Symmetrical Concept of the State Abstract: The doctoral thesis uses the perspective of Public Choice (political economy) on a descriptive level and the perspective of philosophical anarchism on a normative level to critically assess the concept of modern state (and its crises and legitimacy), as it is used in Staatswissenschaften and political philosophy. Common theme of both paradigms is insistence on symmetry of assumptions when analyzing the state; particularities of the state, as compared to other social institutions, do not play the role of explanans, but that of explanandum. Traditional concepts of political philosophy (sovereignty, will of the people, legitimacy) are consistently put in the context of the general social phenomena, from which they are (or should be) derived. The symmetrical approach asserts itself primarily against the fictional nature of some political concepts; in this thesis, fictional concepts are approached as assumptions of a "political model" and their unrealistic nature is not seen problematic so far as they stay within the model. However, at the same time, the question about the external (normative and practical) relevance (validity) of such a model arises. First part of the thesis argues for applicability - and in fact, indispensability - of the economic toolkit...

Based on the examination of the relevant literature and findings from academic survey research, this Master's thesis focuses on the reflection of the political development in public opinion research in China and on the contour of local collective opinion. Its theoretical part stems from James Bryce's theory of the development of public opinion and from the writings of Irving Crespi who noted that the extent and role of public opinion research in different political regimes rely on the acceptance of public opinion in the political process and on the basis of governmental legitimacy. The increasing pluralization of public opinion, which is the result of the processes tied to Chinese economic liberalization and which has been reflected in the official ideology and in the growing emphasis on public opinion polling claimed by the government, is still outweighed by the inclination of the Chinese Confucian society towards authoritarian leadership. The liberalization process is further reflected in the extent of public opinion research; however, recent studies show that the results from public opinion polls are not reported objectively and survey responses of Chinese respondents are strongly influenced by the political regime. KEYWORDS China, public opinion, polls, legitimacy, James Bryce, Irving Crespi

This thesis deals with the Venezuela Foreign Policy Changes between the years 1999 -- 2012. The work provides the analyses of the political system of today's Venezuela and the Venezuelan foreign policy under the Hugo Chávez rule. As the thesis aims at studying the relationship between the domestic and foreign policy both aspects needed to be considered. Author tests the hypothesis that the foreign rhetoric and policy of Venezuela between the years 1999 -- 2012 were primarily focused on legitimizing Hugo Chavez's domestic position. Hugo Chavez's speeches in front of the National Assembly in the years 2000-2012 were analyzed using the text analysis tools. Quantification of the speeches key words was one of the instruments to test the above stated main hypothesis of the thesis. Chavez's foreign rhetoric and policy helped to fortify its power position especially with army and masses sensitive to populist approach even though the consequences for the Venezuelan economy were rather bad or unsustainable. Furthermore we can state that the foreign rhetoric and policy of the years 1999-2012 developed and radicalized in relation to the domestic economic and political situation.

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4 Implementation of the state of emergency in the Czech Republic during the coronavirus pandemic Abstrakt The thesis entitled "The application of the state of emergency in the Czech Republic in the context of the coronavirus pandemic" responds to the current events surrounding the Covid- 19 pandemic. The thesis provides insight into the background of the pandemic in the Czech Republic. The thesis examines the application of the state of emergency as a tool to tackle the pandemic situation and how the legitimacy of this state of emergency and the restrictive measures taken along with it are assessed by society. The thesis focuses on the factors that have fundamentally influenced the people's perception of the restrictive measures taken by the government. Indeed, trust in the anti-pandemic measures themselves are an important part of their effectiveness. Key Words: state of emergency, pandemic, Covid-19, coronavirus, legitimacy, legality, government, Czech Republic

1 Independent administrative agencies Abstract Independent administrative authorities have emerged as an alternative to the classical administration, which was interwoven with shortcomings resulting from its organization. The answer to some of these failings was to be the independence of agency, which promised to eliminate the risk of political or economic influence, promote greater transparency and efficiency through expert-based leadership. However, independent agencies, while proving to be functional, were set up chaotically and unconceptually across diverse states, leading to them being perceived as marginal anomalies rather than as having a key role in a state's administration. And yet they have been entrusted with the management of so many important areas of everyday life, such as personal data protection, audio-visual broadcasting, energy, competition, etc. Moreover, their unconceptual creation made it impossible for a long time for these agencies to be easily defined and described by their main characteristics, as each agency differed from the other. In addition, there was another problem - their cardinal feature, i.e. independence, became an area of legal friction, because in the classical European civil law we cannot allow an agency that would not be subject to the supreme body of executive power....

