|
|
Liberalism and its justification in contemporary political philosophy
Cíbik, Matej ; Jirsa, Jakub (advisor) ; Chotaš, Jiří (referee) ; Moural, Josef (referee)
This thesis attempts to answer one basic question: what we can philosophically say to justify liberalism as a mode of political existence of society. It is divided into three parts. In the first one, I critically survey two popular answers to this question, employing the concepts of self- ownership and value pluralism respectively. I argue that both of them are inadequate and unsatisfactory, mostly because they operate with a conception of person that is too thin for the justificatory task. In the second part, I develop an interpretation of John Rawls and the conception of person he uses. I argue that this conception is crucial with regards to his answer to my question, yet that he provides only a limited and in the final analysis unpersuasive justification for it. The third part tries to remedy the deficiencies of Rawlsian liberalism by providing a better argumentative support for his conception of person and developing from it two arguments aiming to justify liberalism as a mode of political existence of society Key words Liberalism - John Rawls - Pluralism - Conception of person
|
|
|
A Survey of Czech Economists: What Do They Think?
Sikora, Jakub ; Janský, Petr (advisor) ; Cingl, Lubomír (referee)
Traditional consensus surveys show that economists continually cannot reach an agreement on certain key policies. According to the previous research, this is mostly attributable to the differences in the political views of the economists. This thesis aims to explore additional factors, which could potentially influence the level of consensus and what the underlying causes of different views are. The author conducted a web-based survey of Czech economists and received 116 responses; the questionnaire included questions related to the economic policy of the Czech Republic and to the background of the respondents. Subsequently, a detailed analysis of the results was performed and an econometric model was constructed. The author finds that differences in views are truly the main cause of dissent among economists while other factors mostly have a negligible impact. It seems that the tendency to have liberal (=laissez faire) opinions tends to go up with income, that women tend to be less liberal than men, and that economists raised in the countryside incline to have less liberal opinions. Moreover, it was shown that graduates from the University of Economics tend to have significantly more liberal views in comparison with the graduates from other universities, ceteris paribus. However, there is still much to be...
|
|
|
Neoliberalism as an art of government : a Foucauldian analysis of neoliberalism
Kučerová, Nikola ; Franěk, Jakub (advisor) ; Ditrych, Ondřej (referee)
In this thesis I am concernced with a Foucauldian analysis of neoliberal government and application of this concept in the Petr Nečas's government. The Foucauldian analysis of power is a constant critical process that is supposed to modify according to changing terms. Foucault argues that the core of the art of government is a conflict. He doesn't understand the modern history as a history of law and peace. From the Foucauldian point of view the modern history has always been the history of conflict of two races. The winnig race determines law and rules of the whole society. It means that law and freedom are tools of governance. The basis of Foucault's concept is a relationship between power, knowledge and subject. This relationship constitutes technologies of governance. Foucault talks about three techniques - pastoral power, disciplinary power and bio-power. The bio-power is especially in the modern age. The modern art of government uses knowledge of experts (statistics, analyses, reports) for conduct of conduct. The inidividuals are not only the recepients of effects of power, but also they are distributors of power. The identity of subjects is formed by family, teachers and co- workers and they are also formed by their milieu. The consequence of this process is mentality of a modern person. The...
|
|
|
Impact of the November Uprising on the Concept of the Polish Nation: Analysis of Political Thought of the Great Emigration
Czudek, Michal ; Květina, Jan (advisor) ; Doubek, Vratislav (referee)
The aim of presented work is to analyze the impact of the November Uprising (powstanie listopadowe) had on the change of a conception of the Polish nation. The November Uprising which broke out in the Kingdom od Poland and western Russian territories in 1830-1831 is considered in this work to be a key event that stands as a climax of a broad opposition movement that was active throughout the 1820s. Defeat of the insurrection resulted in a massive exodus of the Poles and launched a new era marked by two distinctive features: foreign environment within which the emigrants had to live and changed conditions within the Kingdom of Poland itself. Presented analysis traces the evolution of conception of nation solely within the political realm, because it is the only one - compared to philosophical or religious realms - that enables creation of precise political programs regarding crucial aspects of lifes of the Polish emigrants and answers the main following questions: how should the Poles proceed in order to restore an independent Poland, how should they define the social base of the Polish nation and finally who should be their partner in the arena of international relations. In this study specific attention is given to the position of social group of peasants-serfs within the Polish nation, because...
