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Delegations of the European Union and representation of power in communication towards the Southern Neighbourhood countries
Gera, Kristina ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Arregui Moreno, Francisco Javier (referee)
The thesis is devoted to analysing the EU's communication with Southern Neighbours (SNs), namely Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. The purpose of the study is to identify what the EU's communications disclose about its role as Hard, Soft, Normative or Transformative Power in the region. The literature describes the actorness of the EU in the world by all four forms of power. However, the competition between these concepts inside the official discourse of the EU Delegations (EUDs) has been less investigated. Data for the current research comes from the content of the country-specific statements and press releases that appeared on the EUDs' websites from June 2016 to March 2021. The methodology is a combination of quantitative and qualitative content analysis. The work reveals that the EU appeals to its Transformative Power more often in comparison to the other concepts of power in its communications to the three SNs in focus. Moreover, the thesis critically assesses external perceptions of the EU based on 2016 and 2020 opinion polls. It unfolds the problems of the current communication strategy of the EU with SNs. This review is followed by recommendations for possible improvement of the efficiency of the EU's power representation on the international stage. The thesis attempts to add to the discussion...
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The Effectiveness of Erasmus+ and UGRAD Soft Power on Armenia During Hard Times (Nagorno-Karabakh War 2020.
Derzyan, Tatev ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Stępka, Maciej (referee)
Tatev Derzyan (41794665) The Effectiveness of Erasmus+ and UGRAD Soft Power on Armenia during Hard Times (Nagorno-Karabakh War 2020) Abstract The thesis focuses on soft power and public diplomacy through exchange study programs of the European Union and the United States. Precisely, the thesis studies the influence of the educational exchange programs (Erasmus+ and UGRAD) on the Armenian exchange students in the scope of soft power. After establishing the influence of the exchange programs on the formation of the perceptions about the host countries, the thesis further focuses on the sustainability of the perception taking into consideration the Nagorno-Karabakh Second war which is a 'critical juncture' as it was a dramatic event in the life of the Armenian youth and could have influenced their views of the EU and the US. It is important to note that the academic literature on the exchange students' perceptions does not provide any studies through the lenses of the political events in the participants' home country. Thirty-nine semi-structured interviews have been conducted among the Erasmus+ and UGRAD participants from Armenia alongside the content analysis of the documents that the EU and the US released during the Nagorno-Karabakh Second war in order to understand what was the politics of the host...
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Analyze the Bologna Process and European Higher Education Integration from the perspective of Government Network Structure Theory
Fan, Jingyi ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Amini, Chiara (referee) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
In 1999, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy jointly signed the Bologna Declaration and proposed to establish an open European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The Bologna Process promoted the integration of higher education in Europe, and counteracted the integration of European politics and economy. Currently, 48 countries have joined the Bologna process. The influence of the Bologna process has also developed from Europe to other countries in Asia, Africa, and North America. The Bologna Process has established six goals at the beginning: credit system, degree system, student mobility, lifelong learning, quality assurance and European research area. From 1999 to 2000, the Bologna Process has accomplished these goals and put forward a plan for the new decade. The dissertation takes 2010 as the node and divides the Bologna Process into policy objectives and policy subjects through the policy network analysis framework, and analyze the correlation between policy subjects through the neo-functionalism. The result shows that the Bologna process will further deepen its goals in the next decade and attract more countries to join in the context of globalization. However, due to differences in economic and political backgrounds, there will be an differentiate integration based on their own...
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Variances in the Blue Card Directive Transposition across the European Union
Pospíšil, Petr ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Šlosarčík, Ivo (referee)
This work attempts to analyze causes of divergent transposition of the Blue Card directive, regulating the conditions of immigration of highly-skilled workers from third countries, between individual EU Member States. The differences are analyzed on two levels. Firstly, in terms of timeliness and correctness of transposition, secondly, from a perspective of a different manner of transposition of the discretionary clauses entailed in the Blue Card directive (whether the Member States opted for an open or for a restrictive way of transposition of these provisions). Scholarly literature about transposition compliance and highly-silled immigration policies creates the foundation, by means of which the author identifies several variables and articulates hypotheses aiming at providing explanation of the divergent transposition of the directive in the respective Member States. The author classifies the Member States in groups and clusters according to their transposition performance and its results embody a point of departure for a subsequent analysis. From each group, certain number of countries is selected for a detailed country-level analysis in order to ensure universality and geographical representativeness of the outcomes. To review how the individual hypotheses confirmed in the Member States, the...
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European fiscal integration in euro absentia. Budgetary compliance as a step stone to a fiscal union.
Pavel, Stefania-Felicia ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Arregui Moreno, Francisco Javier (referee)
European fiscal integration in euro absentia. Budgetary compliance as a step stone to a fiscal union Author: Ștefania-Felicia Pavel Student ID: 31195144 Degree: Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Programme European Politics and Society Supervisor: Mitchell Young, PhD. Institution: Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences Institute of International Studies Submission: June 2020 Defence: September 2020 English abstract This research investigates fiscal convergence via disciplined budgets in non-euro Member States. The thesis hypothesizes that 1) post-2010 enhanced macroeconomic governance is conducive to a fiscal union and 2) fiscal stance of non-euro Member States is not correlated with their attitude to euro adoption. The fiscal convergence in euro absentia is dually tested through theory application and intensive case studies. The results show that countries can be fiscally compliant, but reject the euro or be euro enthusiast, yet fiscally deviant. Thus, the single currency can be either backstop or driver of more integration, nonetheless, European integration continues. The findings substantiate the proposition that a fiscal union is building up even in euro absentia.
