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Legitimization Strategies of the Authoritarian Regime in Belarus
Osterrothová, Sára ; Šír, Jan (advisor) ; Kolenovská, Daniela (referee)
This bachelor's thesis analyses the legitimization strategies of the authoritarian regime in Belarus during the period 1994-2020. The typology of legitimization strategies by Christian von Soest and Julia Grauvogel serves as the theoretical framework of the thesis. This thesis not only identifies which strategies were used by the Lukashenko regime but above all analyses how they manifested themselves. This allows the topic to be examined comprehensively and the evolution of these strategies to be taken into account. Attention is first of all paid to the persona of Alexander Lukashenko and his role as "batka" (i.e. father in Belarusian), the protector of the collective memory of veterans, the guarantor of the country's "economic stability", and the defender of Belarusian sovereignty. The importance of the formal existence of elections in Lukashenko's rhetoric is also addressed. The thesis examines the formation of Belarusian state ideology, which is based on the official understanding of "Belarusianness", and the ideologization of the so-called Great Patriotic War. Last but not least, the thesis examines Lukashenko's social contract as well as how the regime refers to its role on the international stage and how it uses the rhetoric of external threats. The main finding of the thesis is that the...
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Representational Practices of Rebel Governance
Köbke, Stefan ; Ditrych, Ondřej (advisor) ; Tesař, Jakub (referee)
Representational Practices of Rebel Governance Much of the literature on rebel governance has been focusing on the material factors that influence rebel activities. However, rebels frequently engage in practices that have no clear material benefit. Instead, these are meant to increase their legitimacy with certain groups, by representing a normative conception of authoritative rule. This thesis offers a process-based theoretical framework for understanding these "representational practices" by considering them as acts of communication from rebel senders to their audiences. To this extent, rebels frame themselves as continuous, time-transcendent rulers (content) within authoritative normative frameworks (contexts) and use various "artifacts" and bodily movement as "channels" to transmit these claims. This model is then applied to an interpretive, single-case study of the "Islamic State" rebels in Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2017. It is found that the model can explain many of the IS's activities. The group framed its ideas of time-transcendent rule in millenarian and apocalyptic contexts, had to adapt its messages to different audiences (such as local civilians and foreign fighters), and communicated its claims not only through internet posts, but also through a careful control of sites within...
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Challenging Hegemony: Coercion, Repression and Protest in Liberal Democracies.
Čapinská, Barbora ; Kýrová, Lucie (advisor) ; Gagnon, Jean-Paul (referee) ; Wahlström, Mattias (referee)
Barbora Čapinská Abstract for dissertation thesis Challenging hegemony: coercion, repression, and protest in liberal democracies Year of defence: 2022 Abstract: This dissertation project identifies and classifies the types of coercive and repressive methods liberal democratic states use to prevent, resist, or suppress protest via analysis of secondary literature from several disparate academic fields. Despite the substantial fragmentation of the relevant research, it systematizes and clarifies the terminology used to describe these phenomena and combines the extant findings from all relevant research strands. Above all, the project stresses the fact that repressions are employed in response to a threat posed by the challengers, but the degree of this threat, or respectively legitimacy of the protest, is influenced or even constructed by the mass media coverage of protest and social movements. By endorsing a discourse-theoretical prism and the concept of hegemony, a relational definition of state, and a three-dimensional view of power, the author proposes to view protest and repression as a hegemonic struggle, in which protest is a counter-hegemonic discourse and the state an embodiment of hegemony suppressing challenges. To supplement existent typologies, the author introduces the concepts 'institutional...
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Straight up serious top shit
Ferenc, Jiří ; Sikora, Erik (referee) ; Hládeková, Katarína (advisor)
Diloma's work objectifies humour and makes the viewer feel that art does not have to be overly serious or condescending. Ideally, the work should induce relaxation and laughter in the viewer, such as when reading memes on a cell phone. At the same time, the whole project should feel like a full-fledged gallery exhibition. The project is not so much about the themes of the individual works as it is about the method of communication, which is humour. For the art community, the thesis could eventually offer the question of the legitimacy of humour in art. The thesis is based on the assumption that humour exists in art, but is often not visible. This is due to the fact that there are not a large number of artists who work with humour in a long-term and purposeful way.
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Mass media portrayal of Czech courts
Forejtová, Natálie ; Homolová, Pavla (advisor) ; Sedláčková, Markéta (referee)
This thesis focuses on the mass media portrayal of Czech courts in the context of the possible influence on the court's legitimacy and confidence. The research of portrayal is based on the analysis of Fagan's dimensions of legitimacy (effectiveness, distributive justice and procedural justice), court rulings and the overall view. The representation of sources of legitimacy rather corresponds to materialistic society - the most represented dimension in 2014 was the effectiveness, on the other hand, distributive justice was represented the least. Normative factors, namely procedural fairness, however, were not covered much. The portrayal in 2014 was, in terms of judicial rulings and the overall view, rather neutral but the sources of legitimacy were mostly negative. Differences were mainly found among mass media portrayal of the lower courts and higher courts and the differences correspond to different confidence in these institutions. I also studied the development since 1997, but besides the increasing interest of mass media in the courts, I have not found any other significant differences which could cause the rise of confidence in the courts. Mass media can also cause the difference in confidence in the courts of the left-wing and right-wing oriented people, because the journal Pravo has a slight...
