O Legislativo é vital para o autogoverno coletivo e para a contenção do poder. Impõe-se revigorá-lo. Esta dissertação traz propostas para incrementar a legitimidade do Poder Legislativo que independem da reforma política. A primeira proposta consiste na correção de algumas práticas comprometedoras da atuação do Legislativo, quais sejam, a falta de apreciação do veto, a atual forma de elaboração e execução da lei orçamentária, o poder excessivo dos líderes e a tutela jurisdicional limitada do devido processo legislativo. A segunda proposta reside no fortalecimento das comissões temáticas, arenas mais adequadas do que o Plenário para desenvolver o potencial deliberativo do Parlamento. Esses órgãos fracionários podem empregar a avaliação de impacto, recurso que se destina a aprimorar a legislação. A terceira proposta corresponde à regulamentação do lobby. A institucionalização dessa atividade revela-se essencial para imprimir-lhe transparência, de modo a possibilitar o controle, e para minimizar o desequilíbrio no acesso aos tomadores de decisão. / The Legislative Branch is vital to collective self-government and to restrain power. It is necessary to reinvigorate it. This dissertation brings proposals to increase the legitimacy of the Legislative Branch that are independent from the political reform. The first proposal consists in correcting some practices that compromise the performance of the Legislative, which are, the lack of appreciation of veto, the current form of budget preparation and execution, the excessive power of the leaders and the limited jurisdictional review of the due process of law. The second proposal aims at the strengthening of the committees, which are arenas more adequate than the Plenary to develop the deliberative potential of the Parliament. These fractional organs can use the impact assessment, which is a tool intended to improve legislation. The third proposal corresponds to the regulation of lobbying. The institutionalization of this activity is essential to imprint transparency to the process so as to allow control and to minimize the imbalance in access to decision makers.

This thesis empirically examines how lobby groups and activists respond to innovative forms of public participation. The study centres on processes that foster a particular kind of deliberative governance including citizens’ juries, consensus conferences and planning cells. These deliberative designs bring together a panel of randomly selected lay citizens to deliberate on a specific policy issue for a few days, with the aim of providing decision makers with a set of recommendations. While policy makers worldwide are attracted to these novel participatory processes, little consideration has been given to how well they work alongside more adversarial and interest-based politics. This doctoral research project examines this interface by studying what these processes mean to different kinds of policy actors such as corporations, advocacy groups, government agencies, experts and professionals. These entities are collectively referred to in this thesis as ‘interest organisations’ because in some way they are seeking a specific policy outcome from the state – even government-based groups.¶ The empirical research in this thesis is based on comparative case studies of four deliberative design projects in Australia and Germany. The Australian cases include a citizens’ jury on waste management legislation and a consensus conference on gene technology in the food chain. The German case studies include a planning cells project on consumer protection in Bavaria, and a national consensus conference on genetic diagnostics. Together the cases capture a diversity of complex and contested policy issues facing post-industrialised societies. In each case study, I examine how relevant interest organisations responded to the deliberative forum, and then interpret these responses in view of the context and features of the case.¶ The picture emerging from the in-depth case studies is that interest organisations respond to deliberative designs in a variety of ways. Some choose to participate actively, others passively decline, and a few resort to strategic tactics to undermine citizens’ deliberations. The empirical research reveals that though responses are variable, most interest organisations are challenged by several features of the deliberative design model including: 1) that deliberators are citizens with no knowledge or association with the issue; 2) that experts and interest representatives are required to present their arguments before a citizens’ panel; and 3) that policy discussions occur under deliberative conditions which can expose the illegitimate use of power.¶ Despite these challenges, the paradox is that many interest organisations do decide to engage in lay citizen deliberations. The empirical research indicates that groups and experts value deliberative designs if they present an opportunity for public relations, customer feedback, or advocacy. Moreover, the research finds that when policy actors intensively engage with ‘ordinary’ citizens, their technocratic and elite ideas about public participation can shift in a more inclusive and deliberative direction.¶ The thesis finds that, on the whole, weaker interest organisations are more willing to engage with lay citizens than stronger organisations because they welcome the chance to influence public debate and decision makers. It appears that powerful groups will only engage in a deliberative forum under certain policy conditions, for example, when the dominant policy paradigm is unstable and contested, when public discussion on the issue is emerging, when policy networks are interdependent and heterogeneous, and when the broader social and political system supports public accountability, consensus and deliberation. Given that these kinds of policy conditions do not always exist, I conclude that tensions between interest organisations and deliberative governance will be common. In order to create more cooperative and productive interfaces, I recommend that interest organisations be better supported and integrated into citizens’ deliberations, and that steps be taken to safeguard forums from strategic attempts to undermine their legitimacy.¶ The thesis also sends out three key messages to democratic theorists. First, the empirical research shows that different kinds of groups and actors in civil society vary in their willingness and capacity to participate to public deliberation. Second, the deliberative design model demonstrates that partisan actors, such as interest organisations, will engage in public deliberation when they can participate as strategic deliberators. In this role partisans are not expected to relinquish their agendas, but present them as testimonies before a group of deliberators. Third, the empirical research in this thesis should bring home to theorists that deliberative forums are closely linked to the discursive context within which they operate.

