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The Czech Republic as an Emerging Donor Country and the Policy Change towards Aid Effectiveness
Trousil, Pavel ; Nekola, Martin (advisor) ; Horký-Hlucháň , Ondřej (referee)
In an analysis of the development of the Czech foreign aid policy, I use the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) to examine what policy change towards aid effectiveness has occurred from the mid-1990's to the present. Using this explanatory framework, I suggest that the changes towards aid effectiveness, which have occurred during this period, are minor rather than major ones. I argue that during this time the Czech foreign aid policy has been dominated by a belief system of the majority coalition that represents a realistic approach to foreign aid policy based on self-interested interests such as mutual interests, commercial motives or political and strategic interests. By the application of the ACF, I attempt to explain the policy process and the reasons why a major policy change has not occurred. In this analysis, I argue that in spite of the processes external to the policy subsystem (e.g. the occurrence of aid effectiveness movement), the minority coalition, whose belief system is mainly represented by altruistic motives and the support for increasing aid effectiveness, has not had enough policy-relevant resources to press for a major policy change. I argue that the conflict between the coalitions is driven by normative beliefs and that it is more likely that there will be incremental policy...
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Alcoholism in Czechoslovakia: social reflection on this feature in the 20th century
Trousil, Pavel ; Pullmann, Michal (referee) ; Rákosník, Jakub (advisor)
The thesis entitled " Alcoholism in Czechoslovakia - Social Reflection on this feature in the 20th Century" deals with the topic of alcohol consumption in the cultural environment of Czechoslovakia which the author tries to describe in historical perspective on a general level with a special emphasis on description and comparison of public opinion, important social norms (also those implicated by legislation) as well as social structures. The temporal horizon concerned is related approximately with the period of existence of Czechoslovakia. Moreover, the author takes into consideration also the present situation which is characterised by considerable alcohol consumption and a not very restrictive system concerning the distribution of alcoholic beverages in the Czech Republic. Due to the fact that this topic is not a typical one in the field of historiography, the author first tries to define basic notions related to the "alcohol question", points out to the importance of alcohol as a specific fact of the European civilisation and, at the same time, tries to emphasise some fundamental moments which had a significant influence onto the relation of the society towards this substance as well as onto its thinking about it (such as the discovery of distillation and, in the second case, the process of...
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