- Direct presidential election in the Czech Republic: reasons, conditions, consequences This diploma thesis is concerned with different aspects of implementation of the direct presidential election in the Czech Republic. It is aimed to discover the actual reasons for passing the Constitutional Act No. 71/2012 Coll., which introduces this institute into the Czech constitutional system. For the purpose of doing so, the thesis is divided into three parts. The first one presents and evaluates particular arguments (historical, political, constitutional, legal etc.), which were used by the proponents of this institute on one hand and by its opponents on the other. The content of the second part is the most extensive as it follows up the comparison of bills attempting to implement the direct presidential election into the Constitutional Act since 2001 up to the present. Therefore this part contains thirteen bills in total, including the one, which later becomes the Act No. 71/2012 Coll. Individual bills are compared and contrasted. The pertinent political and social circumstances accompanying their origin are also briefly mentioned. As the result of this comparison the author comes to the conclusion that the true motive to pass the Constitutional Act No. 71/2012 Coll does not lie in its content or its...

This diploma thesis deals with the relationship between the perceived legitimacy of the courts, the obligation to obey the law and courts and the willingness to cooperate with the criminal justice system in Central Europe. Using structural equation modeling method, I analyzed the fifth wave of the European Social Survey and created and compared models for Czechia, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. Legitimacy, according to Tankebe, is conceptualized as a confidence in procedural justice, distributive justice, effectiveness and legality. The obligation to obey the law is then a potential effect of perceived legitimacy. The first research question asks about the universal applicability of the procedural justice theory across criminal system institutions and across different countries. As in the previous research on police, procedural justice plays a pivotal role for the willingness to cooperate with the police and the courts. In Czechia and Hungary, procedural justice is out of all fo the dimensiions of legitimacy the strongest predictor of the willingness to cooperate. In Poland, procedural justice does not affect cooperation, however, it leads to obligation to obey the law and courts. In Slovakia, instrumental factors play a more important role than procedural justice, which can be explained either by...

The direct election of the president is political, politological and also constitutional-legal topic which has already accompanied for many years. It appears always in connection with the presidential elections, but also as a part of the parliamentary election campaign. February 2012 interrupted the regularity and direct presidential election was approved. What this step will have impact on functioning of the Czech political system, will turn up in 2013 when the authority will take the first Czech president elected in direct elections. But the majority of constitutional lawyers and political scientists agree that the introduction of direct elections in the Czech Republic is not solving the existing problems, and therefore they express fears how the chase will affect the functioning of the system as a whole. Keywords: direct presidential elections, powers, legitimacy, political system, presidential campaign

The thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of the horizontal policies in public procurement with the aim to determine whether public procurement may be used as a legitimate tool in the pursuit of such policies. Horizontal or secondary policies refer to the policies not inherently connected to the functional objective of public procurement - i.e. to the purchase of goods and services. These may among other strike at social or environmental issues. For this purpose, the descriptive and analytic methodics are used. The case-law of CJEU was the primary source of the thesis along with the relevant literature and both EU and Czech legislation. The thesis is structured into two chapters. The first chapter provides essential introduction to the legislation in place in respect of the horizontal policies in public procurement. The second part of the chapter then analyses relevant case-law of CJEU. Particular attention is paid to the case law in respect of public procurement used as a tool to pursue employment policies. The second chapter named taxonomy of horizontal policies elaborates on the relationship between economic and legal aspect of the public procurement in general. It quickly comes to the conclusion, that the contracting authorities must deal with both the legal and economic aspects of public...