Submitted by Ariela Zanetta Simoni (arielazsimoni@gmail.com) on 2018-04-18T21:21:56Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_ArielaSimoni_VF2_2018.pdf: 2154592 bytes, checksum: 3ed46fe4510f5360ed0ab60012235df1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Debora Nunes Ferreira (debora.nunes@fgv.br) on 2018-04-20T17:07:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_ArielaSimoni_VF2_2018.pdf: 2154592 bytes, checksum: 3ed46fe4510f5360ed0ab60012235df1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzane Guimarães (suzane.guimaraes@fgv.br) on 2018-04-20T17:34:32Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_ArielaSimoni_VF2_2018.pdf: 2154592 bytes, checksum: 3ed46fe4510f5360ed0ab60012235df1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-20T17:34:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_ArielaSimoni_VF2_2018.pdf: 2154592 bytes, checksum: 3ed46fe4510f5360ed0ab60012235df1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-14 / No âmbito das atividades políticas corporativas (CPA) com auxílio das variáveis de recursos, rotina e capacidades da Teoria da Visão Baseada em Recursos (RBV), esta pesquisa pretendeu analisar como as atividades políticas corporativas de Lobby das empresas são realizadas em ambientes de mudanças políticas. O Lobby é uma das táticas mais utilizadas de CPA. Estudos que visam a compreensão por intermédio de fatores econômicos e de outras naturezas são de suma importância na explicação da variação dentro de um determinado sistema, porém, raramente levam em consideração o ambiente político doméstico de um país (YADAV, 2008). O contexto de imprevisibilidade gera incertezas a respeito do ambiente no qual implementa-se a tática de Lobby e diminui a capacidade de previsão de cenários. A consequência disso é a possibilidade de redução da vantagem competitiva das firmas as quais se engajam em estratégias de não mercado. Além disso, ambientes de mudanças políticas caracterizam-se por trocas de executivos no poder provenientes de eleições nacionais (YASUDA; MITSUHASHI, 2017) ou por impedimento em completar o mandato governamental. O cenário político e econômico do ano de 2016 no Brasil serviu como laboratório para o estudo, na medida em que apresenta características do ambiente de mudanças políticas necessárias à pesquisa. Por intermédio de uma pesquisa qualitativa positivista com triangulação de dados primários – obtidos por meio de entrevistas – e secundários – principalmente para entendimento do ambiente político, a pesquisa justifica-se pela importância no aprofundamento da compreensão do fenômeno. / In the scope of corporate policy activities (CPA) aided by resource variables, routine and resource-based capabilities (RBV), this research aimed to analyze how corporate lobbying activities are carried out in politically changing environments. Lobby is one of CPA's most commonly used tactics. Studies that aim at understanding through economic and other factors are indeed important in explaining variation within a given system, but rarely take into account a country's domestic political environment (YADAV, 2008). The context of unpredictability creates uncertainties about the environment in which lobby tactic is implemented and reduces the predictability of scenarios. The consequence of this is the possibility of diminishing the competitive advantage of companies that engage in non-market strategies. In addition, politically changing environments are characterized by exchanges of power executives from national elections (YASUDA; MITSUHASHI, 2017) or by impediment in completing the government mandate. The political and economic scenario of 2016 in Brazil served as a laboratory for the study, as it presents characteristics of the environment of political changes demanded for the research. Through a qualitative positivist research with triangulation of primary data - obtained through interviews - and secondary data - mainly for understanding the political environment, the research is justified by the importance of deeper understanding of the phenomenon.

