This thesis examines Google’s Executive Chairman Eric E. Schmidt’s speech at the European Innovation Convention 2011 from the perspectives of Kenneth Burke’s dramatism and identification theories. In the wider context it aims to contribute to the analyses of human progress traced through the history of our technologies and inventions. These breakthroughs do not happen or spread without beneficial influences from societal institutions in spheres like culture, philosophy, politics and law. Language is the creator and carrier of these institutions. A complicated “ecosystem” of culture, science, financing, laws and regulations, affects the possibilities for economic growth through innovation. Perhaps due to the contested legitimacy of corporations in the democratic process, the study of the messages of corporate entities in the political arena seems to be a fairly unexplored dimension of traditional rhetorical analysis of politics. Through rhetorical criticism the author seeks to better understand Google’s communication in this area, and to gain further insights into the communication strategies that companies may use to influence such complex fields of politics as Innovation Policy.

Lobbying regulation in the Czech Republic - recommendations based on international experience Summary Lobbying is a natural part of contemporary globalized world, where political interests meet intensively with the economic and other private interests. In order to strengthen the principles, especially transparency and responsibility, some countries adopt lobbying regulation. The USA, Canada, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania and the EU institutions approach to lobbying in some aspects in the same way, in many other aspects they approach to it very differently. Different historical and socio-economical experience of these entities has, often substantial, influence on the differences of their regulation approach. The Czech Republic shares with many mentioned countries the experience of post- communist state, which does not have long democratic political culture and which has many problems with corruption in the public decision-making process. Lobbying regulation under Czech conditions is therefore necessary for raising transparency and responsibility of politicians. During the preparation of the future regulation, it is necessary to respect recmmendations of the international organizations and to thoroughly analyze experience of other states. The necessary parts of the future law should be especially: clear...

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.

The regulation of lobbying is a current topic both at the level of international organizations as well as in many European and overseas countries. This work deals with the comparison of the rules on lobbying in selected English-speaking countries. Descriptive, doctrinal and comparative methods are used to analyze the main trends in the lobbying regulation of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as well as Australia. The text is structured into four chapters. The first chapter deals with the definition of lobbying and its differences from corrupt dealings; it also covers the types of lobbying activities and the various kinds of lobbyists. The second chapter attempts to contextualize lobbying into the theories of the decision-making process. A comparison of the similarities and differences of the lobbying rules is made and analyzed in the third and fourth chapters. Both the third and the fourth chapter have a similar structure -- first, the general rules and approaches to regulation are introduced, and then a comparison of selected English-speaking countries is made. The third chapter deals with the most common rules for lobbyists; the fourth chapter focuses on the relatively neglected side of lobbying contacts, i.e. the rules for the targets of lobbying (public office holders). In the end, some measures and recommendations for the Czech Republic are also outlined.

Amid increasing trends of market concentration and corporate political activity in the United States, this thesis takes a quantitative approach to evaluating Luigi Zingales’ political theory of the firm. Using data from the Economic Census and from the Center for Responsive Politics, I find that concentration as measured by four and eight largest firms’ share of establishments exhibits a significant positive relationship to corporate lobbying at the intensive margin. On the other hand, concentration as measured by four and eight largest firms’ share of employment exhibits a significant negative relationship on politically active firms’ decision to lobby at the extensive margin. Through drawing upon existing quantitative literature on this subject, I conclude that Zingales’ theory remains sound and its implications on the political economy of the United States are bleak. Further research should look into politically feasible policy solutions to this troubling relationship.

No description available.

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 diploma thesis analyses the current state of corruption in the Czech Republic. Primarily I focus on public administration and public sector, however I seek a comprehensive view on the issue in my thesis. The first part presents the theoretical approaches to corruption, bureaucracy and public administration, lobbying, interest groups etc. The practical part deals with methods of measuring corruption, the position of the Czech Republic against other states, legal specification of corruption and the impact of corruption in the states economy. Furthermore, I present causes of origin and spread of corruption and analyse current and planned instruments of government anticorruption fight in combination with the activities of organizations dealing with corruption. The aim of my thesis is to determine whether the current anti-corruption steps are properly set and whether those steps are actually implemented.

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.

Olga Davidová - Abstrakt DP - AJ Abstract Diploma thesis "Globalization and Health - access to health care for children of foreigners in the Czech Republic" addresses the issue of availability of health care for children of foreigners in the Czech Republic as development of legal framework in the Czech Republic and human rights issues. The main objective of this work is a critical reflection on the cause of discrimination against children of foreigners from third world countries (non-EU countries) in their access to health care. This is a retrospective case study which is selected by the institutional analysis of the key events of public policy focusing on the development of health insurance legislation. There are different mechanisms of protection of human rights at local, national, and international level in the availability of health care for children of foreign nationals from third world countries; unfortunately national legislation is not fully in line with international requirements in the area of health law. Although international documents are binding for the Czech Republic, they are not sufficiently applied in the Czech constitutional right to prevent violations of human rights.