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The aim of this paper is to indicate a diverse nature of the issues investigated in public policy sciences, particularly emphasizing the importance of the health policy in explaining social reality. By resolving public problems, numerous needs of society, inter alia, health needs can be met. One of the sciences which explains social problems and public policy has an interest in is the health policy. Both the health policy and public policy have two dimensions, i.e. applicable and theoretical. In terms of 'applicable' one, active participation of all social life entities affecting awareness of developing health resources is vital. And in the theoretical one, as a science, health policy addresses theoretical problems related to satisfying health needs of individual and collective populations. However, in the existing definitions of the health policy, there is no reference to "health needs". One can only assume that this category is used intuitively as it is hard to imagine numerous activities and decisions taken without identifying the needs, so that the health system could meet them. Reverting to health policy in its practical sense it is crucial to teach the public responsibility for their own behavior towards health. Health education deals with the skills needed to care about health in an accountable and independent way. This kind of education plays an important part in the implementation of public policy since its task is not only to transfer knowledge, but also to develop skills to make informed choices and decisions and thus to shape a democratic society with an independent way of thinking. The applicable role of the health policy is to improve the management of the health sector. In this respect, the organization of the treatment process, which is to provide comprehensive medical care for patients and therefore to improve the existing relations of a public nature, is essential.

There are also theoretical issues such as: adequacy of this discipline of knowledge to the analysis of the realities of public action in Poland. This issue arises due to the fact that public policy emerged as a discipline of knowledge in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, on the basis of its specificity. Moreover, the theories evident in public policy science have been developed in the West, mainly in America. The local realities were the basis. Therefore, the question arises whether we should build our theories or adapt those that have been developed elsewhere. Meanwhile, we do not have many or even most elements of the Anglo-Saxon tradition, even in terms of the size of our analytical achievements. We are not even inclined to conduct such an advanced analysis of social and economic phenomena. Hence, it seems important to me to ask about the theoretical potential of this discipline in relation to the analysis of public activities in Poland.

This paper attempts to present a review of higher education reform processes in Poland in 1990-2015 and 2016-2018 (when a draft of the so‑called Act 2.0 was prepared) and an assessment of the domestic "art of reforms". As the author has adopted the perspective of the public policy science, she focuses on issues of public policy making, i.e. the development and strategic programming policy, drafting legislation, and accompanying public consultations. Furthermore, the paper discusses three past and one current attempt to reform higher education in the context of the political economy of reforms that are globally perceived as a benchmark. The long, nearly 30‑year period covered by the paper's analyses allowed the author to draw conclusions with regard to the evolution of higher education policy, highlighting the problem of its quality (standards) as a public policy.

The examination of public policy in Poland should refer to the terms, analytical categories as well as theories, which have already been postulated in this research field. The article aims to present an overview of the development of public policy theories in the long run. To begin with, the typological and stages approaches were presented. The theories of public policy were presented as two broader classes based on the differentiation into rational and interpretative paradigms. The application of the first one was examined in greater detail in the area of defining the choices of the ways to address public issues. The interpretative paradigm was presented mainly in connection with the argumentative approach as well as an attempt to combine the rational and interpretative approaches in the context of a rational discussion. The overview ends with the presentation of a few ways of organising the public policy research field through the research questions, the research areas, the theoretical-methodological framework as well as the archetypes of the public policy analysts' activity.

In contemporary states the aims of public policy are more often met through the implementation of regulatory instruments. It appears vital then to analyse their theoretical background as well as to contextually specify the conditions of their effective implementation. The following paper aims to conduct an analysis of the regulatory instruments such as standards, soft law along with self-regulation. There are three types of regulatory standards pointed out (goal-oriented, resultative, specific). The choice of a given standard often depends on context-specific factors, and additionally it involves an important dilemma, i.e. whether they should be unified for all the subordinate entities or differentiated in terms of the given features of the regulated entities. The author analyses the so-called 'soft law' as a regulatory instrument, which is implemented both in national and international regulatory systems. The term is used within the framework of regulatory policy and holds that the aims of public policy can be met through the application of soft, and sometimes 'informal' tools, that in certain circumstances might turn out to be equally effective as typical hard regulatory tools that are subject to sanction. The article additionally aims to address the issue of self-regulation that encompasses a set of rules that economic entities have created in a voluntary way (informally) and reciprocally claim as legally binding. These can also entail formal rules (e.g. the codes of conduct) that are fully executed in courts. In the summary section it is claimed that the choice of regulatory instruments is the one that should be dependent on the level of maturity of the institutional structures functioning within an economy as well as the capacity of entities to adequately react to informative market signals.

The article analyzes the phenomenon of public policy as a process of reflecting the interests of society through dialogue with the authorities with the help of a well-functioning communication process. We consider the American and European traditions in the definition of this concept. We describe the characteristics of public policy in political science. The article says of public policy development in terms of the information age, the functioning of its online space, namely, the role of social networks as a new subject of public policy.Keywords: publicity, public sphere, public policy, the online space, Internet, social networks. ; У статті аналізується феномен публічної політики як процес відображення інтересів суспільства через діалог з владою за допомогою налагодженого комунікаційного процесу. Розглянуто американську та європейську традиції у визначенні цього концепту. Окреслені характеристики публічної політики у політичній науці. Зазначено про розвиток публічної політики за умов інформаційної доби, функціонування її в онлайн просторі, а саме про роль соціальних мереж як нового суб'єкта публічної політики. Ключові слова: публічність, публічна сфера, публічна політика, онлайн-простір, Інтернет, соціальні мережі.

The text points out the need for significant changes in the disability policies, which result from the paradigm shift from medicine to social issues. Three theoretical approaches are presented and briefly discussed, which might be helpful when analyzing the public policy towards disability and eventually be used when reformulating it. First, the biographical approach and the trajectory of everyday life are presented. Then, the problem is discussed in the context of the social exclusion followed by the analysis of the public policies from the perspective of the expected failure. Finally the text presents the differences between social and public disability policies and points out the advantages of the approach typical for public policy-related sciences.