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Patterns of Institutionalization of Political Parties in the Czech Republic
Stauber, Jakub ; Perottino, Michel (advisor) ; Dvořáková, Vladimíra (referee) ; Kouba, Karel (referee)
Research on political parties and their organizational stability presents one of the most important research agendas in modern comparative politics. Especially among newly democratized countries of the Central and Eastern Europe, the consolidation of democratic political institutions used to be considered as a key factor for the successful finishing of the whole transitional process. Despite the fact that most of the transitologists optimistically perceived the consolidation of the new democracies as a one-way process, the most of party systems in the eastern countries experienced serious changes and periods of instability within the last ten years. The most notable change was definitely the unexpected electoral success of genuinely new political parties and movements usually led by a political entrepreneur and formed without solid organizational background or solid ties to society. This tendency further turned into a new wave of unpredictability even within the party systems commonly perceived as fully stabilized and consolidated. Based on such new conditions, the contemporary party researchers turn their attention towards possible interpretations of this unprecedented phenomenon. This dissertation contributes to this discussion by the attempt to operationalize and explain the level of...
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Behavior and institutional change
Baxa, Jaromír ; Kouba, Karel (advisor)
The main aim is to explain, why we can observe strong persistence in human or firm behavior despite substantial change of economic environment and why persistence of informal institutions occurs. During recent two decades there were various trials to provide explanation of persistence of behavior based on presumption of existence of path dependency and increasing returns, reflecting findings of experimental economics with methodological background in bounded rationality or using simulations of interactions or networks. My practice is slightly different as I'm trying to incorporate findings of cognitive psychology and social cognitive learning into economics. Cognitive psychology implies that behavioral regularities, routines, are based on subjective mental models. Evolution of behavior can be now understood as evolution of routines and mental models, and thanks to their nature routines have high propensity to long persistence despite changing environment. This approach is applicable to evolution of informal institutions and it allows to explain persistence of them using shared mental models. Then informal institutions are seemed as behavioral regularities used by decisive part of the society and their evolution can be now described as diffusion of new behavioral regularity in the society and modeled using...
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Batism - ideology of utility
Úšela, Jan ; Mlejnek, Josef (advisor) ; Kouba, Karel (referee)
This diploma thesis deals with theme of so called Bataism as specific kind of societal order realized in the frame of so called company town. Bataism is characterized by that kind of political power sui generis which primarily depends on economic strength of Bata Shoes Company. Political power of Bata is substantially realizing its political power especially in the frame of town of Zlin. By researching Bataism we define term of so called capitalist paternalism which primarily describes specifics of capitalist/paternalist rule over enclosed area of his own company town (de George, Salt), then historically secondarily also specifics of his rule over broader area (Ford). By researching Bataism from an angle of political science we concentrate on the definition of its power structures and the very character of that power itself. For these purposes we use concepts of Michel Foucault as disciplinary power and model of so called Panopticon. In addition we provide definition of Bataism from the perspective of ideology and utopia. Aim of our work is describing and explaining (seeming) paradox: political program of Bataism is continually legitimized by democratic method although its performance can be seen generally non- democratic.
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The influence of unified and devided government in the first term of president Barack Obama
Gregar, Jan ; Buben, Radek (advisor) ; Kouba, Karel (referee)
The Influence of Unified and Divided Government in the First Term of the President Barack Obama Abstract: The phenomenon of divided government belongs to one of the most discussed topics in contemporary American political science. The American political system experiences its unprecedented increase since the half of the 20th century, which is connected with the raising interest in that field of interest. I draw on theory of David R. Mayhew, who as a first one systematically studied impact of divided government in comparison with the unified one. I apply his method of research to the first presidency of Barack Obama, who experience the period of both unified and divided government. Based on this data, I assume that divided government had significant influence of the second part of Obama first term in this special case. The reason is not only the type of government, but primarily the environment of Obama first presidency (high political polarisation or economic crises).
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