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Social sciences, understood as critical and not neutral by nature, they should be equipped with specific competencies and sensivity. C. W. Mills these comptence define as sociological imagination - which is study of the relationship of history and biography, Giddens interpreted it as three basic senses: historical, anthropological, critical. The translation into political science would be a political theories imagination, it consist,, among over things like a: historicity of political phenomena, antisubstansialism, research self-awareness. Definition of political theories imagination I propose in the context of Wiktor Marzec's paper Rebelion and Reaction, which is a study from field of historical sociology, it's in itself a lot of inspiration for theorists of politics: research, theoretical and methodological. It is worth considering -in this context- fundamental categories of political science, like political subjectivity and the political, also revalidate in their range.

The article examines the Polish regional differences after 1990. It shows the evolutionary process of creation and re-creation of a regional identity (from administrative regions to regions of identity). The author characterizes types of political representation in the Polish regions and wonders if the regions are independent entities of the EU policies. The author also asks about the relationships beetwen regions and the center from the perspective of construction of regional development strategies and about the advantages and disadvantages of concentration of capacity building in Warsaw. ; Udostępnienie publikacji Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego finansowane w ramach projektu "Doskonałość naukowa kluczem do doskonałości kształcenia". Projekt realizowany jest ze środków Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój; nr umowy: POWER.03.05.00-00-Z092/17-00.

This article aims to make an insight into the conditions of immigration policy and actions undertaken by the Swedish authorities and political parties in the face of the migration crisis in Europe after 2015. A hypothesis presented here assumes that a decisive evolution of the attitudes of the Swedish authorities, political parties, and society towards a restrictive
approach to immigration arose from the awareness of the negative consequences of migration management for the Swedish socio-economic model and the political scene. The theoretical framework used in this article is the concept of policy responsiveness, including the ability of
political authorities to respond effectively and lawfully to the needs and expectations of the citizens. Process tracing was applied as a research method useful for following the transformation process Sweden's immigration policy. Statistical data, documents issued by the government and political parties, as well as the subject literature were the sources
utilised in the research. Conclusions drawn from the research point to the tightening of immigration policy as a result of the fear of a prolonged pull effect on foreigners and concern surrounding the appropriate handling of immigration in full accordance with the adopted model of immigration policy.

The author analyses the factors that weaken the influence of the principles of meritocracy on the institutions and public policy. He indicates that a meritocratic approach to governance in the programming of public actions has become a resource for obtaining legitimacy of power in Poland to a limited extent. The advantages of meritocracy (the "efficiency" and "justice") have not been exploited on a significant scale. As a result, there is a significant illegitimacy of the democratic system, as well as the weakening of the society identification with the state. This phenomenon is characterized by low prestige of politicians and a poor voter turnout. The author draws attention to the fact that meritocratic management mechanisms of public institutions in Poland are significantly reduced due to numerous factors - the appropriation of the state by political parties, institutional nomadism of the elite, the rules of political capitalism, a soft state and the institutionalization of non-responsibility or activities of various interest groups and backstage actors of politics.

The author has made an attempt to theoretically - by referring to empirical evidence - formulate the necessary conditions that allow participatory processes to happen. In this perspective, participation is not only an ethical requirement but primarily a mechanism that supports taking up the challenges posed by the increasing complexity of the social world. The examples presented in the article show that participation has a very strong 'competitor': clientelism. In the spaces where the latter forms the base of the relations between the government and society, it is difficult to find a well-rooted and sustainable presence of participatory processes. The author thus presents a hypothesis that the logic of clientelism, together with the lack of the ability to recognise the importance of resource interdependence, has the ability to weaken participation, or in other words, wash it out in a specific way. Clientelism strives to maximise the control over resources. This can, in some cases, support the realisation of development goals or be effective in particular governmental arrangements (e.g. the transformation in Poland in the 90s of the 20th century), however, it also deepens the passivity and in the long run can lead to a decrease in the value of some resources or even their loss. In this context, participation is thus understood mainly as an expression of caring for the owned and acquired resources and as the recognition of their interdependence.

This article examines the role of trust in decision-making processes, which involves major interest groups, representing the world of work and business. This process is often referred to as the concept of social dialogue, which is generally defined as all forms of negotiation and consultation between the trade unions and employers and the state. In this formula, dialogue can be regarded as a mechanism of public policy making. The first part of the article is a short presentation of links between social dialogue and public policies. The second part addresses the issue of trust, which is a prerequisite for high quality and effective social dialogue. The quality and effectiveness of dialogue are correlated with the price, which participants have to pay for taking part in the dialogue and its outcomes. This is an issue of transaction costs, which are determined by "trust capital". The third part examines contribution of trust to the cost effect of social dialogue. The study concludes with a presentation of the research, conducted among trade unionists and employers who have, inter alia, assessed the role of trust in dialogue.

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.