O Legislativo é vital para o autogoverno coletivo e para a contenção do poder. Impõe-se revigorá-lo. Esta dissertação traz propostas para incrementar a legitimidade do Poder Legislativo que independem da reforma política. A primeira proposta consiste na correção de algumas práticas comprometedoras da atuação do Legislativo, quais sejam, a falta de apreciação do veto, a atual forma de elaboração e execução da lei orçamentária, o poder excessivo dos líderes e a tutela jurisdicional limitada do devido processo legislativo. A segunda proposta reside no fortalecimento das comissões temáticas, arenas mais adequadas do que o Plenário para desenvolver o potencial deliberativo do Parlamento. Esses órgãos fracionários podem empregar a avaliação de impacto, recurso que se destina a aprimorar a legislação. A terceira proposta corresponde à regulamentação do lobby. A institucionalização dessa atividade revela-se essencial para imprimir-lhe transparência, de modo a possibilitar o controle, e para minimizar o desequilíbrio no acesso aos tomadores de decisão. / The Legislative Branch is vital to collective self-government and to restrain power. It is necessary to reinvigorate it. This dissertation brings proposals to increase the legitimacy of the Legislative Branch that are independent from the political reform. The first proposal consists in correcting some practices that compromise the performance of the Legislative, which are, the lack of appreciation of veto, the current form of budget preparation and execution, the excessive power of the leaders and the limited jurisdictional review of the due process of law. The second proposal aims at the strengthening of the committees, which are arenas more adequate than the Plenary to develop the deliberative potential of the Parliament. These fractional organs can use the impact assessment, which is a tool intended to improve legislation. The third proposal corresponds to the regulation of lobbying. The institutionalization of this activity is essential to imprint transparency to the process so as to allow control and to minimize the imbalance in access to decision makers.

This thesis seeks to analyze the impact of a range of projects of Chamber of Commerce Brno on the entrepreneurs from the respective region. The thesis describes the structure and the overall operation of the Chamber of Commerce Brno as well as its several projects. In order to evaluate, there are three marketing researches that need to be taken into a consideration. Those marketing researches had been realised during the period of 2005 – 2007. Baring the results risen from the abovementioned marketing researchs in mind, the created situation has been assessed, and based on the personal experience the recommendations dedicated to the management have been created.

Cycling advocacy has taken a form of a popular worldwide social movement in the beginning of the 21st century. Cyclists demand not only improved conditions for cycling, but also a reform in the way the city is being run in order to be "livable" and saturated with "quality public spaces". This dissertation attempts to put the phenomenon in the context of the theory of risk society and it attempts to incorporate impulses from the theoretical tradition of ANT. The cycling controversy is being read as a re-invention of politics in urban arenas. What is political about the bicycle? More than it may seem. The bicycle has endured a long trajectory of political appropriation by various groups in order to arrive at a point where it began to be conceived as the default starting point of the critique of automobility and Western modernity. As a consequence the bicycle emerges as a loaded political symbol that is being appropriated by cycling advocates in order to problematize the alienated city colonized by cars, appropriated by business interests and neglected by the political representation. The bicycle is being reinvented as a symbol of urban revolution. This dissertation introduces the results of an empirical research undertaken between June 2013 and April 2015 that maps the shape of the cycling controversy in...

The diploma thesis processes project documentation for the construction of a hotel building with a lobby bar, which is located in the central part of the regional city of Brno. The building has four floors and is covered by flat roofs. The hotel meets the conditions of a four-star (****) economic standard. It is designed with 17 accommodation units with a capacity of total 40 persons and a lobby bar for 60 guests and social facilities. In addition to the accommodation content, the hotel will have a conference hall for training, corporate events, etc. Due to the lack of parking spaces in the city of brno, the hotel will also have underground garages primarily designed for parking cars of hotel visitors. The apartments and guest rooms are located on the 2nd., 3rd. a 4th. NP floor. On the ground floor there is a representative space of the hotel composed of the entrance hall with reception, space for hotel management, a lobby bar with social facilities and a gym, which will also be open to the public. In the basement there are underground garages and technical facilities of the hotel. On the 4th floor there is, among other things, a small wellness area with massages, saunas, a bar and an outdoor terrace. The hotel building is designed as a reinforced concrete skeleton with a reinforcing core, with 4 floors and basement. The design of the hotel will be designed in the spirit of modern materials, simple members and shapes. A vegetation roof is designed to alleviate the overheating of the building in the summer and to meet the requirements of the city for the largest possible greening of buildings and their surroundings.

