individual data from post-election questionnaire surveys. Subsequently, I find out what are the specific causes and motivations for changes in electoral behaviour. The analysis shows that there are several different patterns of volatile behaviour in the V4 countries, but the consistent and general pattern is a high degree of electoral demobilisation in the European elections. This may be due to political attitudes or the level of trust in the European institutions. I then analyze voters' demobilization among government and opposition voters, who differ mainly in their views of the national political situation. Keywords Electoral volatility, vote switching, electoral behaviour, second-order national election theory, European Parliament elections,...

Diploma thesis " Democratic deficit of the EU: options of evolvement" deals with democracy and democratic legitimacy of the European Union. It represents a particular concept of the EU's democratic deficit, which is ambiguous term, but generally indicates a lack of democracy- particularly the lack of popular participation in the governance or a lack of democratic legitimacy of EU institutions and decision-making. The aim of my work was, according to the hypotheses to determine what is causing the EU's democratic deficit, whether it is a serious problem that should be addressed at European level, and if so, what are the possibilities for minimizing or further evolvement. To explore this issue further, I examine the theory of democratic legitimacy in the introduction and divide it into the "input and output" legitimacy. Subsequently, I also introduced methodology and the current debate on democratic deficit in the leading periodicals, dealing with the EU and think tanks. The second part deals with the history of the democratic deficit and its various definitions, follows with a presentation of my two hypotheses dealing with the question whether or not the EU's democratic deficit is a problem. In the third part, my two hypotheses are tested on the project of the Single European Sky, which aims to...

This thesis is embedded in the theoretical approach of multilevel governance and presumption of the rational behaviour of actors. Using the method of process tracing it aims to uncover the legislative process in the European Union. It is a single case study and as a case was chosen the negotiation of the regulation of the citizens' initiative. Various actors were involved in the negotiations, this thesis focuses on the main one - European Commission, European Parliament, the Council, interest organisations and national parliaments. The thesis presumed, that all actors will try to push through their interests based on their rational choice. This presumption was verified, although the success rate of the players varied a lot. As the most successful should be considered the European Parliament, who defended the interests of the individuals and the Council, which apparently represented the interests of the governments of the member states (especially in the issues of lowering the bureaucratic burden). The interest organisations showed their positions clearly, however the Commission did not take their positions much into account while preparing the draft regulation. The position of the national parliaments was different then presumed. Although the thesis expected them to be directly involved in the...

The thesis focuses on election campaigns for the 2014 European Parliament elections by French political parties. The thesis deals with a rising popularity of the National Front party in France - nowadays an often discussed topic. The party is becoming increasingly popular and is attracting more and more voters. The biggest proof of the increasing popularity of FN is the party's victory in the 2014 European Parliament elections. There exist many explanations for this victory such as an unfavourable economic situation in France, the unpopularity of the socialist government lead by French president François Hollande, or anti-immigrant sentiments spreading throughout the whole of Europe. The thesis seeks to find another possible view on the phenomenon by comparing the FN election campaign with those of its main opponents, UMP and PS, and searching for certain differences. This comparison is based on usage of political marketing tools in the campaigns: election posters, advertising spots and profiles on the social network Facebook. The aim of the thesis is therefore to analyse how the French political parties used these tools in their campaigns, and also trying to find certain particularities in how they conducted the election campaigns. It is posited that if FN uses the tools in a different way and...

[pt] A União Europeia se apresenta como a mais bem sucedida experiência supranacional. Diante do seu inevitável, e necessário, projeto de integração regional, a presente pesquisa tem como objetivo verificar a existência de um déficit democrático em sua instituição parlamentar. Para tanto, serão abordadas as teorias democráticas liberais que dão forma teórica à democracia representativa ocidental, para que se possa fundamentar as instituições que compõem o bloco. Após, serão analisadas as posições quanto à existência do déficit democrático na União, a perspectiva de um constitucionalismo para além do Estado-Nação, a impossibilidade de aprofundamento federalista, e às críticas à abordagem liberal europeísta, para que assim se analise a atuação do Parlamento Europeu como órgão democraticamente legítimo de representatividade supranacional. / [en] The European Union presents itself as the most successful supranational experiment. In view of its inevitable and necessary regional integration project, the present research aims to verify the existence of a democratic deficit in its parliamentary institution. To this end, liberal democratic theories that give theoretical form to western representative democracy will be addressed, so that the institutions that make up the bloc can be founded. Afterwards, the positions regarding the existence of the democratic deficit in the Union, the perspective of a constitutionalism beyond the Nation-State, the impossibility of federalist deepening, and the criticisms of the liberal Europeanist approach will be analyzed, so that the performance of Parliament can be analyzed. European Union as a democratically legitimate supranational representative body.

