Latin America cannot be conceived without acknowledging the social movements, which are often the engines of political and social changes on the continent. Until recently, Chile appeared to be the country where the social order was perceived as the most accomplished in relation to its politically unstable neighbouring countries, as well as in relation to its proper history. The 2011 student movement, which is the most significant social movement within the last twenty years of the Chilean history, can be completely understood only from a broader perspective of the 20th century. In order to understand the recent changes, the thesis deals with the phenomenon of the Chilean student movement studying its origins, historical trajectory and impact. The aim of the thesis is to explore the continuities and changes of the student movement and question why the 2011 protests are treated as a separate collective action in relation to the cycles of contention experienced in the 20th century.

The reform of the United Nations Security Council belongs among the most discussed topics in the field of international relations. The criticism calling for adjustments to the Council's structure arose with the transformation of the international scene during the years of the Cold War. The process of decolonisation and the subsequent growth of the UN membership along with the decline of Great Britain and France fuelled the international pressure calling for the UNSC to reflect this new situation in its composition. However, in spite of the great number of proposals, since 1963 there has not been any major change. France, a permanent member of the Security Council, continued maintaining its negative attitude towards the reform until the end of the Cold War. Nevertheless, shortly after the end of the Cold War, the position of France changed. This change was articulated through the speech of Alain Juppé at the plenary meeting of the General Assembly in 1993, where France openly supported the UNSC reform. It can therefore be said that in 1993 there was a great change in French foreign policy. This thesis analyses how this change is projected in political discourse. Its aim is examining the nature of argumentation in the abovementioned discourse along with the way it corresponds to the...

This diploma thesis, February 1948 in printed non-communist media, analyses newscast and journalism of the four prominent journals since the 1st February till 14th March 1948. It has been Svobodné slovo, Právo lidu and Lidová demokracie which were the fundamental journals of the three governing parties, and Svobodné noviny which followed the tradition of Lidové noviny. Method of qualitative historical comparative analysis was used for the data processing. In the diploma thesis, the changes in information giving during the changing political situation and succession of communism are evaluated. The outcome of this thesis is the finding that Svobodné slovo, Právo lidu a Lidová demokracie often break the principles of objectivity. On the contrary, Svobodné noviny maintains the highest standard of journalism. All four daily newspapers initially inform negativelly on political actions of KSČ. However, the content of the newspapers changes fundamentally within several days. Since 26th of February onwards, all of them represent KSČ as a political party that lead the state out of crisis. In all the newspapers that have been under observation of this thesis the opinion turnover took place during just a few days. The legitimization of the new regime became a topic of great importance.

Church in the life and thought of Oto Mádr. The thesis portrays the impicit ecclesiology of the Czech theologian and priest Oto Mádr. It highlights Mádr's key attitudes in the context od his life. It traces his main and enduring ecclesiological contributions and shows where his thought could be further developed. The method of research is bi-polar paradox applied on the signs of the Church. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This particular work deals with the process of expansion by the North Atlantic Alliance in view of the theory of balance of power and the relationship between Russia and NATO. The author of the work draws on assumption that NATO's expansions, that have followed the end of the cold war, strengthen NATO's might, to which Russia must react to counter the growing power of the potential adversary. This work is divided into two main thematic parts. The first part regards the three waves of the expansion which followed the breakup of the Soviet Union (1999, 2004, and 2009); therein, the author analyzes NATO's strengthening on the military, political and geopolitical levels. The second part of the work is devoted to unveiling of Russia's potential counterbalancing steps. The Russian attempt to counterbalance the NATO's moves, of course, has also been analyzed within three frames - military, political and geopolitical. The analysis of the counterbalancing by Russia, as well as the strengthening of NATO is presented within the frame defined by five year periods. To facilitate the theoretical view, the power counterbalancing analyses has been divided into, so called, "Hard balancing" and "Soft balancing". Because the end of the bipolar conflict contributed to substantial changes in international political...