The three branches of government rely on public engagement for the prosperity of the nation. Moreover, informed public opinion is a fundamental tenant of democracy. With that in mind, this paper aims to explore the relationship between the Judicial Branch and the public. Specifically, this paper examines and questions the Supreme Court’s efficacy communicating with the public. American constituents are inundated on a daily basis by the clamor of D.C. politics. The twenty four hour news cycle has given way to politicized headlines and exaggerated pundit commentary on contentious national issues. In a technological age where information is instant and the public has become accustomed to soundbites for education, the Supreme Court is left out of place. Both the Executive Branch and Legislative Branch converse directly with the public when necessary. Politicians frequently address their constituents or discuss complicated issues with voters first hand. However, the Supreme Court has rejected this strategy and instead relies almost exclusively on the press to relay their decisions. The judicial branch is the only third of our government without constant communication to the American people. As a result, the judiciary is relatively ignored by its citizens. By discussing a number of landmark cases since the turn of the century, this paper aims to analyze how those decisions were both announced to the public by the media and how the public received them. The Court has certainly adopted the press as an agent of communication. But is the media truly the proper outlet for the Court’s rulings?

No description available.

Gendered Interests and the European Union. The European Women’s Lobby and the Organisation and Representation of Women's Interests. On a general level this thesis concerns the changed and changing institutional conditions for gender equality in Europe and the organisation and institutionalisation of women’s social and political interests at the EU level. I ask in what ways political structures and authorities enable and/or obstruct women to generate, sustain and control their presence in politics as women. I explore how the EU institutions structure and provide opportunities and constraints for women to mobilise and organise to act as an authorised party vis-a-vis and within the EU political system. How does it come that women, as a collective, are not only recognised as a politically relevant group but also legitimised to act and be present as women in an organised relationship with the EU system’s main authorities? The presence comes in the form of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL), an EU level and EU wide non-governmental umbrella organisation which represents some 4000 women’s organisations on multiple levels of the EU. The EWL is not the first example of women organising on the EU level, but it is the first of its kind. The EWL was initiated by women from within the European Commission and is funded mainly via a grant from the Commission. The EWL’s objectives include the endorsement of equality between women and men and to ensure that measures to promote gender equality and women’s rights are taken into account and mainstreamed in all EU policy. Using material gathered through interviews, observations and official documentation I study the structure of the European Women’s Lobby; the participation of the EWL in EU politics; the relation between the EWL and the EU institutions; the relation between the EWL’s member organisations; and the forms the representation of women’s organised social and political interests at EU level can take. I argue that in the specific political system of the EU, organised interests in civil society and the EWL perform the functions of input, and participate in output and feedback. Organised interests function as intermediaries between the national and European levels. Organised interests strive to gain influence; the Commission, as a political authority, strives to gain legitimacy of its policy-making through the input and output of representative organised interests. As a consequence of what I argue is a corporatist policymaking style of the Commission the EWL has become increasingly institutionalised. The trade off is that while the EWL has enjoyed the Commission’s support and funding to constitute an established EU level platform from which women can formulate, mobilise and pursue their interests, the EWL has must organise and take control over the interests aggregated from its member organisations and over the form of the member organisations. The very structure of the EWL can be seen as part of the price the EWL has to pay to be granted somewhat of a representative monopoly in terms of opportunities to influence EU policy-making through the various channels of consultation. In this context, I argue that the representativeness of organised interests is key. There is no electoral basis legitimising the policy-making of the Commission, instead, this basis is constituted by organised interests. Paradoxically, this holds the potential for increasing the legitimacy of the Commission, something which increasing transparency has failed to do. It is no exaggeration to claim that the EWL offers a remarkable EU level platform for women to act and pursue their interests as women. By studying the actual impact of EU level policy-making and politics on various ways, this thesis argues that the very existence of the EWL can be understood as being in the interest of women.