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Comparison of the Czechoslovak and German prison system following World War II.
Pinerová, Klára ; Štaif, Jiří (advisor) ; Veber, Václav (referee) ; Roubal, Petr (referee)
Title: Comparison of the Czechoslovak and German prison systems following World War II Author: Klára Pinerová Department: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, Institute of Economic and Social History Supervisor: prof. PhDr. Jiří Štaif, CSc. After World War II, countries that fell into the Soviet sphere of influence experienced major social, political and economic changes in a process which is in literature usually referred to as "Sovietization". This dissertation analyzes this process in the particular case of prison systems in Czechoslovakia and the Societ Occupation Zone which later became the German Democratic Republic. Its main focus lies on the way the Soviet model was applied in both countries, what kinds of similarities or differences can be traced in its development and what were the factors and reasons causing them. The main argument of the dissertation is that Sovietization, even though it produced similar results, was carried out in different ways in the individual countries, depending not only on previous development, but also on the geopolitical position and specific features of the country as well as on the will of the local communist establishment to adopt the Soviet model. It should be also noted that the Soviet model was not uniformly defined, but subject to konstant...
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Comparative analysis of Czechoslovak and Finnish strategic cultures before World War II
Jílek, Tomáš ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Soukup, Jaromír (referee)
Aim of the thesis is to examine the influence of strategic culture on states and their most substantial decisions. The concept of strategic culture introduced first by Jack Snyder in the 1970s is today generally accepted, there are even warnings that culturalism may become too fashionable, indeed some authors say this is already happening. Most works however focus on strategic cultures of countries with long and rich history, historical experience and a great amount of various doctrinal documents - such as USA, Russia, China or India. My aim is to identify the influence of strategic culture in small countries, with a rather short period of independence - Finland and Czechoslovakia before World War II. They differ in one crucial decision: Czechoslovakia had decided to yield to German territorial demands, while Finland had decided not to do so and as a result faced a war against the Soviet Union. Hypothesis of this work is that this crucial difference is caused by different strategic cultures in the two contexts.
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Czechoslovakia in 1960s from the point of view of theory of non-democratic regimes
Slezáková, Martina ; Just, Petr (advisor) ; Mlejnek, Josef (referee)
Abstract The Master thesis Czechoslovakia in 1960s from the point of view of theory non- democratic regimes deals with the analysis of political, economic and social development, especially with the so-called Prague Spring of 1968. The 1968 reform was an attempt to transform the Czechoslovak communist regime. The aim was to transform Czechoslovakia into a modern industrial society, break free from the total subordination to the Soviet Union, yet with the leading role of the Communist Party. For this reason, the year 1968 holds an important position in our post-war history. The thesis is divided into two main parts and seven chapters. The first part is devoted to non-democratic theories, particularly to totalitarianism and authoritarianism. The second part describes the events in the communist Czechoslovakia between 1948 and 1960. And subsequently, the remaining part is devoted to the main topic of the thesis, to Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. The aim of my thesis was to describe the situation in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, identify the causes and consequences of the so-called Prague Spring of 1968 and try to match Czechoslovakia to a certain type of non-democratic regime in the 1960s and thus determine where Czechoslovakia was on the imaginary scale from totalitarianism to democracy in this period.
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Polish Workers in Czechoslovakia: Unwelcome Friendship: Specific features of temporary labor migration in the socialist system
Klípa, Ondřej ; Kučera, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Uherek, Zdeněk (referee) ; Zahradníček, Tomáš (referee)
Dissertation Title Polish Workers in Czechoslovakia: Unwelcome Friendship Specific features of temporary labor migration in the socialist system Author Ondřej Klípa Summary The aim of the dissertation is to study the case of Polish workers in Czechoslovakia who were employed on conditions set by intergovernmental treaties. Most of them were women. This case had two specific features. First, it was highly regulated by both of the co-operating states. Second, the state bodies tried to control intensively both the workers in order to isolate them from local population and the public discourse of this topic. In this study I argue that both of the features arise from fundamental elements of socialist system, which are "economy of shortage" and totalitarianism. These elements were identified in the work of Hungarian economist János Kornai. Instead of totalitarianism as a coherent concept I use only certain totalitarian practices that were exercised with variable intensity, depending on circumstances. In the dissertation I examine causality between these two fundamental elements (independent variables) and both regulation and control (dependent variables). For this purpose I consider the studied case as a specific model of temporary labor migration in socialist system. The case is also situated in a broader...
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Twenty Years of the Politics of Electoral Reform for the Chamber of Deputies in the Czech Republic, 1989-2009
Charvát, Jakub ; Bureš, Jan (advisor) ; Klíma, Michal (referee) ; Novák, Miroslav (referee)
The presented thesis mainly focuses on an analysis of twenty years of the politics of electoral reform in Czechoslovakia (1990-1992), on the federal level (the Federal Assembly), and the national level (the Czech National Council), respectively, and later on the politics of electoral reform in the Czech Republic, on the national level (the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic). First, the thesis discusses how and why electoral systems are chosen and changed. Recent analysis of the politics of electoral reform has yielded two main theoretical perspectives regarding the reforms of recent decades. The first one, the power-maximizing perspective, assumes that politicians control the choice of the electoral system and that they are motivated to maximize their power. The other perspective allows for a wider range of actors - in particular, including ordinary citizens as well as politicians - and sees electoral reform as the product of a mix of inherent and contingent factors. Reform can, under this approach, occur in response to specific instances of systemic failure. More recently, Alan Renwick (in 2010 and more precisely in 2011) seeks to develop a more refined understanding of electoral reform processes through two steps. At the outset, there is an acknowledgement that there are...
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Media view of events of november 1939 in chosen years
Němcová, Karolína ; Bednařík, Petr (advisor) ; Francová, Pavla (referee)
The presented bachelor thesis deals with media view of events of November 1939 created by Rudé právo, Lidová demokracie and Mladá fronta in chosen years, starting 1945, then 1949 and then after every five years until 1968 and 1969. The theoretical part provides an insight into the historical background of these events based on the academic literature. The practical part contains the analysis of particular articles and it is divided into seven chapters according to examined year. Each chapter includes brief information about the status of media in society in a selected year, a description of the media image of these events produced by the newspapers mentioned above and its subsequent analysis at the end of each chapter. The aim of this thesis is finding how Czech newspapers presented the events of Novemeber 1939 depending on their orientation and the social and political context by using comparative historical analysis.
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Czechoslovak-US Relations, 1977-1981
Hrušková, Ivana ; Horčička, Václav (advisor) ; Koura, Jan (referee)
Diploma thesis "Czechoslovak-US Relations, 1977-1981" examines the nature and development of bilateral relations between these two states primarily during Carter's period. The thesis describes foreign policy of the United States towards communist countries of Eastern Europe in the late 70's and early 80's of the 20th century and compares this policy with foreign policy of Nixon's and Ford's administrations. The paper briefly describes prevailing situation in the USA in the late 70's, impact of Carter's administration activities on global development of USA-SSSR relations and influence of changes on international field on Czechoslovak-American relations. The main attention is drawn to the nature of Czechoslovak-U.S. relations, matters of mutual interest and to the friction areas among the states. Political and diplomatic relations as well as economic and cultural relations are observed. The thesis also analyzes Carter's initiative to enhance human rights throughout the world and to fulfil the Helsinki commitments, which had essential importance for further developement of U.S. relations with the Soviet bloc states. Key words: Czechoslovak-American relations, The United States, Czechoslovakia, The Soviet Union, Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, human rights, détente, differentiation policy
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