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Democratic Peace in Theory and Practice
Olejníková, Lenka Barbora ; Karlas, Jan (advisor) ; Rychnovská, Dagmar (referee)
The thesis "Democratic Peace in Theory and Practice" aims to present the Democratic Peace Theory as an international relations theory with a practical significance for the political practice. The Democratic Peace Theory will be first analysed as a part of a broad liberal tradition of International Relations Theory, and then particular ways of how the theory is empirically related to the practices of international politics will be examined. The main objective of the thesis is the analysis of the complex nature of the Democratic Peace Theory with the emphasis on the potentiality of the theory to have larger political impact.
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EU democracy promotion in contemporary sub- Saharan Africa: the case study of South Sudan
Husák, Jim ; Hornát, Jan (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
Democracy promotion aims to force or encourage a foreign state to become more democratic. This includes direct democracy assistance, or direct financial aid or training to the electoral arena, government and civil society, but also rhetorical commitments, political gestures, information dissemination, sanctions, conditionality and through "soft power" - cultural ties and their significance in promoting European values. The Diploma Thesis EU democracy promotion in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa: the case study of South Sudan examines these strategies as they were used by EU actors in democracy promotion in South Sudan. South Sudan is the youngest country in the world, and the EU, both in terms of EU institutions and member states has aided the country in its uneasy development to become a democratic state. How EU actors attempted to accomplish this, and how have these strategies changed between 2011 and 2020 is the focus of the research. The thesis comes to the conclusion, that the EU used a top- down approach, engaging more with government and other state institutions than with civil society. It also focused on developing good governance and rule of law, together with enhancing socio-economic sectors. The EU also promoted democracy in South Sudan through regional organisations, the IGAD, and the...
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Effectiveness of the Eastern Partnership of the EU
Dračková, Jana ; Karlas, Jan (advisor) ; Kučerová, Irah (referee)
The thesis focuses on analyzing the support of democracy model through the external governance and its efficiency as potentially more successful alternative to leverage and linkage. The theoretical part shows that democratic governance defines democracy according to the following principles: transparency, accountability and public participation. It is also based on the concept of external governance, which focuses on expanding EUs internal rules beyond its borders. For this purpose the case of Eastern Partnership was chosen. This case uses the mechanism of external governance and also applies the strategy of the support of the democracy in sector cooperation. The efficiency of this initiative or rather support of the democracy through the external governance is evaluated by comparative analysis of impact of cooperation of EU and partner country on their legislative development within the three selected sector policies (energy industry, environmental protection, justice and home affairs). The time period for the research is from establishing of the initiative in 2009 to the summit in Vilnius in the fall 2013. After general assessment of the results it can be said that the EU was successful in more than half the studied cases and thus EU is, more or less capable of an integration of its democratic...
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The development of EU democracy assistance in the 21st century: the case of Tunisia after the Arab Spring
Linhart, Jakub ; Hornát, Jan (advisor) ; Matějka, Ondřej (referee)
This paper investigates the developments of European democracy promotion in the second decade of the 21st century or more precisely after the Arab spring. The research of the European promotion structure is based on a thorough analysis, using Tunisia as an example. After this analysis, this paper further focuses on the development of overall European democracy support in Morocco, Egypt and in the broader region. From this research we learn, that in the second half of the 2010s there is an increase in the finances intended for democracy promotion in both absolute and relative terms (when compared to other sectors). This thesis analyses possible reasons for this surge e.g. an attempt to compensate for the democratic deficit in the EU or a reaction to the migration crisis. At the same time, this paper examines the limits of this development and argues that for example the need for stability will further limit any future development of the European democracy support.
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The United States' policy of democracy promotion after the intervention in Iraq.
Klimešová, Tereza ; Hornát, Jan (advisor) ; Riegl, Martin (referee)
Bibliographic note KLIMEŠOVÁ, Tereza. The Implications of the Intervention in Iraq for the United States' Policy of Democracy Promotion. Master thesis. Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of International Studies, Supervisor Ph.Dr. Jan Hornát, Ph.D. Abstract Democracy promotion has been an integral part of US foreign policy for more than a century. Particularly at the end of the 20th century, democracy flourished worldwide as autocratic regimes collapsed at large and scholars talked about the "End of History." Nevertheless, the current situation is very different, and substantial democratic backsliding is observable. Many scholars are tracing the origins of this decline to the Bush's Freedom Agenda, particularly the intervention in Iraq in 2003, arguing that it was the initial turning point for US democracy promotion. However, this thesis argues that the invasion and the subsequent war were pivotal only in part. The most visible implications were within the public perception of democracy promotion. Due to the US engagement in Iraq, domestic support deteriorated substantially. Moreover, the international community's perception of the US as a benign democracy exporter crumbled as well. Another change was observable within the rhetoric of President Obama after taking office in 2009. In...
