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Ethnic groups in the former Soviet Union space
Tkáčová, Kateřina ; Plechanovová, Běla (advisor) ; Střítecký, Vít (referee)
The topic of this diploma thesis is ethnic groups in the space of the former Soviet Union in the time period 1994-2006 and their involvement in ethnic conflicts. The aim of this thesis is to identify key parameters driving these ethnic groups towards armed conflict as a response to their needs, interests and living conditions. Key assumptions of this thesis are derived from qauntitative as well as qualitative studies. Important characteristics of ethnic groups are also included in the analysis of possible causes of ethnic conflicts. The theoretical discussion shows three main factors which can make ethnic groups more prone to conflict: permanent exclusion, strong identity and lastly dissimilarity of an ethnic group. Influence of these factors is tested using descriptive statistics, odds ratio, correlation and logistic regression. Statistical results shows that strong identity as well as discrimination of ethnic groups increase the probability of ethnic conflicts.
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Financial Crisis and Methodology of Economics
Kovanda, Lukáš ; Pavlík, Ján (advisor) ; Loužek, Marek (referee) ; Bažantová, Ilona (referee)
The thesis deals with significant moments in the relationship between methodology of economics and implications of the financial crisis culminating in 2008 and 2009. Its key insight rests upon the claim that some theoretical concepts developed within mainstream economics do not tackle the reality adequately and contributed in a significant way to the sequence of events leading to the financial crisis. Most of those concepts were introduced in the second half of the 20th century, during a "high tide" of positivistic ideas in the domain of methodology of mainstream economics. Though the same ideas had been already discredited to a large extent by the philosophy of science at the time, mainstream economists did not reflect it satisfactorily. Aside from a historical expose the thesis consists also of an outline of a possible future development of the prevailing form of economic theory; four scenarios of future potential development are presented. In the final parts of the thesis, which are focused more specifically, the author appraises negatively options of the Austrian School as well as post-Keynesianism to influence in a more significant manner the mainstream economics during the post-crisis era.
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Dispute over the plausibility of rational choice theory
Rak, Ondřej ; Lipka, David (advisor) ; Tříska, Dušan (referee)
Many critics of rational choice theory aim at unrealistic psychological assumption of this theory. To what extent is this kind of critic relevant? If we analyze the formalized scheme of choice than we will find difficult to interpret this scheme as psychological theory that develops intentional explanations. We should rather understand this theory as a theory developing causal explanations that are generated by the structure of surrounding. Intencionality in this theory is only a auxiliary tool and the explanation is made in terms of structure, not in terms of mental states. From this perspective most of the critic aim at wrong target.
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