Justifications and critique in the European Union: a study of legitimacy in practice Mgr. Ing. Olga Gheorghiev ABSTRACT Inspired by the pragmatic sociology of critique developed by Luc Boltanski and his collaborators, this thesis examines how legitimacy is produced in public debates at the EU level through the craft of justification and critique among competent actors. In doing so, this research takes aim at three specific episodes in the history of the European integration that share in common the qualities of uncertainty of outcome, controversy in public debate and the urgency to reach a form of consensus and thus to resolve the created uncertainty. The examined events are the following: the Eastern enlargement of the European Union, the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, and the adoption of specific measures in reaction to the European sovereign debt crisis. The theoretical part of this thesis situates the potential of the sociology of critical capacities for the study of the EU among other theoretical traditions, pointing out directions in which this particular theoretical framework could cover some of the limitations of other approaches. This is followed by the empirical part, which is divided in three chapters for each of the examined historical episodes. While structured somewhat symmetrically, each...

The diploma thesis aims to analyze the political role of multinational business corporations in present globalized world. In this sense, the thesis focuses on the nature of the political role in terms of political theory and corporate social responsibility (CSR) theory and on explanation of possible reasons why corporations accept certain functions in fulfilling the so-called policy gaps or providing public goods. Another question that the work raises is where the legitimacy of corporations operating in the sphere of public policy stems. In the practical part, the thesis focuses on the activities of several multinational business corporations in the field of environment and the subsequent transformation of environmental policy at the global level.

The diploma thesis aims to analyze the political role of multinational business corporations in present globalized world. In this sense, the thesis focuses on the nature of the political role in terms of political theory and corporate social responsibility (CSR) theory and on explanation of possible reasons why corporations accept certain functions in fulfilling the so-called policy gaps or providing public goods. Another question that the work raises is where the legitimacy of corporations operating in the sphere of public policy stems. In the practical part, the thesis focuses on the activities of several multinational business corporations in the field of environment and the subsequent transformation of environmental policy at the global level.

The purpose of the study is to analyse and to compare the reign of two rulers of Francia Orientalis - Henry II and Henry III. The reason for the author's research is that the conception of the legitimization of kingship is nowadays a highly discussed issue and it is one of the most significant tasks the medieval research is facing. Methods used in this study are analysis and comparison. The study is composed of six chapters, each of them dealing with different aspect of the legitimization of kingship. Chapter One is introductory and defines basic terminology used in the study. Chapter Two examines relevant specialized discursus. Chapter Three deals with the sources of medieval thinking and consists of three parts. Part One explains the terms of sacrality and legitimacy. Part Two focuses on the roots of sacral kingship. Part Three investigates the history of legitimization of kingship in the Frankish Empire. Chapter Four is subdivided into four parts and it mainly provides an outline of Henry's II reign and examines relevant historical sources. Part One discusses the policy of Henry's predecessor Otto III. Part Two is an analysis of relevant historical sources. Part Three examines Henry's policy. Intermediate conclusions are drawn in Part Four. Chapter Five endeavours to explain and analyse the...

The idea of sovereignty of the people offers a concept which allows searching for legitimacy of power. The legitimacy of power is one of the key structures establishing a relation between those who govern and those who are governed. Whether this relation is accepted, acceptable, functional, desirable or undesirable is a matter of finding the very definition of sovereignty of the people as such. The aim of this doctoral thesis, titled The Concept of Sovereignty of the People and the Political Party System in the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918 - 1938) and in the Czech Republic since 1993, is, firstly, to define the concepts of the people, on one hand, and sovereignty, on the other hand, in the historical, political and legal context from the ancient times up to now while reflecting the role of political parties in relation to the sovereignty of the people. Secondly, this thesis aims at exploring and describing the functioning of the party systems in the interwar Czechoslovakia and in the Czech Republic after 1993. Thirdly, this thesis seeks to answer the following questions: who represents the people in liberal democracies which are based on sovereignty of the people; how do the people exercise their power; and what is the role of the political parties in this process.

