| Abstract [eng] |
The main object “The Development of the International Olympic Committee as a Political Subject in the XXIst century” Master thesis is to analyse the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a political subject. The purpose of the thesis is to investigate if the continuous changes and actions of the IOC, which call itself apolitical, have any political impacts behind them. The tasks of this analysis are to define if the IOC is political; summarise the main activities; compare the pressure made by the IOC to different countries where IOC takes place. This Master thesis analyses the definition of political subject, structure of IOC, specifics and activities of nongovernmental organization (NGO). Comparing the IOC with NGO helps to understand how political the IOC is by coming out of boundaries of NGO. Furthermore, in order to understand the importance of sports for politics, the history and events of Olympic Games are reviewed (as well as an impact of countries to Olympic Games). This thesis explores press releases, the Olympic Charter and results of the IOC sessions. The timeframe of analysis is from 2000 to 2015. This period has been picked not only for being recent but also because it contains Beijing and Sochi Olympic Games – it is possible to compare the difference of pressure made by IOC. In order to fulfil the purpose of this publication – method of proof by induction is used. The following subjects have been covered: • The Olympic Charter describes activities of the IOC being completely apolitical but the IOC does break traditional NGO boundaries because of its “ideology” (Olympism declares IOC autonomy) and enlarged structure: IOC use Olympism as a motive to propose changes in the law; the activities of IOC are expanding into collaboration with the government in infrastructure projects. • Countries and especially the organizers of Olympic Games are impacted as political objects but differently. First of all, IOC takes much stricter position during 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games than during 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. It criticizes China less, because of the importance of country in the development of IOC. Also, The IOC is becoming global: the number of National Olympic Committees has reached 206 – making all countries being affected by the processes mentioned above. Lastly, while not interfering in some subjects in some countries, but not interfering in other, the IOC becomes political, too. As an example, Russia has been warned for numerous non-compliances with human right laws while China has received none. This fact raises suspicions that the importance of China could have been a major factor for difference of actions. • The most important (the most continuous and agenda consuming) task of the IOC in the 2000–2015 period is the strengthening of communication processes with the United Nations (UN): the UN is affected by the IOC by using transnational advocacy networks; the UN is being used as tribune for the IOC in General Assembly; the UN granted autonomy for the IOC, which lets it increase its impact even more as well as an absence of accountability Having analysed the topics above, it is clear that the IOC has always been shaping itself as a political subject – getting more and more involved in both national and international affairs. The thesis could become the basis for the following research topics: • The research states the importance of youth. Therefore, the more detailed research on youths’ position in political movement of Olympic games; • The IOC as an object which is shaped by neoliberal approach; • It is assumed that changes in the IOC structure and “ideology” are also very dependent on the current (at that period) leader of the organization. |
