This essay describes the radicalization of the Greek society and the rise of the political extremism in Greece in the period of 2000-2012. In this time important changes could have been observed in the Greek political scene and in the society which were linked to the polarization of the electorate and the growth of populism, nationalism, euroscepticism, xenophobia and racism. As a result of modernizing efforts of Constantinos Simitis cabinet (1996-2004), which were related to the Greek ambition to become fully-fledged member of the EU and the Eurozone, under the influence of globalization, immigration crisis and finally the recent slump of the Greek economy, a new social conflict emerged in Greece. This essay analyzes these problems from the perspective of the cleavages theory by Seymour M. Lipset and Stein Rokkan and tries to find social and political roots of such conflict. The radicalization of the Greek society between 2000 and 2012 does not represent a new phenomenon, but is is a continuation of long-term ideological clashes present in the Greek social reality since the World WarI. After identifying the main cleavages in interwar and postwar period the essay identifies the main conflict of Greece after the fall of junta in 1974. Afterwards it confronts the new political issues of the period 2000-2012...

This dissertation is interested in what kind of self and techniques of resistance are acquired in order to be a revolutionary in the contemporary West. While I was conducting an ethnographic research between 2008 - 2015 following young activists from Germany in urban spaces of demonstrations, riots, direct actions, jails, the Internet, universities, housing projects, parent's homes in Germany as well as during solidarity trips to Mexico, Argentina, Israel/Palestine, Denmark or Italy, it was discovered that a concept of political versatility may be helpful here. Young revolutionaries are what I call revolutionary amoebas. Revolutionary amoebas acquire capacities to discuss at universities or public debates, write texts, talk, but they manage to argue beyond the discourse by throwing stones or burning cars in riots, organizing direct actions, smashing corporate properties, beating neo­nazis, attacking ultra­nationalists, or actively defending themselves against the police. As citizens of advanced liberal democracy, they enter public discussions of contested opinions, persuade people with their critical arguments and a few of them even vote, but they as well explore the political terrain considered illegal. Many of them know how to get funded from the state, The EU,...

This dissertation is interested in what kind of self and techniques of resistance are acquired in order to be a revolutionary in the contemporary West. While I was conducting an ethnographic research between 2008 - 2015 following young activists from Germany in urban spaces of demonstrations, riots, direct actions, jails, the Internet, universities, housing projects, parent's homes in Germany as well as during solidarity trips to Mexico, Argentina, Israel/Palestine, Denmark or Italy, it was discovered that a concept of political versatility may be helpful here. Young revolutionaries are what I call revolutionary amoebas. Revolutionary amoebas acquire capacities to discuss at universities or public debates, write texts, talk, but they manage to argue beyond the discourse by throwing stones or burning cars in riots, organizing direct actions, smashing corporate properties, beating neo­nazis, attacking ultra­nationalists, or actively defending themselves against the police. As citizens of advanced liberal democracy, they enter public discussions of contested opinions, persuade people with their critical arguments and a few of them even vote, but they as well explore the political terrain considered illegal. Many of them know how to get funded from the state, The EU,...

This diploma thesis focuses on the appropriate and effective use of film and serial adaptations of topics falling into the period of communist totalitarianism in Czechoslovakia (that is between 1948 and 1989, with emphasis on the period 1948-1969). The thesis is divided into four chapters, whereas the main part, which is didactic, is described in the third and fourth chapter. The first chapter describes the basic historical context of the communist government in Czechoslovakia between 1948 and 1989. It also shows and explains the origin of the idea of communism, the further development of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia during the First Republic, and the postwar Third Republic. This chapter was put together using found edited sources and secondary literature. The second chapter deals with individual film and serial processing of topics related to the period. It presents specific films and series which were produced in the most recent years (or the post-revolutionary period), but also materials produced during the totalitarianism before 1989. In this chapter some works are discussed in greater detail, others are presented as selected alternative options for interaction for educational purposes. The third chapter summarizes the didactic and historical potential of the discussed topic, it also...

