Search results

The author addresses the social participation issue in the context of its significance to public policy in Poland. He examines the barriers limiting the expansion of participation. He notices them in the way a democracy functions ("failed democracy" according to Democracy Index), as well as in the way the dialogue has been organised (for example, two separate currents have been established - i.e. the social one and the civic one, which is quite unusual by Western European standards). He regards the politicians' perception of what a democracy is as a next barrier. As a result of that one can see lower standards of public sphere in place, antiquated public governance still in place, the underdevelopment of the legal framework for social dialogue and the low quality of policy-making. The author also describes the most important social phenomena relating to the functioning of the social and civic dialogue mechanisms. He analyses the sources of the current condition of the dialogue in terms of historical, structural as well as political factors.

The author describes the policy change which took place within last years in the economic policy in the most developed countries as well as in Poland. That relates to the relevance of industrial sector in the world economy. During the prevalence of the neoliberal way of thinking in the economic policy it has been regarded as the one in decline. Its neoliberal advocates were convinced that this sector is going to be replaced by the service sector as a growth engine in the world economy. But with 15 years, quit unexpectedly, a belief in the relevance of it collapsed. That resulted from the technological progress in the industrial sector as well as the global economic crises which began in 2008. At present, the economic discourse revolves around the necessity of the modern reindustrialization. This is a challenge for the Polish economic policy as well. In Poland we saw too much deindustrialization within last two decades, which weakened our prospects for development.

The reviewed book by T. Piketty has become one of the bestsellers in the world, and soon after its publication appeared reviews expressing both positive (and even enthusiastic) opinions, as well as highly critical ones. The latter, to some extent, refer to the theory of K. Marx, whose works are used by the author in the title of the book and partly in research. The subject of this publication is creation, division and possession of capital (wealth, wealth) in the modern world economy, especially highly developed countries. The key research task undertaken by Piketty concerns changes in the creation and distribution of wealth and income from the 18th century to the present, as well as lessons from this for the society and the present and future. In this context, an important place is occupied by the problem of economic and social inequalities arising in the global process of capital multiplication, which remains in the hands of a small group of its owners. The need to counteract unfavorable phenomena is growing, which leads to the development of a social state, a new type of public policy and the use of strong instruments to redistribute income.

In June 2015 the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy announced an amendment to the Labour Code, which is the reaction to the prevalence of employment based on-fixed term contracts in Poland. The scale of this phenomenon is not observed in any other E. U. state. New regulations may result in a decrease in the share of fixed-term employees of the total number of employees to be observed in the last few years. The Ministry intends to replace the limit of the renewals of a job contract concluded with an employee (currently the second renewal of the contract results in the conclusion of a permanent job contract) with another restriction: the total duration of such contracts should not exceed 33 months. The problem of an excessive share of flexible forms of employment has been widely analysed in the literature in recent years. It has become the subject of studies in the area of economy and sociology as well as an issue addressed by labour law experts. The expansion of flexibility has also received criticism from the trade unions, which influenced the mass media discourse - it is enough to mention the popularity of the term 'junk contracts' since 2012. The author attempts to comprehensively analyse the problem of flexible forms of employment, which include such issues as: the reasons for their popularity among employers, the scale of the use of particular forms based on the available statistical data, the construction of protective regulations of domestic labour law in the light of the requirements resulting from the E. U. and the I. L. O. membership, as well as social and economic consequences of the use of flexible forms of employment.

Presented article is focused on the analysis of forced evictions caused by the organization of sport megaevents. The development of sport arenas and associated urban infrastructure usually resulted in forced displacement of many thousand of local inhabitants from its direct neighbourhoods. The first cases of such evictions were observed already during the first half of the twentieth century. During the last three decades mass displacment associated with the sport events becomes a particularly negative sosial issue. We have observed several cases of mass displacement caused by preparation of summer olympic games in Seoul, Atlanta, Athens, Beijing, and Rio de Janeiro. Currently we are observing the growing scale of such evictions in many parts of the globe. The significant scale of such problem is observed in developing states (India, Brazil), as well as in countries ruled in non-democratic manner, charaterized by the low developemt of the institutions of human rights protection. Discussed facts and statistical analysis becomes a point of reference for the in-depth analysis of the economic, political, social, and legal context of this problem. Forced evictions associated with the sport events (so-called mega events) can be considered as a specific category of development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR). The article is focused on the most spectacular examples of such evictions observed between 1988 and 2016. My particular attention is devoted to the negative social consequences of this issue and its legal implications.

Yersinia pestis (formerly Pasteurella pestis) is a type of bacterium. It is believed to have been responsible for plagues of the early 1300s. More accurately, it is a Gram-negative rod-shaped coccobacillus. It is a facultative anaerobe that can infect humans and other animals. Human Y. pestis infection takes three main forms: pneumonic, septicemic, and bubonic plagues. All three forms are widely believed to have been responsible for a number of high-mortality epidemics throughout human history, including the Justinianic Plague of the sixth century and the Black Death that accounted for the death of at least one-third of the European population between 1347 and 1353. It has now been shown conclusively that these plagues originated in rodent populations in China. More recently, Y. pestis has gained attention as a possible biological warfare agent and the CDC has classified it as a category A pathogen requiring preparation for a possible terrorist attack. Every year, thousands of cases of plague are still reported to the World Health Organization, although, with proper treatment, the prognosis for victims is now much better. A five- to six-fold increase in cases occurred in Asia during the time of the Vietnam war, possibly due to the disruption of ecosystems and closer proximity between people and animals. Plague also has a detrimental effect on non-human mammals. In the United States of America, animals such as the black-tailed prairie dog and the endangered black-footed ferret are under threat from the disease.