This thesis deals with the German political party "Die Linke" (The Left). Die Linke was founded in 2007 by merging two different parties, namely Linkspartei.PDS, which was preceded by the ruling party of the GDR, and WASG, composed of West German activists and former party members of the Social Democratic Party. The opening parts contain definitions of basic terminology and a brief history of parties preceding Die Linke. The following sections deal with how the dual history of the party reflects in its organisation, its program and electorate. The party programs are also used to analyze its key program points and their evolution over time. The party's ideology is also examined. This thesis also deals with the current position of Die Linke within the German party system, in terms of both the voters and election results, and relations with other relevant parties.

This graduation analyses contemporary czech antisemitism in the context of right and left political extremism. It contains definition, typology and history of antisemitism in the area of czech republic as well as description of new forms of antisemitism emerging in the recent years. Main topic of this graduation focuses on the czech extremist subculture including neonacist movements or anti-globalisation activists. Variours examples of antisemitic acts and behavior are presented in the context of the level of risks for the security of Czech republic.

The topic of the diploma thesis is a comparison of the old and new left in the Czech Republic. The diploma thesis focuses on a comparison of the selected relevant left-wing political groups operating in the Czech Republic. The thesis examines differences and similarities between the KSČM, the socialist wing of ČSSD on one side and the Green Party and the left-liberal tendencies and offshoots of the ČSSD (such Idealists) on the other hand. The work is divided into three main parts. The first part of the thesis is theoretical. The theoretical part defines main terms such as a political party, political movement, left-right axis of the political spectrum, the old left, the new left etc. The explanation of the terms is very important for understanding the thesis. In the second part of this thesis, I analyze single significant and relevant political parties. I focus on the origin and development of political parties and their electoral program, their attitude to selected issues, electorate, potential cooperation between themselves and so on. The third part is comparative. The goal of this thesis is to find out whether the analyzed political parties fulfill leftist characteristic. Next goal of this thesis is to find out whether the classification on left-right axis of the political spectrum is still...

This thesis has dealt with the thought of the German legal and political theorist Carl Schmitt and with the reception of his work by the intellectual Left. The main goals of the thesis were to find out which aspects of Schmitt's work are the most popular among left-wing authors and to search for the causes of this inspiration. Thus, it was necessary to reconstruct the historical context in which such a conservative thinker becomes a frequently quoted author within various branches of leftist thought. In Carl Schmitt's case, because of his shift towards Nazism in the 1930s, there is also a methodological problem of the possible separation of his work from his career and personality, the separation of a particular theoretical approach from the motives which led to this approach. Therefore, the attempt to use Schmitt's thought for progressive left-wing goals is not easily compatible with strictly contextual reading of his work. Schmitt's work itself is described and analyzed especially in the first half of this thesis. The first chapter describes, in the historical context, some basic concepts which Schmitt deals with. The chapter is structured according to main targets of his critique: legal positivism; liberal democracy; quantitative total state, which is able to intervene in every part of society,...

The diploma thesis is focused on the changes in the political system of Bolivia .after Evo Morales` accession to the power. The aim of this thesis is to investigte the changes of the Bolivian political system and the changes of its character under Morales` rule. The main attention is focused on the changes of the institutional base of the political system, the forms of governance and the character of the Bolivian political representation. The issue is discussed in the frame of the current Latin American left governments.

This paper is dealing with a textual content analysis of extreme right and extreme left youth organizations. A methodological framework for the analysis is described in chapter one. A special attention is devoting to the content analysis method. Ideological and theoretical placement of extreme right and extreme left are discussed in chapter two. This chapter is also dealing with the particular associations (KSM, SMKČ, DM). The content analysis ant its results are presented in chapter three.

The thesis deals with the transformation of the Brazilian Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT). Its aim is to identify reasons for more than a decade interval between the renewal of direct presidential election under the universal suffrage and the victory of the left in a society that is marked by extreme inequality of wealth distribution. The second issue which is covered is how the party managed to consolidate power and keep it for three consecutive terms. Using modified concepts of mass, catch-all and cartel party the author tests the hypothesis that the electoral victory of the left was conditioned by the domination of the leftist side of political spectrum by the PT, as a result of building a mass (program-oriented) party, which subsequently tailored its campaign to focus on centrist voters (shift to the catch-all format, or votes-oriented party). The maintenance of power is based on crafting oversized coalitions with parties across the political spectrum, i.e. including the right-wing parties. However, these coalitions are created only to support government; the Workers' Party never forms electoral coalitions with prominent rightest parties. Furthermore, the thesis discusses the functioning of the so-called coalitional presidentialism, the typologies of current leftist governments in Latin America and also presents the basic elements of the Brazilian political system.

This thesis The Failure of the New Left in the US: The Case of SDS analyzes the causes and reasons of the failure of the New Left in the United States. The left-leaning students who were discontent with the social order and reality of the country gathered under the idea of participatory democracy in a group called Students for a Democratic Society. Their aim was to change and improve the system through universities being agents of social change, thus making a clear difference with the Old Left. The worker no longer stood in the center of social progress, but the student did. SDS promptly plunged into several burning issues of the era, such as civil rights movement and inferior position of the blacks and poor in the society. The Vietnam War and antiwar protest movement have also been great issues in which SDSers directed their energy. As the Vietnam War escalated in terms of American soldiers being sent overseas, the intensity of student protests grew as well. Inevitably SDS resorted to usage of violent means of expressing dissent and clashed with the forces of the establishment. The thesis seeks to answer what reasons, events and realities led them to finally adopting revolutionary Marxism as their flag ideology. Soon after that SDS broke up and its once great influence waned away.

The main aim of this work is to compare the discourses and analyze the relations of the American and Czechoslovak intellectual Left between 1956 and 1968. It begins by Khrushchev's revelation of Stalinist crimes and by the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 which created an atmosphere of disillusionment on the Left. The global Left of this period to a substantial extent ceased to be ideologically inspired by the Soviet Union and began to rethink the foundations of its thought. So, the 1960s are the period of the flourishing leftist thought. Authors are inspired by Marxist humanism and the New Left emerges, especially in the West. There were issues which existed beyond the ideological struggle of two Cold War blocs, but the different character of the regimes in the East and the West resulted in different approaches to these issues. At the same time, the mobility of ideas and their authors or supporters increased even across the Iron Curtain. Therefore, we could see some interesting encounters and clashes of different, even though still leftist, discourses. This work tries to depict the intellectual environment of the period by dealing with issues like philosophy of Man in the context of technological changes, the tactics of the struggle against the system or bureaucracy, the relation of...

Barbora Skálová Whose side are you on? Radical Left in postwar Finland - on the phenomenon of Marxism-Leninism outside the Eastern Bloc Abstract The dissertation aims to explore the phenomenon of a radical left movement - Taistoists - which at the turn of the 60s and 70s for a short period of time dominated the student and cultural circles in Finland. The dissertation strives to shed light on the reasons for the uprise of the - in European context unique - pro-Soviet, Marxist-Leninist and "anti-anti- establishment" youth movement, and on its influence on home and foreign policy of Finland in terms of so-called Finlandization. The work also puts the movement into the Czechoslovakian context, mainly in relation to the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion. The dissertation discusses the theoretical anticapitalistic background of the movement and compares it to the theoretical background and political practice of coeval New Left movements in Europe and the USA. The experience of the members of the movement has been elaborated in the oral history part based on personal interviews. The oral history chapter aims to offer an explanation and a broader perspective of the taistolaiset phenomenon presented by direct witnesses and participants of the movement.