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The current standing of the Democratic Unionist Party: The changing position of irish unionists following the Good Friday Agreement
Hanzlík, Matyáš ; Říchová, Blanka (advisor) ; Žiljak, Filip (referee)
The subject of this bachelor's thesis is Northern Irish unionism and its evolution after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) on the 10th of April 1998 through the analysis of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). This political party is very significant for Northern Irish unionism and for Northern Ireland as a whole through its political dominance for the majority of the period since the implementation of said agreement. Even with its aforementioned dominance, the DUP didn't successfully defend the position of the strongest political party in Northern Ireland following the latest regional elections, which occurred on the 5th of May 2022. There has not been such a defeat for unionists in Northern Ireland since its formation over a century ago. This thesis will aim to explain said decline of electoral support through a case study of the DUP and it will try to explain if there was a singular tipping point behind it, or if there's a longer-term trend of decline. In the first part of the thesis, the author will describe basic knowledge about the party, ranging from its creation in 1971 to the present day. The second part will see the author attempting to analyze the party's actions and decisions through a periodization of the electoral periods since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement,...
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Irish Political Parties and its Political Positions on EU
Ševčíková, Kristýna ; Stauber, Jakub (advisor) ; Říchová, Blanka (referee)
The thesis entitled Irish political parties and the evolution of their positions towards the EU deals with an overlooked issue in our context, which is related to the attitude of political parties in Ireland and their relationship with the EU, and the author has defined the period of her analysis as 2002-2020. The first part of the thesis introduces the theoretical concept of Euroscepticism through the most influential theoretical contributions of authors such as Paul Taggart, Aleks Szczerbiak, Petr Kopecký, Cas Mudde, and Soren Rishoj. Also, it discusses the degree of Europeanisation of the Irish political system or political parties themselves. The next part of the thesis then discusses the formation of the Irish political and party system, referred to as the so-called two-and-a-half party system with two dominant political parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, and analyses the other political actors. The thesis is a longitudinal analysis building on data collected from the Comparative Manifesto Project, Chapel Hill Expert Survey. The author has supplemented this data with her 2020 election dataset and presents it in detail in the methodology section. The data analysis was carried out in R using Wordscores and TF-IDF, designed to answer three research questions for the content analysis of party...
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Comparison of Sinn Féin's policy in Ireland and Northern Ireland
Kouba, Tomáš ; Perottino, Michel (advisor) ; Říchová, Blanka (referee)
This bachelor thesis deals with a comparative analysis of two parts of the Sinn Féin party, which as the only relevant political party appears in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Both parts of the party received unordinary support in the recent British and Irish elections and will sit in the Irish, Northern Ireland and British Parliaments. Sinn Féin is presented as republican, nationalist, left-wing party that seeks to unite Ireland in one state from its inception in the early 20th century. The thesis will deal with the similarities and differences in the functioning of the parties in both parts of the island. Account will be taken of the development of the party as such, the structure of the party organization, funding and programs for the 2017 (Northern Ireland Assembly), 2019 (House of Commons) and 2020 (Dáil Éireann) elections. Based on the individual findings, a comparative analysis will take place. During the analyzes, it is important to take into account the political systems of both countries where the party works, which have a fundamental influence on the behavior of individual parts. The conclusion of the thesis will then provide a final analysis of individual research, which will either confirm or refute the hypothesis of the bachelor's thesis.
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Political marketing of Sinn Féin between 1996-2007
Kratschmer, Adam ; Kasáková, Zuzana (advisor) ; Šlosarčík, Ivo (referee)
This bachelor thesis examines the political marketing of Northern Ireland political party Sinn Féin between 1996-2007. The thesis is divided in three chapters based on electoral terms to Northern Ireland Forum and afterwards Northern Ireland Assembly. During this period, Sinn Féin undergoes a considerable development. This development is divided into phases, which helps to determine which type of party is Sinn Féin according to Jennifer Lees-Marshment's typology of parties. Sinn Féin is shifting from a party oriented on product (POP) to a party oriented on sales (SOP). Sinn Féin is consistently changing its approach towards the politics in Northern Ireland. From an extremist party, which is unwilling to participate in state's politics, to not only mainstream party, but also the second strongest party in Northern Ireland. During several periods of time, the party professionalizes its communication within the party, but also its communication towards media. The party is gradually developing new "product", which is based on a support of peace process and Good Friday Agreement. With time, the party faces a problem in connection with the paramilitary organization IRA with which was Sinn Féin linked in the past. Due to the shift of Sinn Féin to the sales-oriented side and the market research phase, the...
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Irish Party System and its changes in last 25 years (the role of Sinn Féin)
Lukášová, Hana ; Říchová, Blanka (advisor) ; Stauber, Jakub (referee)
This thesis' topic is The Irish party system and its changes in the last 25 years with a focus on the role of Sinn Féin. While Sinn Féin was the largest party in the first Irish parliament at the beginning of the 20th century, the rest of the century the party remained minor. Its strong ties to the Irish Republican Army kept the party from gaining official recognition both from the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, since the party contests in both parts of the island of Ireland. The connection to IRA together with the policy of abstentionism, which the party practiced until 1986 in the Republic and until 1998 to the Northern Ireland Assembly, put the party on the edge of the interest of both scholars and voters. However, after the peace process in Northern Ireland, the situation changed rapidly, at least in the case of voters. Today, only twenty years after the process ended, Sinn Féin is the second largest (and the largest nationalist) party in the Northern Ireland assembly and the third biggest in the Dáil (the lower house of the Irish parliament), succeeding the Labour party at this position. And while the voters support for the party grows, most of the scholars still consider to be only a political wing of the IRA or a minor party. The descriptive part of this thesis narrates the...
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The Irish Conflict, An Example of Violent Conflict within Christianity
KENDALLOVÁ, Jitka
The Bachelor dissertation focuses on the problem of the conflict between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland. Special attention is drawn to the situation in the province of Ulster. The work focuses on two crucial issues. Firstly the systematic repression of the rights of minority groups and the inability by formally declared democracy to prevent violence in the face of the majority in a modern country like Great Britain. Secondly with reference to a particular Northern-Irish conflict it focuses on the problem of using religion for asserting political aims. Both of these problems lead to a municipal problem which is the relationship between religion, politics and society in 20th century. Analysis comes partly from reflection of the historical formation of the conflict. The conflict itself as a specific social phenomenon is examined with reference to the common theory of conflict of Ralf Dahrendorf. The problematic relationship between politics, religion and violence is examined with reference to the sociological concept of Mark Juergensmeyer and Max Weber and the concept of Christian ethics.
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Conflict in Northern Ireland
Sikorová, Tereza ; Vymětal, Petr (advisor) ; Reschová, Jana (referee)
The aim of Bachelor thesis is to process the issue of Northern Ireland conflict and its resolution and to determine the constitutes of the conflict and its possible development in the future. Because of involvement of IRA in the conflict it is also the aim to define the concept of terrorism and to assess whether the IRA is regarded as a terrorist organization. The first chapter deals with analysis of historical contexts and assumptions of the conflict. This chapter focuses on development in the period shortly after the partition of the island in 1921. The next chapter deals with the definition of the term of terrorism and its main features, developmental stages, differences between conventional and guerrilla war and its type-distribution. It also outlines the origins of the Irish Republican Army, and what elements of terrorism, the IRA shares. The last chapter includes the concrete analysis of Northern Ireland conflict since partition of the island and the process of its solution.
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