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Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth in EU Countries: Role of Institutional Mechanisms
Ting, Ka Yee ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Bruno, Randolph Luca (referee) ; Svoboda, Karel (referee)
In the past three decades, there is a growing trend of conducting fiscal decentralization in both transition countries and developed countries. The primary reason for this interest is the theoretical prediction that fiscal decentralization could promote economic development through enhancing or improving the efficiency of the public sector. Despite general acceptance of the contribution of fiscal decentralization to economic growth in theoretical literature, none of the previous fiscal decentralization studies have been successfully verified the growth effect of fiscal decentralization. Moreover, a majority of the empirical research analyzes the relationship without taking institutional factors into consideration, which may result in a biased conclusion. Utilizing fixed effects panel data regression models, this thesis is dedicated to examining the impact of fiscal decentralization on economic growth across 27 EU countries over the period 1995-2015. It first analyzes how the effect of fiscal decentralization on economic growth could differ in Western European (WE) and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Then, it examines the complementarity between fiscal decentralization and well-established institutional mechanism in enhancing economic growth in these two groups of EU countries by...
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The Norwegian policy of cooperation in Education and Research as a soft-power tool for Norway's foreign policy
Pajerová, Anna ; Kasáková, Zuzana (advisor) ; Young, Mitchell (referee)
This diploma thesis examines the Norwegian policy of cooperation in Education and Research as a soft-power tool for Norway's foreign policy. Within a European context, three levels of Norway's participation in Education and Research programmes will be analyzed. The first level is Norway's cooperation policy toward the EU, though as a weaker actor. The second is Norway's value of cooperation as an equal partner, which is typical in the Nordic region. And the third is cooperation via EEA Grants and Norway Grants, in which Norway is a dominant player. This thesis combines a theory of international cooperation and Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye's theory of soft-power, complex interdependence and asymmetry of relations between the participants. In the research, a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods are used. This thesis reveals that Norway decreases the financial spending to the areas where it has more influence and can utilize more of its soft power, while it also invests into areas where it plays the role of substandard actor. An explanation is found in the theory of international cooperation and the game of Chicken, where the longstanding and successful corporation strives to achieve a compromise rather than a win, i.e. to moderate any power fluctuation and strive for an equilibrium state.
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Political Engagement and Identity Awareness among Czech-Vietnamese University Students
Lee, Shang-Yen ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Augusteijn, Joost (referee)
The Vietnamese have been resided in Czech Republic since 1950s. Literature claims that the Vietnamese is a rather successfully integrated group in Czech Republic comparing with other minority. Hence, the master thesis aims at exploring the political participation as well as civic engagement of university students with Vietnamese ethnicity and are conceived as second generation of the Vietnamese group in Czech Republic. Based on a review on literature on theories and relevant studies on political participation, the research employed qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews with 15 Vietnamese university students in Prague. Analysis of the responses demonstrates that most of the participants perceive political participation as their duty of citizenship and do not link their political participation with minority identity. Meanwhile, a distinction of attitude towards civic engagement and political participation for the target group and the trend of replacing political activities with civic activities is discovered. At the end of the research, this study indicates that conventional theories of political participation are not be able to cover the complexity of political participation in the modern society. Keywords Vietnamese minority, political participation, civic participation, minority...
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Academic Mobility: Motivations and Outcomes Case study of the Faculties of Social Sciences of Prague and Brno
Gautier, Vincent ; Tomalová, Eliška (advisor) ; Young, Mitchell (referee)
Since the beginning of the century, the European Union wants to catch up its lateness in the field of the Higher Education and in the research area. Through diverse programmes and new institutions it is trying to remedy to the problem. The establishment of the Bologna Process and the Erasmus mobility programme helped the Member States to find a solution. Concerning the mobility, most of the studies have a tendency to focus on the student mobility and its impact on the career of the young generation but very few are focused the teaching and research one. This case study aims at focusing on this type of mobility, the one of the academics, and see what are the motivations and the outcomes for the academics of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Prague and Brno. Finally this study based on the respondents' answers and on the previous studies shows us that there was not a big evolution made on the side of the academic institutions. Keywords Academic mobility, Erasmus teaching mobility, Czech Republic, Faculty of Social Sciences, Motivations, Outcomes Title Academic Mobility: Motivations and Outcomes, Case study of the Faculties of Social Sciences of Prague and Brno
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ESA - A Hindrance for Further Supranationalization?
Farkač, Martin ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Šlosarčík, Ivo (referee)
The aim of this masters thesis is to assess the relation between two organizations with competences towards the European space policy that happen to be in dispute over these competences - the European Union (EU) and the European Space Agency (ESA). The main research question asks whether the ESA hinders further supranationalization of the space matters within the EU framework and the research uses the lenses of the theory of the rational design which highlights the importance of the Member States as the decisive actors in this question who have to incline one way or the other. This thesis examines relevant documents issued by the EU and the ESA, as well as at the positions of the Member States of the European Space Agency with regard to this dispute, and concludes that the ESA indeed hinders further supranationalization of the space matters within the EU framework because it goes against the positions and interests of the Member States. The hindrance reaches the level that the only thing the Member States are willing to do is to adjust the financial procedures in respect to the programmes run by ESA and funded by the EU to ensure their efficient implementation complying with EU rules.
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