This thesis will deal with analysis of the political regime in Russia. Its main aim becomes the attempt to show if there are differences between what is given by the Constitution, and the real functioning in the country. For starters, describe the institutional development of Russia after 1989. The reader can see how changing the distribution of power and appearring the party pluralism. Further attention will be paid to the issue of the Constitution itself, and do what the amendment brought about: the introduction of a bicameral parliament, Head of State etc. Following an examination of the constitutional rules in terms of the powers of the President, we will conclude whether the Russian Federation is actually a semi- presidential system or not. Additional space will involve the existence of parliamentarism in the country. Briefly dismantled election procedures: both parliamentary and presidential. According to available information on the electoral system and the results of the elections, we will understand why the Russian party system looks the way it looks. The political role of the main party "United Russia" will be also considered. Subsequently space thesis will be devoted to the phenomenon of the opposition. If there is real, and if so, how strong role in the whole system plays deduce from relevant...

The main goal of this thesis is to describe the use of obstruction mechanisms in the Czech legislative system, where in the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, as key legislative institutions of the parliamentary system, has been making massive damages in the form of blocking the negotiation of draft laws for many years. The reasons that led to the Rules of Procedure of the Chamber of Deputies permitting the existence of this phenomenon are not quite obvious, but they are an integral part of the parliamentary culture of our country, which existence is mainly used by the legislative minority. Even though the Rules of Procedure have a clear wording, which allow the existence of obstructions, their use is often considered as unconstitutional, as their use often exceeds the affordable limit. The main objective of this theses is to introduce to the reader all the instruments that help to obstructions and subsequently to show their use in practice during the meetings of the Chamber of Deputies within the last three parliamentary term, including the period in progress.

This thesis deals with the issue of memory and remembering in the post-communist area. In particular, it examines the form, extent and success of the Holocaust reflection and coping with the past on the example of the speeches of Czech and Polish presidents from 1993 (Václav Havel), or 1995 (Aleksander Kwaśniewski) until the access to the European Union in 2004. Author of the thesis assumes that the fall of Communism and the restoration of the democratic establishment represented a significant impetus for the countries in question to deal with their past. At the same time, they try to prove that the Holocaust memory politics of key political representatives of the Czech Republic and Poland has been one of the important factors in the creation of their post-communist democratic identity - and not only with respect to an unofficial demand of the unifying Europe to cope with the heritage of the past. Through the analysis of selected presidential speeches, the thesis identifies and evaluates the image of Holocaust created by the Czech and Polish presidents on the one hand and the weaknesses in the Holocaust memory politics of both actors on the other. After theoretical and conceptual introduction (chapter one), the experience with the Holocaust in Poland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and...

This diploma thesis is a case study of the town Litvínov from which the author comes from. It analyses the use of political marketing in the party election campaigns, which is described in detail and applied through the Lees-Marshment's theory with the help of semi-structured interviews, questionnaire surveys, mapping of programs and Codes of Conduct. The expected result of the thesis is not only the analysis of the municipal pre-election campaigns of the individual candidate parties using the Lees-Marshment theory, but also critical evaluation of this theory applied within the municipal politics. The partial objective is to compare the use of marketing of regional and national candidate parties within the municipal politics. It is not only a description of this theory, but also an evaluation of the theory suitability on the municipal level. The conclusions point to the fact that political marketing plays a certain role at the municipal level, but the degree of its use is much lower than on the national level.

(EN) Civil society is made up of committed individuals, non-governmental non-profit organizations, their employees, volunteers, and other supporters, as well as relations among these actors. Civil society activities include community development, advancement of leisure and professional interests, services to vulnerable groups, as well as efforts to intervene in the political process and to support certain legislation and systemic change. This work focuses on the latter, i.e. the ways how civil society actors influence the political process. In the introductory chapter I present an overview of the current research of civil society and political activism in the Czech Republic and other post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In this chapter, I identify five central propositions that can be formulated on the basis of existing scientific discussion and I subject them to a critical assessment. In addition, I argue that against the backdrop of the discussion, two streams of literature can be distinguished which differ in their assessment of civil society's quality in Central and Eastern Europe. I try to clarify the reasons for these contradictions. In the second chapter I offer an overview of social movements theories, thus completing the theoretical basis for the empirical part of this...