The thesis Political Programmes of the Czech Representation in the Second Halve of the 19th Century focuses on both programme documents and actual work of Czech political parties, whether more or less institutionalized, between the years 1848 (March Revolution) and 1918 (the downfall of Austria-Hungary). At first it summarizes the historical development in the respective period (Chapter 1), next, it analyses programmes of political parties in three broadly defined topics: 1) Organisation of the empire, question of the Czech State Right (Chapter 2); 2) Constitutionalism, civil rights and role of a citizen (Chapter 3) and 3) National matters (Chapter 4). The attitudes about each of these areas of the following political parties are defined: Bohemian nobility, National Party (till 1874) or Old Czechs (since then), Young Czechs, Social Democrats, Agrarians, Catholic parties, National Socialists, Progress parties and parties of the Radical State Right, Realists and Anarchists. For the conclusion, the author of the thesis attempts to characterise and evaluating the Czech political representation, as well as its importance for the development since 1918.

This diploma thesis examines changes, which the Czech-German Future Fund went through during its almost 20 years of functioning. The first part the author dedicated to theoretical concepts, which shed light on study of the Czech-German Future Fund. These theoretical concepts are reconciliation and public diplomacy. Thereafter are in tis thesis described efforts to compensate victims of National Socialism in Czechoslovakia and in the Czech Republic. This part of thesis is followed by description of the Czech-German Future Fund and its history. Based on this German-Czech Declaration of Mutual Relations and their Future Development of 1997 was the fund's mission to compensate victims of National Socialism, who didn't receive a compensation until then. The fund fulfilled this mission after 10 years of its function and also went through by many changes during almost 10 years of its functioning. The author describes these changes on which is based description of the project policy development of Czech-German Future Fund. After that the diploma thesis concentrates on changes in individual fund project groups, which are supported by the fund. These changes have an impact on financial character of individual project groups, on change of their structure or on change of the place, where are individual...

Bibliographic record: Michal MACHÁČEK: Gustáv Husák. A Political Biography with Special Emphasis on Czech-Slovak Relations in 20th Century, PhD. thesis, The Faculty of Arts at Charles University 2017, 476pp. [784 standard pages]. Abstract The dissertation thesis discusses public activities, thoughts and the political life of JUDr. Gustáv Husák, CSc. (1913-1991), who was involved in the Czech-Slovak public space for sixty years with a significant footprint even today. The text is based on a thorough research and is chronologically structured, intertwined with thematic areas, however an analytical approach prevails. The first chapter focuses on Husák's youth, the factors that led him to the communist movement, and his early activism. This is followed by a portrayal of the Husák's activities during the Second World War, his role in the resistance, participation in a propaganda trip to the Nazi conquered Ukraine, and his vision of Slovakia as a republic of the Soviet Union. His later involvement in the Slovak National Uprising provided the legitimacy of his later political career in the post-war era, when he successfully led the struggle for the communist monopoly of political power in Czechoslovakia and attempts to present the Communist Party of Slovakia as a national party. Next two chapters show the origins...

This work follows the studies focused on obesity, its global extent and its serious health and economic impact. At the same time, the work examines the unsuccessful fight of public policies which try to reverse growing prevalence of obesity. Nevertheless, the main goal of the thesis is a discussion about priorities of new orientation in the research on the causes of the obesity epidemic and effectiveness of precautions that were taken in many countries and international organizations with the main aim to stop the obesity and its consequences. The discussion leads to the more detailed description of the problems connected with obesity, for instance, environmental aspects, housing culture in relation to physical activities, lifestyle in relation to advertisement/marketing, psychological and socio- psychological aspects, combating stress, etc. My intention was to find out utility of contemporary research on obesity for setting of policy fighting against obesity. At the same time, I wanted to find out other possible directions in the research into this field and discover how the discussion about priorities of the research in the experimental community proceeds. Two international dimensions of paradigmatic approaches separated to the certain degree can be considered as relevant with regard to the global...

The subject of this dissertation thesis is investigating the issue of the German ethnic group status in inter-war Czechoslovakia shown in the example of the Nejdek political district with the emphasis on the major and crucial aspects of social life - politics, economic and social issues while the assistance and support elements include: demographics, border issues, the presence of the Czech ethnic group, a preview of own (German) history and the development of churches and religion. The Nejdek political district is set within a framework of regional history with regard to the historical context of the development of Czechoslovakia, or even of the world in some cases. The regional history presented here in the form of a probe from the perspective of great historical events and partly through micro-history aim to build on the broad source base and capture the impacts and effects of national policies on shaping of the Nejdek region and its inhabitants. In some ways, when possible of course, research methods are applied. Overall, the work is to fill the so-called white gaps in the regional historiography, since the books or studies published so far have been focusing only on partial, closely regionally defined topics and only comprehensive work, which the author of this paper attempts, could therefore...