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Political Aspects of Migration in Czech Republic and in Slovakia
Štefančík, Radoslav ; Klíma, Michal (advisor) ; Horváth, Július (referee) ; Drbohlav, Dušan (referee) ; Romancov, Michael (referee)
The central hypothesis of this dissertation is based on the finding that, like in the countries of Western Europe under the influence of various circumstances, in the Czech Republic, too, there is a shift from the originally proclaimed multicultural concept of integration towards individual civic integration. The objective of the treatise is not only to verify the anticipated trend in the development of the migration policy, but also to seek causes of its modification. The formulation of a hypothesis that would apply equally to the Czech Republic and Slovakia was more complicated. While the formation of migration policies in the area of integration of immigrants into an autochthonous society enjoys a longer tradition in the Czech Republic -- also due to the higher number of immigrants -- in Slovakia it is in its beginnings so far. Even some of the recently adopted outcomes of public policy proclaimed the objective to implement the multicultural dimension vis-a-vis foreigners. The actual policies, however, bore witness to a completely different approach. The core hypothesis of this treatise has thus been complemented by a subhypothesis relating to the conditions of Slovakia: the multicultural dimension of the approach to immigrants in the past only existed at a theoretical level, and only partially. Given the recent adoption of the concept of integration policy, which is not based on the principles of multiculturalism, references to it represent a residual manifestation of the preceding non-systematic treatment of migration and integration in the outcomes of public policy. In real life, several steps hindering the application of this model's principles have been undertaken. Content analysis and diachronic comparative method applied on the documents under review show that there is a change occurring in the Czech Republic in the area of immigration policies. Whereas prior to the financial crisis the government would willingly employ foreigners, the impact of the crisis has led it to a restrictive immigration policy. Demonstrated was also a content shift in the approach to the integration of foreigners. As regards the formation of Slovak migration policies, the process of policy development proved to be more complicated to follow. Public policies in the area of migration and integration of foreigners since 2009 and the stance of the governmental bodies towards them have been largely indifferent. The Czech Republic clearly displays, over the course of the past several years, a shift from the communitarian/multicultural model toward the individual civic integration. The command of the language is considered to be the main vehicle of integration. The Slovak Republic declared multiculturalism only as a remnant of the non-systematic treatment of integration policies, with virtually nothing changing in the real life of immigrants. There had been practically no integration policy in Slovakia up to 2009. Similarly to the outcomes of public policies, the shift in the perspectives on migration away from multiculturalism has occurred in the political programs of Czech political parties as well. The issue of migration in Slovakia has so far not affected election campaigning. Slovak political parties do not have a clear idea of the possibilities of related to the integration of immigrants.
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Impacts of the EU structural and regional policy on the Czech economy and assessment of the impacts in the context of experience of selected member states
Vondrák, David ; Bárta, Vladimír (advisor) ; Wokoun, René (referee) ; Kalínská, Emílie (referee) ; Urban, Luděk (referee)
This work focuses on evaluation of possible impacts of structural and regional EU policy applied in the Czech Republic. Besides preliminary assessment of the use of economic, social and territorial cohesion policy in the Czech Republic, its aim is to put our national specific approach in the context of the whole European Union. It required not only a general appraisal of single priorities but also direct comparison with impacts of similar measures on the economies of the EU in the past. For this objective, an important part of the work consists in four case studies, analysing the application and impacts of the EU cohesion policy instruments in cohesion countries (Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ireland) since the first programming period 1989--1993 until the current period 2007--2013. With respect to the starting point of these economies and societies I would consider the convergence process to the EU relatively successful. Nevertheless, there are some important differences in the use and impact of the cohesion policy in these four member states. The results show that the impact of the Structural Funds in Spain has been quite sizeable in terms of its contribution to the economic growth and reduction of unemployment. Spain as a whole is approaching the EU average in most of the economic indicators. The convergence of the Portugal economy was markedly less substantial and the disparities increased on the regional level. The significant side effect of spending of Structural Funds in Greece consists mainly in the improvement of the institutional framework and strategic planning. The Irish example points to the importance of using the assistance rather for public goods than for supporting the private sector. The Czech Republic should take an example from this experience. Effects of the EU cohesion policy on the domestic economy could be very significant -- not only for a short-term but also for a long-term perspective. However, it is necessary to be aware of the fact that we are still talking about possible impacts, whose real successful fulfilment depends on individual participants -- whether on the strategic or the final beneficiaries levels.
