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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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Does Foreign Aid Decrease Inequality? Evidence from the Most Recent Data
Umlaufová, Anna ; Baxa, Jaromír (advisor) ; Pleticha, Petr (referee)
Income inequality is an alarming issue affecting especially developing countries, yet very scarce attention is paid to how it is influenced by development aid. This study investigates the relationship, focusing on modern approaches to foreign assistance which have changed considerably since 1999. With a sample of 123 developing countries, the effect is estimated using both static and dynamic panel data techniques while controlling for the Kuznets curve. The results show that robust to method and functional form, development aid neither improves nor worsens inequality. Nonetheless, estimating the model for specific groups of countries in the sample yields different, statistically significant results, while also depending on political environment. JEL Classification D31, F35, C23 Keywords Inequality, Foreign Aid, Panel Data Title Does Foreign Aid Decrease Inequality? Evi- dence from the Most Recent Data Author's e-mail anna.umlaufova9@gmail.com Supervisor's e-mail jaromir.baxa@fsv.cuni.cz
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The survival of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan: why didn't Jordan take part in the Arab Spring?
Altwal, Yara ; Záhora, Jakub (advisor) ; Daniel, Jan (referee)
Analyzing the various factors that strengthened the Hashemite regime's stability during the spread of chaos caused by the Arab Spring is deemed important; even though the wave of the Arab Spring has ended, Jordan's economy is still suffering and the public is still demanding reform nonetheless, the Hashemite regime is untouched. This research will analyze the regime-society bond in light of the Arab Uprising that has undoubtedly assisted in the survival of the kingdom by creating a framework by which protesters unconsciously adhered to that entailed calls for political and economic reform to be initiated by the existing regime. Furthermore, the Hashemite's most powerful allies made sure to provide military and financial assistance to ensure the regime and the kingdoms remain secure and stable. However, such aid did not come without a price; it was critical for the Hashemite regime to balance between maintaining its coordinated strategies with its allies to maintain the close relations and maintaining its sovereignty and the foreign policies that serve national interests.
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American foreign policy and Colombian peace process
Svoboda, Ondřej ; Raška, Francis (advisor) ; Kozák, Kryštof (referee)
This study analyzes American foreign policy with respect to Colombia since the beginning of the new millennium. The main pillar of this policy is a strategy called Plan Colombia. While the original reasoning behind Plan Colombia was to enforce better antinarcotic strategy to avoid cocaine distribution to the United States, by the time it morphed into a state-building effort. My main interest in this study is to answer the question whether Plan Colombia was successful and if so then whether it was a prerequisite for launching peace negotiations with the FARC and achieving durable peace. This study has several parts. At first, I shed a light into a situation in Colombia at the beginning of the new millennium and explain the motivation behind Plan Colombia. Next, I summarize the historical perspective and describe the most important events leading to the breakthrough which was the signing of the peace treaty with FARC. In the following section, I look more deeply into data about money transfers and I also analyze important socio-political indicators. In the conclusion, I explain why Plan Colombia was in my view a successful policy. I also discuss upon what was the success dependent.
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Debt Relief and Growth: A Study of the HIPC Initiative
Kutman, Jan ; Cahlík, Tomáš (advisor) ; Pleticha, Petr (referee)
Debt relief is a form of development aid that began to gain importance in the last decade of the 20th century. In 1996 the World Bank and the IMF jointly launched the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, a comprehensive and structured program designed to provide debt relief for eligible low-income countries. The purpose of my thesis is to investigate, whether debt relief for developing countries over the period 1996-2015 affected economic growth in the recipient countries with particular attention being paid to the HIPC countries. I also investigate whether the impact of debt relief on growth varies conditional on institutional quality. I find that the low-income countries on average did not benefit from debt relief. However, I find that debt forgiveness has enhanced the growth rates in the countries in the HIPC initiative. Based on the results of my regression analysis I did not find evidence that the effectivity of debt relief in either group of countries depends on institutional quality.
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Does Aid Lead to More Trade? Evidence of the Effect of US Aid on its Exports
Schütz, Anna ; Paulus, Michal (advisor) ; Semerák, Vilém (referee)
This thesis investigates the effect of US development aid on US exports to 134 recipient countries over the time period 1993 to 2015 with an application of the gravity model of international trade. Estimates of one-way panel dataset, specified by a dummy approach and estimated with OLS and PPML, suggest that for every aid dollar spent by the United States, US exports significantly increase by 1.59 US dollar. By lagging the aid variable for several years after disbursement, we find a declining effect of US aid on US exports, which indicates that tied aid is an important channel of the effect's magnitude. The effect does not vary systematically across income groups. Yet for geographical regions with a higher US export share, the impact of US aid on US exports is significantly larger suggesting that existing trading relations contribute to a larger effect of aid on donor's exports. The evidence shows that US aid increases US exports and reinforces economic relations with recipient countries and, thus, can be regarded as an important motive for the donor to provide development aid.
