The title of this study is "The role of lobbyist in public policy versus the media image of his activities". The thesis focuses on the supposed conflict between the theory of public policy, that confirms the legitimacy of the lobbyist as a person, who can persuade or influence the decision-makers in favour of an interest group and the reports which Czech society recieves through media about the lobbying, that are mostly negative. The qualitative content analysis was chosen for the research and the source of the news is the magor respectable daily in Czech republic Mladá fronta Dnes. The results of the content analysis are compared with the theory and commented by a policymaker, a political scientist and by a journalist.

Corruption is perceived as one of the most serious threats to the society and to the economy of the country as well. For these reasons, many social scientists have tried to discover and describe the root causes of corruption. This task is complicated by the fact that corruption is a clandestine activity, which makes it very difficult to measure and to detect its true effects, as well as its underlying causes. The aim of this dissertation is to analyse and explore possible causes for the level of corruption on the European level with a special focus on the differences between post-communist European countries and the rest of countries in Europe. First, this dissertation presents theories explaining corruption on a global level as well as definitions of corruption. Theories explaining the influences between corruption on a global level and various variables, namely GDP per capita, income inequality, generalized trust, values, and the share of Protestants in the population, are discussed and a special focus is made on the possible different effect in the case of post-communist European countries. Next, in methodological part, indicators measuring corruption are assessed and the best indicator is selected - the Control of Corruption by the World Bank. The validity of the theories presented in the first...

Systemic corruption is a common term amongst scholars and practitioners, yet there is sparse conceptual agreement and substantive analysis within the discourse. Regardless of the current deficit, there is considerable pioneering space and advantages to contrast against the overwhelming emphasis on individuals. This paper aims to broaden the conceptual scope of systemic corruption research through a pattern-to-process mixed-methods design. The design combines empirical data from the public procurement sector analyzing the spatiotemporal patterns of network behavior with a descriptive account of processes from in-depth interviews. The empirical approach statistically distinguishes the performance differentials of public procurement awards amongst firms that exhibit the characteristics of political influence from those that do not. This paper operationalizes that political influence is corruption when a public official would not have made the same decision without the special consideration of political affiliation, contribution, or network connection. After stripping away explanatory factors for firm competence, the data reveals that firms with influence characteristics win substantially more and more often performing similar work. The usage of geospatial cluster analysis, in conjunction with field...

This qualitative case study focused on transparent public procurement. In the first three parts, the entire procurement process as well as the economic, legal and public policy definition were described through document analysis and secondary data analysis. The issue of the transparent behavior of the contracting authorities and the publication of relevant information was assessed more in detail. This fullfill the first secondary goal of the thesis - to describe the entire tender process and describe the transparent behavior associated with public procurement. The fourth part focuses on secondary analysis of data on the theoretical anchoring of the phenomenon. In the fifth part, the research analyzes the behavior of 12 selected public contracting authorities and tenderers using the mentioned qualitative methods. The answers of respondents are compared using tables and diagrams as well as the theoretical background. This was the second part of the thesis - to bring together the opinions and experience of the contracting authorities and tenderers and to compare them with the theoretical background. The benefit of the work is the development of a possible proposal how to improve the current situation in the area of contract transparency, thus fulfillment of the third secondary partial goal of the...