The European Commission has put forward a legislative proposal titled Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse, also known as chat control. The legislative proposal has sparked a polarized debate. By using an argumentation analysis, this study aims to find out which rights are invoked and which arguments for and against the proposal are raised in the discussion on chat control. The study also aims to explore how chat control may impact freedom of expression and deliberative democracy. Advocates of the proposal argue that chat control will protect children from online sexual abuse and strengthen children's digital rights, while critics warn of privacy intrusions, threats to freedom of expression and digital mass surveillance.  The essay uses Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann's theory on spiral of silence which explains that people tend to avoid expressing their opinions if their opinions are in the minority due to fear of social isolation. Digital mass surveillance can therefore lead to self-censorship online. The result is that the digital mass surveillance that chat control proposes affects the right to freedom of expression because certain opinions will be silenced. Iris Marion Young's deliberative democracy model explains that in democracies it’s important that everyone affected by arguments must be able to make their voice heard in order for a democratic decision to be considered legitimate. If people refrain from exercising their right to freedom of expression due to digital surveillance, then deliberative democracy is negatively impacted because decisions can no longer be deemed democratically legitimate. / Europeiska kommissionen har kommit med ett lagförslag vid namn Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse, i folkmun kallat chat control. Den föreslagna lagen har resulterat i en polariserad debatt. Genom att använda en argumentationsanalys syftar denna studie till att ta reda på vilka rättigheter som åberopas och vilka argument för och emot lagförslaget som tas upp i diskussionen om chat control. Studien syftar också till att utforska hur chat control kan påverka yttrandefrihet och deliberativ demokrati. Förespråkare för lagförslaget menar att chat control kommer skydda barn från sexuella övergrepp online och stärka barns rättigheter digitalt medan kritiker till lagförslaget varnar för intrång i integritet, hot mot yttrandefrihet och digital massövervakning.  I uppsatsen tillämpas Elisabeth Noelle-Neumanns teori om tystnadsspiralen som förklarar att människor tenderar att undvika att uttrycka sina åsikter om åsikterna är i minoritet på grund av rädsla för social isolering. Digital massövervakning kan därför leda till självcensur online. Det resulterar i att den digitala massövervakningen som lagförslaget föreslår påverkar rätten till yttrandefrihet eftersom vissa åsikter kommer tystas. Iris Marion Youngs deliberativa demokratimodell förklarar att det i demokratier är viktigt att alla som berörs av att argument måste kunna göra sin röst hörd för att ett demokratiskt beslut ska anses som legitimt. Om folk inte vågar nyttja sin rätt till yttrandefrihet på grund av digital övervakning, då påverkas den deliberativa demokratin negativt eftersom beslut inte längre kan anses som demokratiskt legitima.

In March 2018 the European Commission published the Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth. One of the main objectives with the actions presented in the action plan is to reorient capital flows towards sustainable investments, i.e. to influence more investors to invest sustainably. The action plan was followed by three proposals for transparency regulation regarding an EU taxonomy on sustainability, sustainability benchmarks and sustainability disclosures. Furthermore, the action plan included actions regarding two other transparency measures – sustainability labels and sustainability ratings. The first purpose of the thesis is to investigate if transparency regulation in the EU can be used as a tool to influence investors to choose sustainable investment funds. One of the main aims of the actions presented in the Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth, as well as the accompanying regulation proposals, is to reorient capital flows towards sustainable investments, i.e. to influence more investors to invest sustainably. In light of this, the Commission’s three proposed transparency regulations, as well as the concept of sustainability labels and ratings, are used as a basis for the investigation. The second purpose of the thesis is therefore to critically review the three regulation proposals and the concept of sustainability labels and ratings in order to gain an understanding of how different transparency measures can influence investors to choose sustainable investment funds. The transparency regulations and measures are analysed and critically reviewed in light of their objective to influence more investors to invest sustainably. A behavioural economics perspective, as well as consumer behaviour theories and decision-making models, are applied in order to analyse the transparency regulations and measures from an external perspective. Based on the analysis there are many indicators that transparency regulation can be used as a tool to influence investors to choose sustainable investment funds. However, to what extent transparency regulation can influence investor behaviour varies depending on which transparency measures are used and how they are designed. Sustainability benchmarks seem to have the least potential to influence investor behaviour, while the EU taxonomy on sustainability and sustainability labels seem to have the best potential to influence investor behaviour.