The thesis aims to unravel the relationship between the EU's enlargement strategies and democratization in the Western Balkan countries by looking on the impact of the strategies on changing democracy levels in two empirical cases: the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia. Over more than a decade, the effect of the conditionality tool on democratization has been curbed by an insufficient emphasis placed on pro-democratic reforms and by the role of security concerns which were often prioritized over aims directly linked to democracy promotion. Grounded in the conflicting objectives theory, the thesis demonstrates that the recently employed strategy appropriately sequencing goals while prioritizing democratic transition over security concerns is more effective in inflicting domestic democratic change. Subsequently, the following necessary and sufficient conditions for a successful sequencing strategy were defined: strong emphasis on democracy-related goals combined with clearly outlined temporal perspective, and corresponding action of international actors.

The aim of the thesis is to map and analyze the Czech public debate about the bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by NATO air forces in 1999. The North Atlantic Alliance attack on the FRY, which followed shortly after the Czech Republic had joined the Organization. Part of the political representation reacted to NATO's actions with restraint or regret, while the current, represented mainly by President Havel, became a principled supporter of the attack, even on the international political scene. The work deals with various levels of this debate: the initiation of individual actors in the problems of the NATO Operation in Yugoslavia, the starting points, argumentation strategies or links with other topics. It tries to reveal secondary motivations in the formulation of individual opinions (considerations of the security interests of the Czech Republic, worldview, prejudices, etc.). The source base of the work is mainly periodicals, especially the most read dailies. Klíčová slova (anglicky): Czech Republic, Serbia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavian crisis, The conflict in the Balkans in 1999, NATO Air Strikes Against Yugoslavia in 1999, NATO

Bc. Karel Höfer Komparativní volební inženýrství v postjugoslávském prostoru KP IPS FSV UK Diplomová práce ABSTRACT The thesis deals with the topic of electoral engineering and electoral design in the Post- Yugoslav area. It can be classified within social sciences as a part of political science, specifically as a part of comparative political science and electoral studies. The subject of this thesis is electoral design and electoral engineering. Its cases are political and electoral systems in the Post-Yugoslav area up to 2012. The importance of this topic consists in the fact that it is not entirely explored topic. On that account it deserves attention from both empirical and theoretical perspective. The research of electoral design and electoral engineering is one of the most promising courses of contemporary political science. The Post-Yugoslav area offers an ideal environment for comparative political science in general and comparative approach due to its common historical and institutional grounds, but different political and institutional development after the disintegration. The primary objective of this work is the comparison of electoral design and electoral engineering in the Post-Yugoslav area. An important component of this work is also original and comprehensive theoretical framework for a...

The relations between Croatia and Serbia are determining for regional peace and stability and for the course of the EU enlargement in the Western Balkans. The Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) is the funding mechanism designed for the implementation of the EU's enlargement policy in the Western Balkans. This research investigates the extent to which IPA has integrated to the local cross- border initiatives in culture and youth and has fostered social reconstruction between Croats and Serbs in Slavonia (Croatia) and Vojvodina (Serbia). Co-operation in the cultural sector is an important element of social reconstruction, as it favours contacts and the erosion of antagonistic prejudices against the other ethnic group. The objective of this research is defined as two-fold, firstly to test a model of cross-border co-operation devised from EU integration theories and, secondly to provide an accurate picture of the cross-border initiatives in Slavonia and Vojvodina based on ground-level experience. The analysis of the data collected shows mixed results. On one hand IPA has integrated successfully into the landscape of local cross-border initiatives by stimulating socialisation between civil society organisations. IPA has also increased local ownership of cross-border co-operation amongst the...

This dissertation thesis is focused on the analysis of changing relations between the Western Balkan countries (WB) and the European Union (EU) against background of actual transformation processes in these countries. The Western Balkans represents a group of countries which were not part of so-called Eastern Enlargement of the EU, but are also slowly heading towards the EU. The EU distinguishes three groups of countries within the WB: Croatia has become an acceding country; then here is a group of candidate countries (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Montenegro, Serbia), and the last group is formed by so-called potential candidate countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo). All of these above mentioned countries are part of the Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP) which nowadays represents the core of the Enlargement Policy of the EU and stands for the main research topic of this thesis. The thesis also comprehends the history of the enlargement process of the EU and the basic theoretical concepts of the (EU) enlargement. The "transformation" chapter includes a theoretical grounding too. Three hypotheses were verified (mainly) by results of transformation, evaluation of Copenhagen criteria by the European Commission, and by the statistical methods (Principal Components Analysis and Cluster Analysis) based on a number of economic and demographic indicators.