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Comparison of foreign aid of USA and China with the concentration on region of Latin America
Mičovská, Natália ; Kučerová, Irah (advisor) ; Parízek, Michal (referee)
The topic of this thesis is "Comparison of foreign aid of USA and China with the concentration on the region of Latin America". In the past several years, the foreign aid of People's Republic of China has grown dramatically to the region of Latin America and Caribbean. The United States is a traditional donor and Latin America is its long-term sphere of influence. Until recently, China had been recognized more as a foreign aid receiver, not as a donor. However, since the beginning of the 21st century, China has massively increased the support of developing economies. China, as an emerging donor, is not very transparent and it is very hard to estimate its future. Chinese government treats the foreign aid data as a national secret and it releases only very comprehensive data. As states, USA and China are very different, from historical or economical point of view, both have different political regimes, or standards of living. This work aims to point out the similarities and differences between the two countries and their motivation to provide foreign aid to Latin-American countries. Through the qualitative comparison I would like to prove/disprove two hypothesis: 1) Both countries provide foreign aid to develop the region of Latin America, however, both have different motivation - while for USA the...
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Involvement of the People's Republic of China in Africa
Svobodová, Petra ; Kučerová, Irah (advisor) ; Karásek, Tomáš (referee)
Diploma thesis "Involvement of the People's Republic of China in Africa' deals with the evolution of China-Africa cooperation in the three specified time periods. Mainly it deals with the time period of the last nearly sixty years. This time period was subsequently divided into the period of the Cold War, 1990s and the last period is representing the year 2000 up to the present. Even though the diploma thesis deals with the African continent as a whole unit, the special emphasis was put on the four specific countries - namely Angola, Nigeria, Sudan and Zimbabwe. It analyses how the mutual cooperation has changed during these three different time periods and what has been the main components of China-Africa relationship. Primarily cooperation in the economic (foreign direct investments, foreign aid, balance of trade etc.), the political, but also the military sphere is analysed. The emphasis is also put on the Chinese status of a genuine alternative to the Western donor block, especially its policy of non- interference and aid without conditions. Diploma thesis also briefly touches on the approach of the traditional Western countries towards Africa (Washington versus Beijing Consensus). Positive and negative sides of mutual cooperation is also discussed.
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Overview of Foreign Aid in the Balkan Countries: Selected problems
Mullaj, Genta ; Baxa, Jaromír (advisor) ; Chytilová, Julie (referee)
This study attempts to ascertain the role of the World Bank and its problematical issues in Balkan countries. The foreign aid holds a key impact in these economies, but on the other hand it embraces a controversial aspect. The contradictory role of the World Bank lies in aid ineffectiveness at reducing poverty and sustaining economic growth. The foreign aid inflows did not manage to fulfill its objectives efficiently, since they created income inequalities in the region favoring distinctive economies. Corruption and bad-governmental management would expand the controversially further. Additionally, the study analyzes the impact of aid on economic growth empirically using a panel data set comprising of five Balkan economies during 2000-2010 period. We find negative and significant evidence of aid impact on growth. Moreover, the relation between governance and growth resulted positive. Results display a clear framework of aid ineffectively across the region. The Balkan countries should therefore focus on a better effective management of the World Bank aid to reduce poverty, income inequality and to achieve the economic growth.
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The support of czech nonprofit sector by dutch foundations and organizations
Jamrichová, Hana ; Moree, Dana (advisor) ; Dohnalová, Marie (referee)
Diploma thesis "The support of Czech nonprofit sector by Dutch foundations and organizations" deals with a help and support of transforming society in 1989. It describes the civil sector in 1989, forms of financing non-profit organizations and deals with the role of foreign aid. Theoretical part contains a chapter about the Netherlands, the history of relations with this country as well as a focus on Dutch development assistance and its evaluation. The list of Dutch foundations and organizations that supported Czech civil sector is included. The research focuses on the MATRA/KAP program. The aim of research was to find out, which organizations were supported and what criteria have been established for obtaining support. I was also interested about experiences of donor and supported organizations.
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