The diploma thesis is focused on social contract theories, as presented by the philosophers Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. My research is based on Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, Second Treatise of Government by John Locke and Discourses and The Social Contract by Jean-Jacque Rousseau. In their respective theories, these authors present their opinions on how any state comes to life through entering into a social contract and how it should operate. The aim of my thesis is to look into their theories and using method of comparison to determine how they correspond with each other on the fundamental aspects of their ideas. These include the natural state, the act of entering into a social contract, the sovereign, sovereignty and the order of state establishment. The research suggests that although the authors agree on some points, in some cases they differ significantly. It also shows the significant influence of the environments and events experienced by the authors during their lives, on the formation of their thoughts and theories. At the very end of the thesis there is a reflection on the legitimacy of the Constitution of the Czech Republic and the contribution of the theories of appointed authors to today's society.

The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945. It is obvious that the status quo from that year cannot reflect the needs of present world. Because of this fact it is necessary to approach a reform. But the question is what the reform should deal with. There are plenty of reforming efforts in discussion. These proposals do not take into consideration only the reform of the Security Council but also other bodies within United Nations. In my thesis I will focus only on reforming the Security Council as a main body of the whole organization that should be able to react on security threats flexibly. The feasibility of UN reform depends on the agreement of the permanent members that can due to their veto right block any of the proposals. And for the time being, they use their privilege to do so because they are afraid of limitations of their rights and position. We cannot come up only with a clear proposal how to reform but also it is necessary to focus on the proper arguments why the permanent members should agree with the reform. The main target of the following master thesis is to find out whether the reform is feasible based on accessible information with respect to hindrances and positions of permanent members that are currently more passive than active.

This diploma thesis analyzes the approach of the Soviet Union and that of the US-led coalition to state-building in Afghanistan, which today, as in the past, takes place against the backdrop of counterinsurgency warfare. The analysis in the field of politics, economy and security shows that in both cases the intervening powers have focused on building a strongly centralized system of government, in spite of the fact that the Afghan countryside's relationship to the Kabul-based government had traditionally been characterized by broad autonomy. The intervening powers' efforts have futhermore been associated with the export of exogenous political structures and for this reason attention is also drawn to the question to what extent the intervening powers' approach to the modernization of Afghan society has contributed to the escalation of unrelenting conflict.

This dissertation thesis centres on the stability and instability of the Vietnamese communist regime, and how to understand this topic today. This problem was explored with the help of an imported political tool, which Vietnam adopted from the USSR, through China, in the late 1940s, and which experienced a revival in modern economically liberalised Vietnam: emulation movements. This thesis assumed that historic and current emulation movements were designed to control, but also to bring legitimacy or a 'legitimacy effect' (and the related stability), through their different functions. It asked how they succeeded in this task comparatively, in their historic and current incarnations. The framework of functions of emulation movements in Vietnam combined with the theoretical concepts of David Beetham, Max Weber and Robert Lamb served as basic theoretical tenets. The thesis concluded that emulation indeed helped create foundational regime legitimacy and offered possible links to a new communist doctrine. The thesis showed that a predominance of successful legitimization, combined with legitimacy effect and Ho Chi Minh's charisma, helped stabilize the DRV regime, especially until 1954. The analysis of present-day emulation movements, however, showed the weakness of the VCP as it struggles to fulfil the...

This master's thesis deals with the identification and the analysis of the changes in society which lead to questioning the basic principles of human rights from the point of view of Czech non-profit organisations. In this study, it is important to divide the definition of human rights into their legal aspect, i.e. as rights of people, and their institutional aspect, i.e. as the moral imperative of equality and liberty. The latter is the main objective of this study, and is in this thesis labelled as the human rights. While the legal aspect of human rights is hard to change and to challenge, the institution of human rights is confronted by both the politics and the public. Because of their unique position between the political and the public spheres, non-profit organisations who advocate the human rights were chosen as the research sample. The dimensions of the researched phenomenon are divided into decreasing political influence of countries promoting the human rights, and increasing distrust in the legitimacy of the human rights. Findings from the research uncover the unequal intensity of the potential reasons of the changing attitudes towards the institution of human rights, and we can identify the political sphere as the creator of the boundaries in which the public reacts. As a result, this...