After a few decades of transformation China is becoming a major contender for the number two position in the world. Is it really possible? Will China balance the power of the United States? Today the United States supremacy is so great that it seems to be undeniable. The situation was similar at the end of the twentieth century when U.S. domination was obvious and any other reality was hard to imagine. Recently though, more and more often America's political decisions are criticised. A few decades ago, in Beijing a new idea was developed. The essence of that idea was to transform the People's Republic of China into a superpower. Since China was very vast and densely populated, but mostly a poor and backward country, it was a very daring vision. Years of consistent and painful reforms changed the way the world is looking at China, even though some of them were not accepted by international opinion.
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, just like other countries, functions in determined conditions which influence the way of determining and understanding the security and shaping of the security policy. There prevails a division to problems of an internal and external nature. While talking about and indicating global problems which in consequence can influence the internal security of a country, challenges and threats that countries face need to be noticed. These are ecological, demographic, political, economic and social threats. While looking at factors determining the internal security of a country, special attention needs to be paid to the state of relations and its surroundings, a state of system stability, a level of social peace, a level of public safety and a level of public order.
The 18th day of June 2010 marked the twentieth anniversary of the Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek (WAM) publishing house. It was celebrated with a concert, entitled 20 years have passed, attended by numerous eminent guests from the world of politics, academia and culture who filled the theater to the brim. In the foyer they could see an exhibition of photographs illustrating the rich history of the publishing house. I use the term 'publishing house' as the company fully deserves this name, which is associated with the noblest traditions of Polish editorial work. Owing to Adam Marszałek, Toruń has grown to assume the leading position in this respect, leaving in its wake both companies of long standing tradition as well as those that have emerged over the last two decades, only a handful of which have survived till the present day.
The dictatorship of military junta in€icted on the Argentinian society many injures, which have been painful till today. ousands of people were followed, kidnapped, tortured, killed, and children of arrested pregnant women were captured and given to adoption. After lost Falklands-Malvinas War and the decline of bloody regime, victims'families began long way of exposuring the truth about crimes commited by the servicemen, and politicians confronted difficult task (or challenge), which was the reconciliation of society.
In this research work, Author focus on the current analysis trends in foreign trade theory and policy. Accordance with the foreign trade policy theory further trade liberalisation and improved framework policies would increase trade and promote growth. It must be emphasized that openness to trade is associated with higher incomes and growth and there is the need for new approaches to trade cooperation in light of the forces that are currently re-shaping international business. What indicates the importance and innovativeness of the research is the presentation of the new models of the foreign trade policy and trade interests. First of all, it must underline that in the new theoretical terms in demand for trade policy very important is factor specificity. The low specificity of factors means that factor returns are equalized throughout a region's economy. On the other hand, some factors are stuck in their present uses; therefore, factor returns are not equalized throughout a region's economy but are industry specific. The main objective of the research task is to give a comprehensive analysis of current trends in foreign trade theory and policy and in particular models of foreign trade policy, trade interests indicated by export orientation and import sensitivity, foreign trade policy in different types of authoritarian regimes, protectionist pressures in different political system, the level of protectionist pressures, the tendencies to bilateralism in the foreign trade policy. It should be stressed that free trade in itself is not responsible for economic growth, but more significant are the determining macroeconomic stability and increasing investment.
One of the most apparent signs of the crisis of the democratic system is a systematically decreasing turnout level in national and supranational elections and referenda. In reports and analyses concerning the level of political participation, experts more and more frequently notice a decreasing tendency of the citizen's involvement in numerous types of elections. As Ola Pettersson points out, "according to the sources, less and less citizens appear at the ballot boxes". Jacek Raciborski indicates that one of the most signifi cant consequences of the low citizen's participation at the election procedures is the considerable legitimacy deficit. A number of countries attempt to prevent these phenomena from happening by undertaking various actions aimed at increasing the level of citizens' involvement in political life (notably by increasing their participation in elections). That would infl uence the growth of the legitimacy level of the undertaken political decisions. It is worth noticing, that apart from the commonly used ways of increasing election attendance (such as correspondence voting, mobile ballot boxes), over the last few years politicians in many countries have had numerous discussions aimed at the implementation of electronic voting (e-voting). Its followers claim that thanks to e-voting, election and referenda turnout may be increased, as this method enables disabled people and people who are abroad to take part in elections. Furthermore, a considerable advantage of e voting, compared to traditional voting in polling stations is of greater convenience than the former. The aim of the following text is to attempt to provide an answer to the question whether electronic voting can be treated as a panacea for low election turnouts, whether this form of voting may be a warranty of a higher level of voter's attendance than before. In the article, the author bases on the experience connected with e voting in two European countries – Estonia and Switzerland, which can be referred to as the pioneers in the use of e voting.
