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"Fiat lux!" Public Lighting in Czech Towns in 19th and the Beginning of 20th Century
Jelínek, David ; Himl, Pavel (advisor) ; Pokludová, Andrea (referee)
The phenomenon of introducing public lighting in Czech cities is mainly associated with the increase in population in regionally important centres of industry, trade, craft, or administration. Unlike classical historiographical monographs, this work aims to investigate how the introduction of public lighting took place, who was involved in it, and what was at stake. Through the analysis of literary sources, particularly newspaper articles (both national and local) and archival records, the thesis seeks to highlight the attributes of light not only as a purely practical urban element, but also as a carrier of symbolic levels of security and progress. It is shown that light played an important role as a maintainer of security and prevented criminal behaviour by its presence. It is further revealed that light was a manifestation of civilization, education, and progress. Having public lighting on the streets was therefore not only a practical but also a symbolic issue. It was also reflected in the electoral programs of local political parties. It was not, however, the municipalities that incurred considerable costs in upgrading the lighting infrastructure (setting up gas plants, power stations, laying pipes); it was private entities that entered into contracts with municipalities for decades. However,...
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Prevalence of Etatism in the 20th-Century Great Britain
Erva, Martin ; Kovář, Martin (advisor) ; Tajovský, Ladislav (referee) ; Soukup, Jaromír (referee)
The United Kingdom is imprinted in our historical memory as the birthplace of modern democracy, the rule of law and respect to private ownership. However, this memory reflects deep history of the 19th century rather than the present state of affairs. The English like other developed nations have acquired the policy of state interventions, nationalization of private enterprise for a compensation, fight against the economic cycle in an unprecedented consensus. Many of the contemporaries assess England through the prism of Margaret Thatcher, however, as demonstrated in this work, her right-winged policy proved an exception to the Conservative Party's rule. Historiography ascribes the reasons of the situation especially to the Labour Party. A number of history works limits the causality of the state growth to the onset of the Laborites. It is apparent, however, that the search for the reasons of the state of affairs needs to quest much deeper in history. Despite its name, the Liberal Party is an institution with a long tradition of state-positive thinking. It was the new Radical Liberals who arrived with a "ransom" theory as well as the program of urban socialism, which does not seem to be a symptom of the laissez faire era in the today's regulated world of private waterworks, gas and electric power...
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