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Towards More Participatory Governance? Comparative Analysis of Georgia and Ukraine
Makhauri, Nino ; Weiss, Tomáš (advisor) ; David, Maxine (referee)
The thesis discusses the participatory governance establishment in Georgia and Ukraine with a focus on the elements of deliberative public participation. Through the analysis of the established practices of citizen engagement, the research attempts to find out whether Georgia and Ukraine managed to construct the system of the inclusion of the people in policy-making and set up the opportunities for deliberative public participation. The thesis contains the analysis of the legislative frameworks and the implemented Open Government Partnership initiatives in Georgia and Ukraine to find out which platforms of citizen engagement are set up in both countries and identify their character: do these platforms include the elements of deliberative public participation? If yes, to what extent? Each of the main mechanisms of citizen engagement is analysed according to the four categories defined in the evaluation framework. After identifying the level of deliberative public participation in both countries, the thesis discusses the environments both in Georgia and Ukraine to understand which factors underpinned the process of the development of deliberative public participation, and also, which factors held back the progress.
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Non-medical use of buprenorphine in Georgia: prevalence, socio-demographic and environmental correlates, treatment and policy options
Otiashvili, David ; Miovský, Michal (advisor) ; Kalina, Kamil (referee) ; Vorel, František (referee)
Extramedicínské (zne)užívání buprenorfinu v Gruzii a efektivní léčebná intervence MUDr. David Otiashvili Abstrakt Background Since early 2000s, the nonmedical abuse of buprenorphine (Subutex®) tablets, presumably smuggled from EU countries, has represented major phenomena of the problem drug scene in the Republic of Georgia. In a country with relatively high level of injecting drug use (estimated 40,000 persons, i.e. 1.5 % of population aged 15-64, of whom over 50% inject buprenorphine), this represent a major public health problem that needs detailed description and comprehensive set of interventions. Aim (i) To describe the extent of nonmedical buprenorphine ab/use in the Republic of Georgia, the characteristics of the nonmedical ab/users and their motivations for seeking and using the black market buprenorphine. Subsequently, (ii) to plan and pilot-test a treatment intervention that would be more specific and effective than the simple detoxification and/or harm reduction modalities available in Georgian on a routine basis. Setting Four regional centres of Georgia were included into the descriptive part of the study: the cities of Tbilisi, Gori, Zugdidi, and Batumi. The intervention (sub)study was conducted in one Tbilisi addiction treatment clinic. Participants and methods For the descriptive part of the...
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Voting rights or voting wrongs? Voter suppression in the USA: Case study of Georgia
Barková, Tereza ; Sehnálková, Jana (advisor) ; Kozák, Kryštof (referee)
This bachelor thesis deals with the issue of voter suppression in Georgia. It is divided into historical and contemporary part. Within historical part, it analyzes relevant laws, constitutional amendments and court rulings that were behind gradual expansion of voting rights. It also focuses on discriminatory measures enacted in Jim Crow era, such as poll taxes, tests of literacy, white primaries or disenfranchisement for committing certain types of felonies. Historical part closes with the 2013 US Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder which ended federal preclearance of Georgia's changes in election laws, resulting in enaction of new barriers for the exercise of voting rights. Current methods of voter suppression in Georgia include strict registration rules, voter identification requirements, voter roll purges, unsatisfactory accessibility and functionality of poll places and disenfranchisement of felons. Thesis concludes that these barriers disproportionally affect minorities and poor voters. Moreover, thesis identifies main strategies used by local civil rights organizations in the fight against voter suppression - litigation, legislative lobbying and mobilization, education and empowerment of the voters.
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Limits of europeanization: Case study of Georgian electoral reforms
Jeziorská, Kristýna ; Weiss, Tomáš (advisor) ; Kasáková, Zuzana (referee)
The diploma thesis is based on the phenomenon of Europeanization and its limits in third countries (with a focus on the European neighbourhood countries). It focuses on the influence of the European Union on the adopted electoral reforms in Georgia. It is processed in the form of diachronic comparison. Thanks to it, it will be possible to achieve an understanding of the dynamics of the changes and their development. According to the analysis of the current research of the limits of Europeanization in third countries, the main factors behind these limits have been identified. These were applied to the two pre-selected electoral reforms. It was monitored whether these factors were valid for the given reform, whether they were also valid for the second selected electoral reform over time, or whether these factors contribute to the overall failure of Europeanization in Georgia.