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The concept, practice and culture of lobbying in the English speaking countries
Vymětal, Petr ; Reschová, Jana (advisor) ; Žák, Milan (referee) ; Malíková, Ľubomíra (referee) ; Rychetník, Luděk (referee)
The regulation of lobbying is a current topic both at the level of international organizations as well as in many European and overseas countries. This work deals with the comparison of the rules on lobbying in selected English-speaking countries. Descriptive, doctrinal and comparative methods are used to analyze the main trends in the lobbying regulation of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as well as Australia. The text is structured into four chapters. The first chapter deals with the definition of lobbying and its differences from corrupt dealings; it also covers the types of lobbying activities and the various kinds of lobbyists. The second chapter attempts to contextualize lobbying into the theories of the decision-making process. A comparison of the similarities and differences of the lobbying rules is made and analyzed in the third and fourth chapters. Both the third and the fourth chapter have a similar structure -- first, the general rules and approaches to regulation are introduced, and then a comparison of selected English-speaking countries is made. The third chapter deals with the most common rules for lobbyists; the fourth chapter focuses on the relatively neglected side of lobbying contacts, i.e. the rules for the targets of lobbying (public office holders). In the end, some measures and recommendations for the Czech Republic are also outlined.
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Consumer Protection (Institutional Approach)
Zeman, Jiří ; Zadražilová, Dana (advisor) ; Machková, Hana (referee) ; Švarc, Zbyněk (referee) ; Šípek, Ladislav (referee)
The objective of the work is to evaluate the achieved level of development of consumer protection, in particular in the European and Czech context, as well as to analyse the current state of consumer protection in the Czech Republic, with a special emphasis on the analysis of the actual protection and enforcement of consumers' rights in the Czech Republic. The following three working hypotheses are set out in the work: Hypothesis No. 1: The pre-condition for enforcing consumer protection is improving on a world wide scale. Hypothesis No. 2: The consumer policies of the Czech Republic respect the European principles of consumer protection, and form the framework for the effective enforcement of consumers' rights. Hypothesis No. 3: The actual enforcement of consumers' rights depends not only on the working of the relevant state authorities, but also on the level of knowledge among the consumers, and their willingness and ability to enforce their rights. The work is divided into four basic parts. The first part is devoted to the theoretical solutions, and the economic context of consumer protection. It attempts to answer the question of whether consumer protection has some theoretical justification. The text shows that the substantiation of consumer protection consists, in particular, in the levelling of informational asymmetry, which is one of the most frequent causes of market failure. Therefore, it is consumer protection in the form of state intervention in the economy which reduces dis-equilibrium on the market. The second part analyses the development of consumer protection, and evaluates the state of consumer protection in the world and European context. The world context is understood in the global scale, and its analysis should confirm, or overturn, the first working hypothesis. Upon analysis of the relevant data it may be stated that the findings of this part of the work confirm the first hypothesis. Ever more countries belong to that group of countries which can provide their citizens with a high standard of consumer protection, such as that normally envisioned in U.N. policy. The European context is viewed through the prism of our membership in the EU, and its analysis is vital to understanding the state of consumer protection in the Czech Republic. The third part of the work is devoted to the analysis of the development and evaluation of consumer protection in the Czech Republic; together with the previous part, this part provides sufficient basis for the evaluation of the second hypothesis. It must be said that, with a few small exceptions, the legislative provisions for the protection of consumers in the Czech Republic are completely harmonised with consumer protection legislation in the whole EU, in other words, the European framework of consumer protection is completely respected. On the other hand, more detailed analyses of the development of consumer protection in the CR, and analysis of government consumer policy, has revealed certain reservations in this area. The second hypothesis, then, could be confirmed; nonetheless, in the creation of an effective framework for the enforcement of consumers' rights, there is still some room for improvement. The fourth part concentrates mainly on the evaluation of research among consumers, which should confirm, or overturn, the third hypothesis. The research was questionnaire based, and, subsequently, there were processed questionnaires from 313 respondents. The results were interpreted in connection with demographic factors, such as: age, education, sex and profession. Analysis of these results confirms the third hypothesis. That concerns, mainly, the willingness, knowledge and ability of the consumers, which have significant influence on the actual enforcement of their consumer rights. These attributes are individual qualities, which do not play any significant role in following demographic characteristics.