|
|
|
Hegel's Critique of Ideology
Korda, Tomáš ; Karásek, Jindřich (advisor) ; Znoj, Milan (referee)
This work explores the possibilities of Hegel's critique of liberalisms and Marxism. Firstly, I define the "Return to Hegel", or more precisely, the way how we should conceive of this return to Hegel in order to really return to him. In second part, this formal definition of return is given its content, i.e. Hegel's concept of state. This concept had been denied by the doctrine of liberalism as well as of Marxism and this denial, as I try to demonstrate, can be considered a theoretical cause of totalitarianism. Or, in other words, totalitarianism can be speculatively comprehended as the manifestation of this denial. Thus as long as we live in a post-totalitarian era, Hegel is our contemporary. The last part consists of an explication of Hegel's critique of understanding (Verstand). The main reason for this explication is that liberalism and Marxism are 'understanding'- theories of state, and because of that, they were not able to conceive of the state as an object of Reason (Vernunft) and therefore, they failed to recognize the state as rational in itself. The theoretical result of this analysis is that Hegel's critique of understanding can be grasped, so to speak, as a 'critique of ideology avant la lettre', if the concept of ideology is adequately redefined.
|
|
|
Pirate parties as liberal parties?
Kudrna, Pavel ; Brunclík, Miloš (advisor) ; Perottino, Michel (referee)
The diploma thesis aims to confirm whether Pirate parties are liberal and left-libertarian parties and that they are similar to green parties in this way. After 2006 Pirate parties emerged gradually as a new alternative to manage the politics and democracy in Western democracies. Pirates came up with themes such as the fight against copyright or the protection of individuals within the internet. In the first theoretical part of this thesis both liberalism and left-libertarianism as well as Green parties are discussed. The second empirical part deals with Pirate parties. First, their origin and development are described and, with an emphasis on Swedish, German, Icelandic and the Czech Pirate Party - because of their relevance associated with electoral successes -, basic elements of their programmes are introduced. Based on those findings the analysis confronting the elements of liberalism and left-libertarianism with programmes of Pirate parties is performed in the final section of the thesis. The hypothesis that Pirate parties are predominantly left-libertarian parties is proved. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
|
|
| |
|
|
Liberal democracy in the rhetoric of Viktor Orbán
Vait, Martin ; Kubátová, Hana (advisor) ; Franěk, Jakub (referee)
The subject of this thesis is to analyze the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's rhetoric towards the key elements of liberal democracy defined by Larry Diamond since year 2010. The thesis follows up on previous studies in this area which address the changes in the Hungarian constitutional order and political practice of the past years. It also reacts to the public discussion about the situation in Hungary which is accompanied by criticism of the Hungarian government on the part of international institutions and nongovernmental organizations. The basis for pursuing with this particular topic is Viktor Orbán's stated intention to turn away from the Hungarian state organization built on the principles of liberal democracy. The thesis raises the question in what aspects is Viktor Orbán verbally distancing himself from the elements of liberal democracy. This question is divided into three levels, examining the area of Orbán's intended state organization, Orbán's interpretation of liberal democracy, and, most...
|
|
|
Liberal political thought in the works of Karel Havlíček Borovský
Jiras, Jakub ; Stracený, Josef (advisor) ; Lánský, Ondřej (referee)
This bachelor thesis focuses on analysis of political thought in the works of Karel Havlíček Borovský - the founder of political journalism in Bohemia. It tries to prove that there's good reason to deal with Havlíček's personality as relevant part of European liberal thought in the 19th century. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first one describes history of liberal thought till the end of 19th century. The second part characterizes Havlíček's life and puts emphasis on his journalistic career. The third and also the main chapter analyses representative elements of Havlíček's liberal philosophy. The author is convinced that Havlíček can be regarded as one of few thinkers who stand at the beginning of the way to social liberalism.
|
|
|
Equality in the Framework of Justice
Aşik, Kübra ; Salamon, Janusz (advisor) ; Franěk, Jakub (referee)
This thesis assesses the relation between equality and justice by exploring and identifying the relation between equality and justice in Rawls's theory of justice, Sandel's communitarian account of Justice and Sen's capability approach. And these accounts of justice are evaluated from an egalitarian point of view. The main argument defended in the thesis is that justice requires equality. Accordingly, these three accounts of justice are evaluated by taking their understanding of equality into consideration. Egalitarian evaluation of these accounts of justice reveals that all three of them fall short in accordance with the relation between equality and justice in their understanding of justice. Keywords: Capabilities, distributive justice, egalitarianism, equality, fairness, inequality, justice, social justice, virtues
|
guest ::