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Post-Vilnius European Neighborhood Policy: The Case of South Caucasus
Akdemir, Enes ; Knutelská, Viera (advisor) ; Plechanovová, Běla (referee)
This study attempts to analyze the evolution of the ENP in Southern Caucasus during post- Vilnius era. With contributions of the recent history, it aims to find out how these evolving policies affected the region from the competing theories perspective. It's seeking an answer to whether or not "initially neoliberal" strategy of ENP is designed to transform the region into a space with stability. While doing this, effectiveness of the ENP and multidirectional contributions it brought to the region is discussed. Neorealist and neoliberalist assumptions made for assessing the ENP's practices in the region. The thesis is methodologically supported with Congruence Analysis, which qualitatively enables us to observe theoretical developments based on multiple cases. Drawing on the main challenges to ENP's initial strategy, main hypotesis argue that neorealist assumptions are prevailing over neoliberalist assumptions, which can be shown as an outcome of the ENP's evolving policies in post- Vilnius era.
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The peacekeeping partnership between the UN and a regional organisation: case of cooperation between UN peacekeeping operation UNOMIG and CIS peacekeeping operation CISPKF
Fošumpaurová, Anna ; Šír, Jan (advisor) ; Svoboda, Karel (referee)
Bachelor thesis The peacekeeping partnership between the UN and a regional organisation: case of cooperation between UN peacekeeping operation UNOMIG and CIS peacekeeping operation CISPKF Anna Fošumpaurová Abstract The thesis deals with the United Nations' peacekeeping operations. Particular focus is dedicated to cooperation between the UN and regional organisations and what potential benefits and limitations this cooperation offers to peacekeeping. The case study aims to describe the cooperation between in parallel deployed operations of the United Nations (UNOMIG) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CISPKF) in Georgia, Abkhazia. The chronological span of the thesis is between the August 1993 and June 2009, when UN operation UNOMIG was active. The thesis firstly provides the theoretical framework of UN peacekeeping. This part lays out the legal basis for the deployment of peacekeeping operations, investigates different ways of understanding peacekeeping and its classifications, its basic principles as well as wider processes that influenced peacekeeping's nature after the end of the Cold War, including the increased participation of regional organisations. This theoretical framework serves to explain the cooperation between the UN and the CIS in peacekeeping conducted in the environment of the...
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Peacekeeping forces as an instrument of enforcement of influence abroad: South Ossetia case
Müller, Matyáš ; Šír, Jan (advisor) ; Pondělíček, Jiří (referee)
The bachellor thesis deals with Russian use of the Joint Control Commission in South Ossetia by which they aim to preserve its influence in Georgia, that is being one of the post-soviet republics. The first part of the thesis is focusing on the historical context of this event, which includes the decription of the origin of the Joint Control Commission as well as what responsibilities and jurisdictions had an impact on the participating states of the commission. The second part of the thesis is presented as a case study of the RussoGeorgian war in 2008, where are shown specific examples of the Russian use of its peacekeeping forces, which were depoloyed to maintain the influence abroad. The thesis concludes by providing an outline that answers whether Russia managed maintain or even boost its power in Georgia by using the peacekeeping units.
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Measuring the performance of Public Universities of Georgia: The Case of Social Sciences Faculties Problems of education quality and knowledge production
Shubitidze, Sopiko ; Balon, Jan (advisor) ; Senkova, Olga (referee)
In this research I investigate the problem of education quality at the faculties of Social Sciences at four Georgian Public Universities. The findings of research are derived through interviewing of professors and document analysis of Georgian legislation concerning higher education and European-level frameworks supporting the enhancement of education quality. I deal with the problem of quality using the mixture of theories. I divided researched topics in three parts: Ideological, Institutional and personal-level. The majority of theoretical claims were disproved in the local context of Georgia. Education quality and knowledge production are multi-faceted problems at Georgian Public Universities, Faculties of Social Sciences and it mainly is related to the scarce state resources allocated to HEIs in general in Georgia.
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Russian 'hybrid warfare': 1979-2014
Feryna, Jan ; Bahenský, Vojtěch (advisor) ; Kofroň, Jan (referee)
This bachelor thesis deals with research question of whether so called Russian hybrid warfare is new or not. In the introduction chapter, a structure of this thesis is presented. After the introduction, Western and Russian views on hybrid warfare are discussed and used as a concept. The author assumes that hybrid warfare was used by Russia in Crimea and eastern Ukraine and therefore is this case considered as proven. Above mentioned Russian view on hybrid warfare is operationalized and then applied. There are two main cases which will be examined - Soviet invasion in Afghanistan in 1979 and Russian war with Georgia in 2008. Results chapter comprises of final table which sums up results of the research. In the conclusion chapter, there is a clear answer to the above-mentioned research question.
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