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Mezinárodní pronájem pracovní síly a jeho alternativy v podmínkách Evropské unie - daňové aspekty
Fojtíková, Jaroslava ; Marková, Hana (advisor) ; Spirit, Michal (referee) ; Karfíková, Marie (referee) ; Malíková, Dita (referee)
Disertační práce se zabývá problematikou české daňověprávní úpravy tzv. mezinárodního pronájmu pracovní síly. S ohledem na velmi široký záběr této problematiky i autorčiny zkušenosti z odborné praxe je práce zaměřena na pronájem zaměstnanců směrem ze zahraničí, konkrétně členských států Evropské unie, do České republiky. Cílem disertační práce je zejména rekapitulace stávající právní úpravy daňových aspektů mezinárodního pronájmu pracovní síly, její zhodnocení v kontextu komunitární legislativy i potřeb praxe a v relevantních případech též formulace doporučení a námětů pro základní směřování dalšího legislativního vývoje. S ohledem na skutečnost, že případné změny české legislativy mohou být inspirovány rovněž právním stavem v jiných státech, je část této disertační práce věnována též nastínění základních principů daňověprávní úpravy mezinárodního pronájmu pracovní síly ve Spolkové republice Německo, a její komparaci s českou legislativou.
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Reactive Multi-agent models in economics
Burian, Jan ; Pstružina, Karel (advisor) ; Berka, Petr (referee) ; Pospíchal, Jiří (referee)
Multi-agent models are software models of real systems, which are compounded of a large amount of active autonomous units -- agents. The main theme of this study is the application of multi-agent models in economics. In the first part of this study I synthesized information from many sources and created a proposal of methodology of multi-agent modeling in social sciences. This methodology is illustrated by a detailed analysis of a well-known model of ethnocentric behavior. I focused on the issue of complexity a self-organization a observed the development of different kinds of structural complexity. Another important issue I'm dealing with is the relation between multi-agent models and analytical models used by the mainstream economy The second part contains three applications of multi-agent models in economy. All described models are research models -- the aim is to get insight into the fundamental laws controlling the dynamics of the system. Research models should be as simple as possible -- than we can understand how the behavior of the system is resulting from the interaction of agents. All models represent an alternative to some typical economic situation. The alternative consists mainly in abandoning of the assumption of full rationality of agents. I focused on models with reactive agents, which don't dispose any memory (or only an indirect form of memory) and have no ability of complex symbolical representation of the environment. Reactivity of agents doesn't necessarily mean an unwanted limitation. It could be properly used to model different kinds of bounded rationality. The model of transaction costs on financial markets is based on another model, which showed how the instability of the financial market could result from interactions of agents with bounded rationality. The instability of the financial markets contradicts the Effective Markets Hypothesis. I modified and extended this model with the mechanism of transaction cost. The model shows that higher transaction costs lead to greater stability of the market, they decrease the volume of trade and to some extent they can increase the efficiency of the modeled market. The model of evolution of aversion to risk and ambiguity is inspired by psychological and neurological experiments whose results contradict the Expected Utility Hypothesis. Model shows that there exists very simple mechanism which leads to evolution of risk and ambiguity aversion. This aversion evolves because of situations when the agent can repeatedly decide between two choices, one brings him low but risk free utility, second brings him higher utility which involves the risk that the agent will lose its ability to get any utility in the future (e.g. it will die). The model shows that sexual reproduction strengthens this mechanism. If this mechanism has also evolved in humans, it can influence their behavior and lead to "irrational" behavior contradicting the Expected utility hypothesis. The model of monopsony on the labor market analyses the situation in which the employer could cut the wages to the existential minimum of workers. In such a case are the workers paradoxically to increase the labor supply when the wages are decreasing. The model further analyses the influence of consumer loans on the profit of the employer, unemployment and welfare. The model shows that the increasing of the probability of consumer loans increases the profits, increases unemployment, decreases well-fare and in some situations it enables the employer to decrease the wages to the existential minimum. The model also suggests that for very low wages the decrease of minimum wage could lead to increase of unemployment. From the results recommendations could be obtained both for the profit maximizing employer and for the workers resisting the wage cuts.
