This paper presents a case study of a regional integration called East African Community (EAC) that associates Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda later joined Rwanda and Burundi. The main research question is the reason for creation of the EAC. Congruence method is used to answer this question with further investigation to confirm existence of the causal relationship. There are three theories used to formulate a hypothesis concerning formation of the EAC - neofunctionalism, realism and liberal theory of international relation in the form reformulated by Andrew Moravcsik. Neofunctionalism cannot explain emergence of the EAC as strong supranational actor, key neofunctionalists feature, is not present. Spillover process also does not occur. Realism also fails to provide an explanation, although the end of the Cold War brings shift in global power structure. East Africa is also endangered by economic marginalization caused by integration of other parts of the continent. However intrastate and regional political instability and security threats were more important at that time. The EAC also does not correspond with the notion of only low politics integration. Liberalism offers most reasonable explanation that integration is based on common interest in development and fight against poverty. Common historical...

The thesis "Electoral Geography of Postcommunist Countries in Central and Eastern Europe" deals with the topic of electoral geography, which is a part of the political geography. The basic hypothesis of the paper is based on opinion that the postcommunist countries experienced the twenty years of development in the postcommunist period which made their electoral geography very similar to one in Western Europe. This hypothesis is proved by three different areas of electoral geography. The first part is composed by the analysis of the electoral geography of the founding elections in the 17 postcommunist countries (including the GDR). In the paper is proposed after the research of all 17 countries the categorization of founding elections on the basis of electoral geography. The second part examines the electoral geography of capitals. The research is focused on the size of the lectorate in the capital compare to the whole country, on the diverhgence of electoral results in the capital and in the whole state and on strength of the party families in capitals. Folowing these three areas is proposed the catehorisation of the postcommunist capitals into the five groups. The third part deals with variability of the electoral results inside the state.

The thesis focuses on analyzing the support of democracy model through the external governance and its efficiency as potentially more successful alternative to leverage and linkage. The theoretical part shows that democratic governance defines democracy according to the following principles: transparency, accountability and public participation. It is also based on the concept of external governance, which focuses on expanding EUs internal rules beyond its borders. For this purpose the case of Eastern Partnership was chosen. This case uses the mechanism of external governance and also applies the strategy of the support of the democracy in sector cooperation. The efficiency of this initiative or rather support of the democracy through the external governance is evaluated by comparative analysis of impact of cooperation of EU and partner country on their legislative development within the three selected sector policies (energy industry, environmental protection, justice and home affairs). The time period for the research is from establishing of the initiative in 2009 to the summit in Vilnius in the fall 2013. After general assessment of the results it can be said that the EU was successful in more than half the studied cases and thus EU is, more or less capable of an integration of its democratic...

The work looks at EU's development policy through the lens of one of integration theories, namely multi-level governance. The relationship between the EU and three countries from ACP group, Rwanda, Haiti and East Timor is being analysed. From current trends of multi-level governance the research is focusing on the process of strengthening of supranational level and on advancing regionalization, understood in terms of regional integration on one side and the transfer of powers to lower administrative units or local emancipation. The work is inspired by the idea of the author Martin Holland that integration theories are better observable on EU's development policy than on EU's integration itself. Using the comparison of official EU's declarations over development cooperation with ACP group and real agenda implemented in those countries, the work investigates EU's involvement during penetration of surveyed countries into transnational structures, into regional coalitions and the promotion of emancipation of lower administrative units in the country. The research aims to analyze bonds formed between the European Union and Rwanda, Haiti and East Timor, which, according to Martin Holland, the concept of multi-level governance should best describe.

Ph.D. thesis abstract PhDr. Matěj Bílý The Ph.D. thesis "The Warsaw Treaty Organization 1969-1985. The pinnacle and path to dissolution" analyses inside processes within both political and military structures of the alliance and puts it in the context of the Cold War's development and the events in the Soviet sphere of influence in Europe. It deals mostly with the climax of the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev's rule, however, attention is paid also to the short intermezzo of his successors, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko. The work is based on a broad research in the Czech, Polish and German archives, already published documents and the proper secondary literature. The explanation focuses not only to the development of the organization's mechanisms - it also asses the Warsaw Pact's role as one of the Kremlin's tools for managing the Eastern Bloc. Nonetheless, during Brezhnev's era, the alliance never became an initiator of processes within the Soviet sphere of interest. In fact, the organization's structures were not very initiative. The agenda of meetings was defined elsewhere, most often in Moscow. The activities in the alliance's framework did not constitute a starting-point for the development in the Soviet sphere of influence. On the contrary, the processes within the Warsaw Treaty Organization...