In Poland's most recent history, year 2009 was a time to celebrate a special anniversary. Twenty years ago, events that started a political transformation in Poland took place. They were connected with the Round Table Talks, elections to the so-called Contract Sejm and the fact that Tadeusz Mazowiecki became the Prime Minister. In 2009 Poland also celebrated 70th anniversary of II World War, 10th anniversary of its admission to NATO and 5th anniversary of joining the European Union. The celebrations of these events involved exhibitions, conferences and scientific seminars. Articles were written and television networks broadcast interviews and documentaries about the recent historical events that happened in Poland's history.
Times are changing. The second half of the 19th century and the following years stood for rapid development of various tools based on electricity. Expansion of telecommunication and progress of electronic media constitute important elements of this period. It may be said, we now live in the Internet era, and there is a perception that anyone who does not jump on the technology bandwagon is going to be left far behind. The growth of online interactions can be observed by the inconceivable increase in the number of people with home PC and Internet access.
Transformations in the ownership of state owned companies in Poland a! er 1989 played a pivotal role in the general political transformation which took place in Poland at that time. Those ownership changes were an essential element of the political transformation of Poland. The process of transforming the country's economy from central economic planning to free market economy was started by Tadeusz Mazowiecki's government. On October 9, 1989, the Council of Ministers accepted a document Guidelines and Directions of Poland's Economic Policy which aimed at stabilizing the country's economy and at transforming its economic system. " e stabilization programme was supposed to be implemented by January, 1990.3 " e second stage of the governmental plan was planned for the years 1990–1991 and one of its main tenets was a transformation of ownership rights. Krzysztof Lis, the government's plenipotentiary for ownership transformation, was responsible for the organization and legislation of the process of privatizing Polish economy. T. Mazowiecki's cabinet prepared both a draft for the new amendment of the legal act concerning state owned companies and a dra! of a new act about privatizing state owned companies.
Times are changing. The second half of the 19th century and the following years stood for rapid development of various tools based on electricity. Expansion of telecommunication and progress of electronic media constitute important elements of this period. It may be said, we now live in the Internet era, and there is a perception that anyone who does not jump on the technology bandwagon is going to be left far behind. The growth of online interactions can be observed by the inconceivable increase in the number of people with home PC and Internet access.
Recent worldwide convergence of telecommunication and information technologies and dynamic development of mass media lead to noticeable changes in functioning of contemporary countries and societies. Currently, modern information and telecommunication technologies (ICT) begin to play greater role and filter down to almost every field of contemporary human life becoming a very popular subject of researches. Information revolution, that is a rapid technological development, within the scope of computers, communication processes and so" ware (involving substantial decrease in the costs of processing and sharing information), is the driving force behind globalisation. As a result, many social spheres of men remain greatly influenced by modern technologies. Easy access to information (being a consequence of development of the Internet, television and mobile communications) affects millions of people in the world, and also changes rules of social life in a broader perspective. Increasingly greater social impact of telecommunication and information technologies and growing political importance of the Internet (as a form of ICT) seem to be vital arguments that substantiate the usefulness of this study. The aim was to answer question about influence of the Internet on political life, and thus its application into contemporary democracies. Answers to the above questions should be backed up with data concerning the usage of ICT (mostly the Internet) in various political processes. The further analysis include three phenomena: informing, communicating and voting.