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Czech and US Democracy Assistance: Case Study of Myanmar
Grmelová, Lucie ; Hornát, Jan (advisor) ; Sehnálková, Jana (referee)
Democracy assistance aims to encourage democratization process or solidify already existing democratic system in a foreign country. The strategy that should accomplish such goal differs according to donor country. Similarly, there are differences between Czech and American democracy assistance approaches. Diploma thesis Czech and American democracy assistance: the case study of Myanmar examines contrasts between Czech and American democracy promotion in Myanmar within the period of major political changes. The Asian country underwent transformation starting in 2011 when military junta passed several reforms, opened up a dialog with political opposition and arranged partly free parliamentary elections in 2015. The thesis focuses on Czech and American assistance and its evolution from the prerevolution period starting in 2007, through the peak of reform changes, up to NLD winning the majority of parliamentary seats and their governance in 2018. Czech democracy assistance appears to be characterized by their focus on civil society activization and bottom-up approach. On the contrary, the United States stress more than Czech assistance projects marked with political approach, thus securing free and fair election processes and other functioning democratic institutions. The case study of Myanmar and...
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The development of EU democracy assistance in the 21st century: the case of Tunisia after the Arab Spring
Linhart, Jakub ; Hornát, Jan (advisor) ; Matějka, Ondřej (referee)
This paper investigates the developments of European democracy promotion in the second decade of the 21st century or more precisely after the Arab spring. The research of the European promotion structure is based on a thorough analysis, using Tunisia as an example. After this analysis, this paper further focuses on the development of overall European democracy support in Morocco, Egypt and in the broader region. From this research we learn, that in the second half of the 2010s there is an increase in the finances intended for democracy promotion in both absolute and relative terms (when compared to other sectors). This thesis analyses possible reasons for this surge e.g. an attempt to compensate for the democratic deficit in the EU or a reaction to the migration crisis. At the same time, this paper examines the limits of this development and argues that for example the need for stability will further limit any future development of the European democracy support.
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The Limits of the EU's Political Conditionality Approach in the Western Balkans
Křiklánová, Michaela ; Karlas, Jan (advisor) ; Kučerová, Irah (referee)
The thesis aims to unravel the relationship between the EU's enlargement strategies and democratization in the Western Balkan countries by looking on the impact of the strategies on changing democracy levels in two empirical cases: the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia. Over more than a decade, the effect of the conditionality tool on democratization has been curbed by an insufficient emphasis placed on pro-democratic reforms and by the role of security concerns which were often prioritized over aims directly linked to democracy promotion. Grounded in the conflicting objectives theory, the thesis demonstrates that the recently employed strategy appropriately sequencing goals while prioritizing democratic transition over security concerns is more effective in inflicting domestic democratic change. Subsequently, the following necessary and sufficient conditions for a successful sequencing strategy were defined: strong emphasis on democracy-related goals combined with clearly outlined temporal perspective, and corresponding action of international actors.
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Democracy assistance policies of the US and the EU: different approaches and their causes
Hornát, Jan ; Weiss, Tomáš (advisor) ; van Hüllen, Vera (referee) ; Fawn, Rick (referee)
The United States of America and the institutions of the European Union are the most prominent democracy assistance donors in third countries. Over the last two decades, they have spent tens of billions of dollars to support the formation and consolidation of democratic regimes around the world. In this sense, the US and the EU have seemingly shared interests - i.e. seeking to build democratic institutions in target countries so that these become part of the community of democracies and contribute to the stability of the world's economic and political system. However, if we look at the approaches and strategies used by the US and the EU to support democracy, we find that they are often quite different and, in some respects, clashing. Why are the approaches of both actors different if they strive to reach the same goal? Or - upon closer examination - are their goals indeed somewhat different? The key problem is that democracy as such is a contested concept, so it is necessary to ask the question: if we are promoting democracy, what kind of democracy do we mean? If we finance the development of one or the other institution, what model of democratic establishment will be created? The thesis takes a constructivist view of this issue and demonstrates how the different democratic identities of the two...
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Effectiveness of the Eastern Partnership of the EU
Dračková, Jana ; Karlas, Jan (advisor) ; Kučerová, Irah (referee)
The thesis focuses on analyzing the support of democracy model through the external governance and its efficiency as potentially more successful alternative to leverage and linkage. The theoretical part shows that democratic governance defines democracy according to the following principles: transparency, accountability and public participation. It is also based on the concept of external governance, which focuses on expanding EUs internal rules beyond its borders. For this purpose the case of Eastern Partnership was chosen. This case uses the mechanism of external governance and also applies the strategy of the support of the democracy in sector cooperation. The efficiency of this initiative or rather support of the democracy through the external governance is evaluated by comparative analysis of impact of cooperation of EU and partner country on their legislative development within the three selected sector policies (energy industry, environmental protection, justice and home affairs). The time period for the research is from establishing of the initiative in 2009 to the summit in Vilnius in the fall 2013. After general assessment of the results it can be said that the EU was successful in more than half the studied cases and thus EU is, more or less capable of an integration of its democratic...
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