The modernisation of society and intensive globalisation led sport to become a highly organised and structured phenomenon. Its development was influenced by various factors, while management at a global level has been taken over by international sport organisations, primarily by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), around which a regulated Olympic System has developed. In the examination of global sport, as one of the less visible and explored aspects of global governance, the discipline of International Relations falls behind other social sciences. One of the reasons for this is also the absence of a systematic theoretical analysis of this area. In order to fill this gap, this master thesis aims to answer the question: how can the use of the theories of international relations and an analysis of the Olympic System with features of global governance help us understand the emergence, the existence and the functioning of global governance in the field of sport as one of the fields of global governance? The identification of the regulated Olympic System as global governance in the field of sport enables the application of dominant theories of international relations (realism, liberalism, constructivism and Marxist theories) onto this field. The theories, within the limits of their capacities, interpret and explain the functioning of global governance in the field of sport, and, as a set of theories, they highlight the important elements and phenomena of global sport governance. The analysis offers a reflection on the further theoretical exploration of this field.
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