|
|
Evolution of the preferences of the Council of the European Union in negotiating Transparency Register
Štefániková, Michaela ; Martinková, Viera (advisor) ; Plechanovová, Běla (referee)
The thesis examines the evolution of the preferences of the Council of the European Union in the context of the approval of the European lobbying control mechanism, the so-called Transparency Register. In the thesis, the author sets three research hypotheses that seek to prove the influence of three different factors on the positions of the Council, as the last institution to enter the negotiation process. The thesis is based on rational choice theory, specifically the agenda-setting as well as the principal-agent sub-theory. The methodological form of the thesis research is based on the qualitative method of process-tracing, which explains the investigation of the chain of events or decision processes through which conditions are transformed into outcomes. The examination of agenda-setting confirmed the fact that although the Commission as the primary actor of agenda-setting at the EU level has fulfilled this role, it uses only soft power and a diplomatic narrative that lacks authority, which prevents it from convincing the Council to actively cooperate in negotiating the Register. On the contrary, the informal but significant agenda-setting role of the European Parliament, through publicity and inter-institutional dialogue, has achieved that the Council has agreed to the negotiations, even in the...
|
|
|
Countries' Representation in Professional Staff of the World Health Organization
Slámková, Eliška ; Parízek, Michal (advisor) ; Tesař, Jakub (referee)
My thesis is focused on the composition and countries' representation in the professional staff of the World Health Organization. The thesis will analyse the overrepresentation and underrepresentation of the WHO's member states and explain possible patterns in the staff. The thesis will focus on the relationship between the number of Member State's professional staff in the WHO and the state's GDP growth, expenditure on education and population size. My thesis aims to research the characteristics of staff's composition in the WHO. I will analyse professional staff structure and apply the Principal-Agent theoretical framework. The research will show how the state's representation of member states changed over time and see also the gender composition of the Secretariat. The timeline of this work is from 1999 till 2019. The thesis works with official documents from human resources of the WHO and datasets of the World Bank. Analysis of data is provided by the statistical programme SPSS and Microsoft Excel. Key words World Health Organization, representation, professional staff, principal-agent theory, correlation coefficients, regression analysis
|
|
|
Anti-Corruption policy gap: The case of Azerbaijan
Kamilsoy, Najmin ; Frič, Pavol (advisor) ; Haddad, Fawzi (referee)
Systemic corruption remains a challenge to good governance and development in many parts of the world, while anti-corruption policies have largely been failing to prove success, despite increased international efforts. The growing scope of research literature suggests that ineffectiveness of the fight against corruption is caused by the inadequate theoretical ground that anti-corruption activities are developed on. Principal-agent model of anti-corruption interventions, which have been dominant, fall short in targeting the roots of systemic corruption and its informal institutions. As a result, a policy gap emerges between the reality of corruption and practice to curb it. By presenting the main indicators of systemic corruption and features of the anti-corruption policy gap, this thesis probes into the nature of corruption in Azerbaijan and analyzes the anti-corruption policies in place. It concludes that systemic corruption continues to prevail as a norm in Azerbaijan, while measures to fight against corrupt practices remain largely unsuccessful, due to lack of political will of principals, in contrary to the assumptions of the principal-agent framework.
|
guest ::