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Wiki systems as a knowledge management tool
Pavlíček, Antonín ; Rosický, Antonín (advisor) ; Mikulecký, Peter (referee) ; Skrbek, Jan (referee)
This thesis concentrates on wiki systems as an ICT tool of knowledge management. Thesis is divided into two general parts - the first deals with the theoretical concepts such as: data, information, knowledge or community. Doctoral thesis reflects the way in which these terms are understood in different scientific disciplines, especially knowledge management. The second part deals with wiki systems, which are viewed not just in general and theoretical level, but they are also approached practically. The work provides an analysis of possible uses of wiki as a tool for knowledge management in the organization. At the end of the work there are published case studies of specific wiki system implementations (both local and from abroad) to illustrate the work's conclusions. The work has confirmed that the wiki system can be successfully used as a tool of knowledge management. The output of the work on the theoretical level is author's "circular model of know-ledge"; while on the practical level the output is determination of suitable areas for dep-loyment of wiki systems in the organization. In the end author quotes a number of case studies (both foreign and local) wiki systems implementation.
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Modelling the human approach to world
Sigmund, Tomáš ; Toman, Prokop (advisor) ; Řepa, Václav (referee) ; Havel, Ivan M (referee)
The work "Modelling the human approach to world" is part of the mutlidisciplinary field of informatics which deals with production and use of information systems in enterprises and other communities. It contributes to its development in the area of human-machine relationship and communicating information. At present information systems (IS) are used for collecting, distributing, storing, processing and conveying information. Their components are hardware (machines) and software. Without information systems today's work with information wouldn't be possible. People remain in spite of intensive implementation of information technologies the main element for companies' operation. Information technologies help man, cannot replace him however. To understand the role of information technologies it is important to be aware of the difference between man and machine (computer) information processing from which we can deduce the implications for business operation. The computer is only able to work with a reality model prepared by a human being. Reality is in information systems represented by means of signs. Even though we can understand the information system as a tool similar to classical tools (typing machine, filing cabinet etc.), there is a difference, because these tools don't exist as physical objects, but only as signs. The symbolic nature of information systems didn't interest researchers in the past very much, but now it increases. The first reason can be found in the massive implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT), which calls for intelligibility of their representation; the second reason can be found in the fact that computers are used as media with functions similar to textbooks, letters, newspapers, telephones, films, where the importance of semiotics has already been recognized. The advancement of hardware requires from software developers abilities similar to professional artists. The third reason lies in the fact that production processes are more and more controlled by computers. Cooperating people must rely on symbols mediated by computers (Andersen, 1997). IS are more complex and important is their influence on people on many levels and through many means. Structuralism may be of some help as it studied similar phenomena in the first half of the 20th century. In the first part of my work I described the differences between human and computer information processing, in the second part I analysed the modelling theories which take into account the human approach and at the end I deduced general conclusions for the relationship between man and computer in information system and suggested some recommendations on how to improve their relationship and make human understanding and use of information in information system easier. One of the researchers who studied the difference between man and machine was Hubert Dreyfus. He came to the conclusion that there is a principle difference between man and machine. He identified some typical situations where man and machine differ: Rule following, bodily existence, situations, pattern recognition etc. Dreyfus' analysis will be supplemented with the analysis of public space, intentionality and language. I don't want to present a complete description of human approach to world, I rather sketch some key points to clarify the difference between man and machine. From the analysis of man and machine two conclusions emerge: on the one hand proposal how to analyse and propose information system which would better connect subjective and objective aspects; on the other hand importance of IS integration into the business culture and the whole context of human work. As a suitable approach appears in compliance with P. Ricoeur structuralism and its analysis of narrativity. In the area of IS development there are four so called socio-technical theories which try to incorporate some principles of human approach to world into their modelling procedures and balance the superiority of technical view on the human computer interaction. The main common feature of these theories lies