|
|
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...
|
|
|
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...
|
|
|
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...
|
|
|
Evaluation of Study Visits as a Form of International Cooperation between NGOs.
Puzdrova, Maryna ; Pospíšilová, Tereza (advisor) ; Pajas, Petr (referee)
The goal of this thesis is to assess the usefulness of study visits organised by Czech civil society organisations as a form of international cooperation in the period 2006 - 2010 and to map out the possibilities for making study visits for Belarusian participants in the Czech Republic more effective. An additional goal of this study is to identify potential opportunities for increasing the impact of study visits and long-term cooperation with the Belarusian non- governmental sector. This thesis also describes the phenomena of democracy assistance the whole and its positive and negative aspects in Belarus. Besides that, this paper focuses on the notion of democracy assistance in the context of the Czech Republic. Key words: democracy assistance, transition promotion, civil society, Belarus, study visits
|
guest ::