Background: Alcohol addiction is a widespread social problem worldwide. Countries with high prevalence of alcohol consumption try to react on this situation. Addiction treatment is closely determined by public health and the health care system of each country, which define its role. Aims: The main aim of this study is a description of comparison focused on alcohol abuse treatment in the Czech Republic, Belgium and Uganda. Secondary aim is to understand basic principles of treatment in chosen countries through qualitative research methods and the insight into advantages and disadvantages of treatment programs. Methods: The concept of the study is based on a qualitative research methodology. The starting point of this research was an analysis of interviews conducted by David Kalema with patients treated in medical facilities in Belgium and Uganda. Also semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients of two mental hospitals in the Czech Republic. The selection method used in this study was a purposeful sampling method. Research was carried out with 12 respondents from the Czech Republic, 10 from Belgium and 10 from Uganda. The final data was analyzed according to the procedures of grounded theory. Results: One of the major factors identified was the function of case management approach in...

The thesis deals with a new concept of foreign policy conducted by the President of the Republic of Korea Lee Myung-bak. With special emphasis on the aspects of previous period, the thesis analyzes the formation of the global status of the Republic of Korea in international relations after 2008. Furthermore, it describes the political development of country's international status in its ups and downs and evaluates the causes and consequences of its way to develop international relations. On the level of international system, the thesis interprets in depth selected current international issues in East Asia, relations with neighboring countries as well as economic and cultural issues that directly determine the reconfiguration of existing foreign policy of the Republic of Korea.

This thesis provides evidence of size and value premiums in returns in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region, through its analysis of financial markets in 12 countries. Following the portfolio construction methodology of Fama and French (1996) we use a sample of 1245 stocks and record that small stocks outperform big stocks (size premium) and value stocks outperform growth stocks (value premium). In addition, we create nine portfolios to test the Fama and French three-factor model and show that the factor-mimicking portfolios that have been documented in the developed markets, SMB (small minus big) and HML (high minus low), also capture most of the cross-section variation in average stock returns in the CEE region. We demonstrate a similar pattern in terms of size return as documented in the U.S. market, but with small differences in the value returns found. Although the Gibbons-Ross-Shanken (GRS) test does not reject the null with 95%, we do not agree that the model completely explains the variation in average returns across the portfolios. The GRS rejects the null at 90% and implies that other factors are omitted from the model. Nevertheless, this thesis contributes to the literature applying asset pricing models to the CEE region, and should provide insights to investors active in the CEE...

This diploma thesis focuses on the analysis of caricatures with a theme of the Eastern block in French satirical weekly magazine Le Canard enchaîné in 1945-1970. By the Eastern block, we understand the Soviet Union and its associated socialistic countries. The thesis is anchored in the theoretical part by historical context of the history of the eastern countries, as well as by the development of analysed weekly magazine on the background of the history of France, by the formulation of the concepts of caricature and satire, including important authors, and the research methods themselves. Triangulation, in this case the combination of quantitative content analysis and semiotic analysis, aims to analyse individual caricatures with the theme of the East and its individual countries. The analysed periods are divided into two sections, due to the availability of materials, namely 1945-1948 and 1968-1970.

This thesis discusses the role of Czechoslovakia within the framework of the Chinese- Soviet split. Based on the analysis of archival sources, it explores Czechoslovak proceedings within the given issue at the diplomatic level as well as the Communist Party level. Its aim is to confirm or disprove the statement that Czechoslovakia was a so-called small player in this dispute and acted more independently on the USSR policy . It focuses on mutual Czechoslovak-Chinese relations and their development in the given period, i.e. 1950-1969. It analyzes the progress of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from its viewpoint at international conferences of Communist and workers' organizations, but also at Party sessions. The thesis also describes the Chinese-Soviet split in the Third World and its influence on Czechoslovak policy. Last but not least, the thesis focuses on the factors that influenced the formation of the Czechoslovak attitude on this issue. The thesis studies given range of issues with the help of archival sources of Czech provenance and foreign materials available in electronic form.