in the emphasis on the importance of human factor for organisations (they consider organisations social systems). The role of technical equipment is seen in the support of human activities. They are called Language Action Perspective, specifically methodology DEMO, Organisational Semiotics, Theory of Organised Activity and Human Interaction Management. DEMO methodology focuses on communication which is analysed by means of four axioms based on the language act theory. The theory differentiates between locution, illocution and perlocution. Locution deals with the proposition's content, illocution is related to the intention which we communicate the proposition with and perlocution contains effects in the addressee. From these three perspectives production and communication acts are analysed. Organizational semiotics deals with the semiotic aspect of human communication. It uses a six-stage semiotic ladder with physical, empirical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and social level. On all these levels communication and its signs are analysed. On the first three levels machines can be used, on the next three levels the human work with information is carried out and machines don't help there much. Organisational semiotics emphasizes the social level where organisational, social and cultural norms play an important role. Theory of organized activity is based on the theory of units which the group has in common. The theory divides the world on actors and things. For the activity to start both these elements must be present. Typical features of actors are interest and responsibility. The human interaction management tries to modify the proposal and functioning of information systems in order to respect the principles of human work. The basic argument of human interaction management is that most processes where people are involved is in instant change which cannot be governed by rules independent of the process participants. Flexibility is necessary for success. K.H. Broninski, the author of Management of Human Interaction, calls for support for mental work a transformation of information into knowledge. He proposes a procedure structuring work. It consist of five parts: research, evaluation, analysis, constrain, task. Another piece of knowledge of the Human interaction management is that a big proportion of human work has small concrete results, and cannot be quantified. However time spent on researching, comparing, evaluating, generally information processing and their transformation into knowledge, is a substantial part of a worker cooperating with colleagues and other people. It is better for employees to have supportive rather than directive leadership, as people are individuals. People do things in different times, in different ways, on the basis of communication with others, according to the state of resources and their mood. They do what they consider most appropriate in given situation. Continual process change must be possible and it is necessary to support it. Human activities are creative, exploratory and loosely structured. The socio-technical theories neither explicitly address the difference between man and machine nor try to unify their perspectives organically. However they show some content elements which are important for human beings. When considering the human approach to world we cannot be limited to a set of perceptions where man and machine differ. We should consider their arrangement which allows for new ways of understanding reality. The synthesis of the elements can be carried out only when the elements are linked together into a structure, e.g. a plot. Another problem lies in the necessity to consider time. Progressive development and its modalities constitute integral part of a homogenous stylistic form. Two rationalities are at work here; the one understands the world in its unity mediated by a form, best of all and most generally by a narrative; the other systemizes the first understanding and transforms it onto a syntactic level. The modelling techniques use the second syntactic rationality; we can reach it only in time, however. Stories have many advantages in comparison to other ways of conveying information: aims, causes, chances, agents are unified in time and space into a plot. Originally different elements are unified in the plot. They seem accidental; however they gain necessity in the plot. Other important aspects are source of information, narrator, rhythm, repetition and focalization. These elements can be separated on three levels: text, plot, fabula. They concentrate on different elements and their relations. We will use the results of work of the structuralist J. Greimas and his theory of actants suggesting which role can be considered in narrative information conveying. His semiotic square is a method of understanding context elements. Analysis of the elements of narrative which are the results of structuralist research cannot substitute the narrative understanding; we can only approximate it and explain it in further details. We encounter a creative act which cannot be reduced on rules and formalized. That is why a creative approach of the author is necessary in the development of IS. The conclusion achieved in the analysis of differences between human and machine that human understanding and behaviour is not completely formalizable was found in our attempt to use the structuralist approach on design and functioning of information systems. The interconnection of objective world of machines with the subjective human understanding is possible in a story created by a creative human being able to ensure organic and natural unity.