The thesis examines the results of the international commission against impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), founded in 2006 by an agreement between the government of Guatemala and the UN. It represents a unique tool of UN, connecting in its mandate national and international elements, whose singular goal is a fight against contemporary national crimes, in contrast to a more classical model of UN, which focuses predominantly on international or past crimes. The thesis tries to answer whether the level of corruption and presence of organized crime in the state institutions was lowered during the mandate of CICIG, whether the level of impunity was lowered at the national courts and how big of a role could be attributed to CICIG. The analysis is diveded into two parts. In the first one, based on a few key indicators, the institutional situation in crime prosecution in Guatemala is evaluated before and after the mandate of CICIG. In the second one, with the use of a process-tracing method, the role of CICIG in 3 key cases is analysed, especially concerning the power of its influence in Guatemala. A short discussion about the good and bad characteristics of the CICIG model concludes the thesis.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse factors that contributes to public procurement overpricing in the Czech Republic. The paper combines use of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Existence of competition effect is proved, thus increase of competitors in selection procedure causes that final price decreases. Non-transparent suppliers in terms of traceability of beneficial owner is detected as next factor that contributes to overpricing. Also some types of contracts are showed as more problematic than others. Results of qualitative part of the research reveal other causes of overpricing, such as corruption, weak institutional environment or behaviour of public authorities. Public policy recommendations are presented at the end of the paper in order to improve current state of affairs.

Anonymous Companies and Public Procurement: Evidence from the Czech Republic Abstract This thesis follows up on previous research concerning inefficiencies linked to tenders awarded to anonymous companies. After anonymous shares were abolished in 2014, the question is whether similar inefficiencies can be detected in the case of companies that ceased to be anonymous. A balanced sample of formerly anonymous companies and their comparable peers was constructed via a matching algorithm. A Welch unequal variance t-test was then used to check whether a disproportionate drop in selected performance indicators and in the share of formerly anonymous companies on total volume of public procurement can be detected. A linear regression model was further applied to inquire about the effect of anonymity and former anonymity on tender-specific savings. The results show that anonymity significantly contributes to lower tender savings, but no similar negative effect can be found in case of formerly anonymous companies. Profitability of the formerly anonymous companies also decreased, but no long- term drop in tender volume was found, indicating that a large portion of the inefficiencies can be traced back to well-established businesses rather than special purpose shells. This thesis thus extends the present research in the...

Temporary postponement of criminal prosecution Abstract The diploma thesis deals with the procedural institute of temporary postponement of criminal prosecution, while providing a complete analysis of situations in which individual forms of this institute can be used. Furthermore, the diploma thesis offers a basic digression into the issue of corruption and organized crime, with a special focus on legal instruments which are able to make the fight against these adverse criminal phenomena more efficient. The diploma thesis analyses in detail the process of application of temporary postponement of criminal prosecution, highlights the pros and cons of this procedure, while the work does not omit the process of enshrining this institute in Czech law or its legal predecessor. The thesis tries to answer the question of whether the temporary postponement of criminal prosecution is the most helpful and effective tool, and therefore, last but not least, it also deals with other options that can be considered as suitable alternatives to this institute. Key words opportunity, corruption, organized crime, procedural instruments

This diploma thesis deals with the evaluation of the quality of institutions illustrated with example the risk of corruption in public procurement, and the impact of the quality of institutions on the regional competitiveness. Specifically, it focuses on the relationship between corruption risk in public procurement and indicators of the quality of government, economic performance and innovation performance. The theoretical part deals with the role of institutions in regional development, and institutional factors influencing the competitiveness and innovation performance of regions, as well as corruption and its manifestations in public procurement. The empirical part presents the European interregional differences in the level of corruption in public procurement, and the impact of corruption in public procurement on the quality of government, economic performance and innovation performance. Research shows the corruption in public procurement determines the quality of government across European regions, especially in Western and Central Europe. On the other hand, corruption in public procurement has little effect on the economic and innovation performance of regions. Key worlds: institution, innovation, competitiveness, corruption, public procurement

The aim of this diploma thesis is to demonstrate influence of informal institutions on economic growth. Informal institutions are described by amount of tax evasion and amount of corruption because these factors reflect culture, moral values of society and settings of formal institutional environment. Relation is empirically verified by correlation analysis and panel data analysis. This analysis is executed on a sample of 23 countries of OECD and it is linked with a period from 1999 until 2010. Basic model of panel data analysis is built on the neoclassical growth theory. Then institutional variables are included and sorted into this model. Results of empirical analysis are discussed in conclusion.