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Public Opinion Surveys in China
Smolařová, Lucie ; Vinopal, Jiří (advisor) ; Šubrt, Jiří (referee)
Based on the examination of the relevant literature and findings from academic survey research, this Master's thesis focuses on the reflection of the political development in public opinion research in China and on the contour of local collective opinion. Its theoretical part stems from James Bryce's theory of the development of public opinion and from the writings of Irving Crespi who noted that the extent and role of public opinion research in different political regimes rely on the acceptance of public opinion in the political process and on the basis of governmental legitimacy. The increasing pluralization of public opinion, which is the result of the processes tied to Chinese economic liberalization and which has been reflected in the official ideology and in the growing emphasis on public opinion polling claimed by the government, is still outweighed by the inclination of the Chinese Confucian society towards authoritarian leadership. The liberalization process is further reflected in the extent of public opinion research; however, recent studies show that the results from public opinion polls are not reported objectively and survey responses of Chinese respondents are strongly influenced by the political regime. KEYWORDS China, public opinion, polls, legitimacy, James Bryce, Irving Crespi
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The Judiciary - Europa's (il)legitimate Child?
Štamberk, David ; Zemánek, Jiří (advisor) ; Král, Richard (referee)
The thesis is focused on examination of issues of legitimacy of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The problem is perceived in the context of the growing importance of the judiciary both at national and international levels. Judges are increasingly forced by circumstances to shape law. Their role in the system of bodies of states and international organisations is thus changed. The courts of the highest instance in particular become political actors. Traditional (functional) conception of their legitimacy, based on the requirements of professional credit, independence and impartiality, is then shown to be insufficient and must be supplemented by democratic legitimacy and proven existence of the legitimizing chain. Due to growing influence of international courts of justice this problem is projected to the international level. In the case of the Court of Justice of the European Union the whole problem is even more intense for its supranational character and influence, which it acquires consequently. It should therefore be at the forefront of efforts to improve the legitimacy of the international judiciary. The current situation however does not really corresond to it. Improvements in the appointment of Judges and Advocates-General were therefore proposed. Larger involvement of the European...
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Rusian approach to military intervention under the "Responsibility to Protect" principle
Prokopová, Barbora ; Aslan, Emil (advisor) ; Horák, Slavomír (referee)
As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the Russian Federation plays an important role in the debate over humanitarian interventions. These are defined by the Responsibility to Protect principle that allows international military intervention into internal political crisis of other countries in case the security of civilian population is in danger. Russia sent its army to Georgia in 2008 and Crimea in 2014 referring to this principle. However, it was Russia's reluctance to approve any intervention that governed the diplomatic negotiations during the Libyan civil war in 2011. The importance of the problem of various understanding of the R2P principle by different world powers is still crucial and is also clearly visible on the ongoing conflict in Syria. This thesis focuses on the approach of the Russian Federation to the Responsibility to Protect principle. It determines general factors that influence the issue of humanitarian intervention in the framework of Russian foreign policy, and puts Russian attitude to the overall context of the discussion about this principle. The thesis confirms the assumption that the R2P principle has become a Russian foreign policy instrument, which has been misused within the Russian sphere of interest and used to obstruct the interventions initiated by the...
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Presumption of illegitimacy of the state power
Gregárek, Matěj ; Kysela, Jan (advisor) ; Maršálek, Pavel (referee)
The thesis challenges the established "myth of easy legitimacy" and argues for more cautious attitude toward involuntary social arrangements by shifting the burden of proof in favour of the rigorous individual rights. Any State action shall be held for impermissible unless it is shown to be unavoidable - beyond reasonable doubts. With the assumption of existence of individual rights as a starting point, the thesis inquires into the attempts to derive State's legitimacy from individual rights. Finding this task virtually impossible, it comes to the conclusion that the only way how to legitimize the State is to compromise the individual rights somehow. Yet, to maintain some meaning of the rights, this compromise need to be restricted in scope, so the thesis analyses further the meaningfulness of "necessary and proper" provisos and the notion of "ideology" as a factor driving collective action and as the ultimate check of the State's power.
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Legitimization of Law by Jűrgen Habermas and Niklas Luhmann
Mucala, Václav ; Šamánek, Jan (advisor) ; Grznár, Miroslav (referee)
This article is comparation of sociological theories of Niklas Luhmann and Jürgen Habermas, specifically by their relation to law and the way it acquires its justification in society. The key difference of both attitudes is result of different approaches to concepts of system. Jürgen Habermas holds concept of open system and it makes him to think about law as institutionalization of communicative racionality of lifeworld. Theory of Niklas Luhmann shifts to the concept of closed system an it characterizes las as institution which lives its own life normatively closed to social enviroment. Comparsion of both theories by legitimity of law leads us to ask about their relation to positivistic concepts and the concepts of natural law. We argue that sociology of Law presented by Jürgen Habermas has its similarities with natural law concepts and autopoietic law of Niklas Luhmann has much in common with legal positivism. In spite of both has different attitude to rationalization of law, they describe legitimization of law in terms of procedure. Finally we argue, that there is possibility to find common elements and that those theories can understand each other.
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