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General Methodology of IT Service Portfolio Management
Charvát, Josef ; Střížová, Vlasta (advisor) ; Pour, Jan (referee) ; Mikulecký, Peter (referee)
One of the key processes of IS/IT service provider is Service Level Management. IT service provider faces a problem how the services should be defined, how a balanced service portfolio should be set up and how the processes covering the service management should be designed to meet strategic goals of the organization. The thesis focuses on IS/IT service portfolio design and management with a particular focus on infrastructure services. General goal of the thesis is to support IS/IT service provider's activities directly linked with service level management, IT financial management and IT service portfolio design. The thesis puts together theoretical sources in the area of IT Governance, generally accepted methodologies and best practices, actual market trends and author's experience. The theoretical part maps current development in the field of IS/IT service management, summarizes relevant theoretical inputs, categorizes IS/IT services, gives an overview of the most commonly used pricing models and presents actual IS/IT market trends, such as SaaS or Utility Computing. The application part, which follows the theoretical part of the thesis, is built upon fundaments of key findings and conclusions of the theoretical part. Application section introduces a method of service level management transformation and a business model suitable for IS/IT service provider. Furthermore a process of IS/IT service portfolio design is introduced. The process is supported by an analytical tool, which enables analysis of provider's financial and infrastructure data. The output of the analysis is a set of scenarios of IS/IT service portfolio including revenue, costs and utilization of resources and technologies. Academic benefit is seen not only in the consolidation of relevant theoretical sources dealing with IT service design and management. The thesis also introduces frameworks for optimization of service level management process and a concept of a IT service provider's business model. A practical contribution of the thesis is seen in a process of IT service portfolio design supported by an analytical tool for provider's real data processing, covering demand, capacity, utilization and financials.
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Post-processing of association rules by multicriterial clustering method
Kejkula, Martin ; Rauch, Jan (advisor) ; Berka, Petr (referee) ; Máša, Petr (referee)
Association rules mining is one of several ways of knowledge discovery in databases. Paradoxically, data mining itself can produce such great amounts of association rules that there is a new knowledge management problem: there can easily be thousands or even more association rules holding in a data set. The goal of this work is to design a new method for association rules post-processing. The method should be software and domain independent. The output of the new method should be structured description of the whole set of discovered association rules. The output should help user to work with discovered rules. The path to reach the goal I used is: to split association rules into clusters. Each cluster should contain rules, which are more similar each other than to rules from another cluster. The output of the method is such cluster definition and description. The main contribution of this Ph.D. thesis is the described new Multicriterial clustering association rules method. Secondary contribution is the discussion of already published association rules post-processing methods. The output of the introduced new method are clusters of rules, which cannot be reached by any of former post-processing methods. According user expectations clusters are more relevant and more effective than any former association rules clustering results. The method is based on two orthogonal clustering of the same set of association rules. One clustering is based on interestingness measures (confidence, support, interest, etc.). Second clustering is inspired by document clustering in information retrieval. The representation of rules in vectors like documents is fontal in this thesis. The thesis is organized as follows. Chapter 2 identify the role of association rules in the KDD (knowledge discovery in databases) process, using KDD methodologies (CRISP-DM, SEMMA, GUHA, RAMSYS). Chapter 3 define association rule and introduce characteristics of association rules (including interestingness measuress). Chapter 4 introduce current association rules post-processing methods. Chapter 5 is the introduction to cluster analysis. Chapter 6 is the description of the new Multicriterial clustering association rules method. Chapter 7 consists of several experiments. Chapter 8 discuss possibilities of usage and development of the new method.
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