Suchergebnisse

The purpose of this article is to capture one of the key features of the political thought that developed in the United States of America. Assuming that the USA's political culture is indeed exceptional, the author attempts to find the common denominator that would reflect the singularity of the American political mind. The author states that such a feature is the radical anti-historicality of the American mode of thinking about politics. It is a phenomenon that is deeply-rooted in the political and spiritual past of the United States and seems to be crucial because it never developed to such an extent in other traditions. Furthermore, even today to a large extent it defines both the American left and right. It is also very much present in academic discussion as well as in ordinary political activities. By anti-historicality the author means the rejection of the thesis that politics within a given society depends on that society's past experience. The phenomenon defies simple normative assessments. On the one hand, it protects American politics from the perils of radical historicism; on the other hand, it hinders the USA's contacts with other political bodies. However, the author concludes that understanding American anti-historicality is crucial when entering into any relations with the USA. Celem artykułu jest porównanie i przeciwstawienie brytyjskiej polityki wobec kryzysu w Libii i w Syrii odpowiednio w 2011 i w 2013 roku. Szuka się w nim odpowiedzi na pytanie, dlaczego parlament brytyjski, który w 2011 roku tak zdecydowanie poparł użycie siły przeciwko Libii, wstrzymał swoje poparcie dla akcji militarnej w Syrii w sierpniu 2013 roku. Autor wskazuje, że perspektywa masakry w libańskim mieście Benghazi przekonała brytyjskiego premiera, że akcja międzynarodowa była pilną koniecznością. Rezolucja Rady Bezpieczeństwa ONZ pozwalająca na akcję militarną w celu ochrony libijskiej ludności cywilnej oraz fakt, iż interwencję poparło kilka rządów na Bliskim Wschodzie, również przyczyniły się do uznania jej przez rząd brytyjski za w pełni uprawnioną. Jednakże dwa lata później brytyjski parlament skutecznie zawetował udział Wielkiej Brytanii w atakach powietrznych przeciwko Syrii. Było to skutkiem, jak argumentuje autor, braku rezolucji ONZ w tej kwestii i wsparcia rządów w regionie dla Syrii oraz wątpliwości co do skuteczności akcji militarnej. W artykule podejmowane jest również pytanie, czy brak brytyjskiej interwencji w Syrii oznacza początek zwrotu w brytyjskiej polityce zagranicznej.

Youth policy, understood as youth activity and policy for youth,has been developing in the Baltic Sea region for many years. It takes placeon many levels of Baltic cooperation; therefore, this article uses the theory ofmulti-level governance for the analysis. There are some differences in youthpolicy between the communities of the Baltic Sea Region countries. This articleaims to analyse the participation of young people from the regions ofLithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Estonia in the BSR youth policy, based on theexample of the Youth Working Group of the "Baltic Sea States SubregionalCo-operation". The main part of the article is an analysis of interviews withyouth coordinators of "Baltic Sea States Subregional Co-operation" from selectedcountries. During the study, 5 interviews were conducted, and, thanksto these interviews, the author has made interesting observations on the differencesin involvement of young people from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, andPoland. They indicated, inter alia, disproportional access to participation in thework of the Youth Working Group "Baltic Sea States Subregional Co-operation"between Estonia and Poland, and Lithuania and Latvia. The results clearlyshow that young people from Polish regions have the greatest opportunitiesto shape youth policy in the Baltic Sea Region.

The transformation of the Russian foreign and security policy based on a more courageous use of military potential is a fact. Over the past several years, Russia has moved from articulating its interests to their enforcement with the use of military force. This article focuses on analyzing this process and identifying its potential consequences for global security. The conclusions drawn by the author, based on the conducted research, allow to state that the armed forces are and will be an important instrument of the Russian foreign and security policy. This does not mean, however, that the Russian Federation will strive for an armed conflict posing a threat to international security.

The article aims to discuss the relationship between social policy and public policy and to identify its most important elements. Social policy is linked historically on the one hand with the economy and on the other - with sociology and political sciences. Theory of public policy exposes the role of public administration in achieving its objectives and allows for wider recognition of the tasks by linking them with other specialties. This makes it possible to achieve in practice synergistic effects of actions taken, and at the theoretical level - a more comprehensive assessment of the analyzed problems. The history of social policy in Poland, especially of the Institute of Social Economy shows that such a broad approach to social policy has been characteristic also in the past.

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.

Scientific literature presents the labour market policy in Poland in an abstract way: through the prism of statistics, expenditure, regulations and organisational structures. However, we know very little about everyday work of public employment services (Powiatowe Urzędy Pracy, PUP), i.e. institutions created in response to a major societal problem of the unemployment. Referring to the research results, inspired by the street-level bureaucracy perspective, this paper explains why it is important to analyse routine, mundane activities of frontline staff of PUP. It also reconstructs which elements of academic narratives on the labour market policy in Poland move us away from the understanding of typical aspects of this administrative world.

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 following discussion took place in September 2018 at the Warsaw School of Economics. It focused on both senior politics, experts, and analysts. The discussion was moderated and planned by Andrzej Klimczuk, associated with the Warsaw School of Economics, and invited to the discussion: Barbara Szatur-Jaworska, social politician and gerontologist from the University of Warsaw, Paweł Kubicki, economist, Warsaw School of Economics, Marek Niezabitowski, sociologist from the Silesian University of Technology, Ryszard Majer, social politician , Agnieszka Cieśla, architect and urban planner, Warsaw University of Technology, Marzena Rudnicka, founder and president of the National Institute of Senior Management (biographical notes at the end of the debate). Panelists during the discussion analyzed the following issues: I. Beginnings of the senior policy, its definition, strategic documents of the state, II. The role of local governments in animating activities within the framework of senior policy and non-governmental organizations, III. Creation and role of the law on seniors, IV. Diversification of the environment of seniors, V. Activities in other countries within the framework of the senior policy, VI. Changes in social awareness, the evolution of attitudes towards older people, old age, ageing, VII. The market for products and services for seniors, VIII. Seniors' activity, formal and informal, activity infrastructure, IX. Housing for older people and ageing population X. The role of the state and self-government in the senior policy, dialogue with the authorities, public-private partnership, XI. Challenges and directions of development of the senior policy, XII. The deficit of care services, XIII. Senior and pension policy, XIV. Convergence and divergence in the senior policy.

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.

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.

Dyskusja wokół kwestii konfliktu interesów między funkcją realizacji polityki pieniężnej a funkcją nadzoru bankowego wpływa na rozwiązanie instytucjonalne polegające na włączeniu lub niewłączaniu funkcji nadzoru do zadań banku centralnego. Z tego też względu przez wiele lat Europejski Bank Centralny (EBC) nie sprawował nadzoru w stosunku do instytucji kredytowych. Przy konstrukcji Europejskiego Systemu Banków Centralnych zwyciężyła koncepcja niemiecka całkowitego wydzielenia nadzoru z EBC. Gdyby nie kryzys finansowy lat 2008-2013, prawdopodobnie do dziś EBC nie sprawowałby nadzoru nad instytucjami kredytowymi. Pomimo utworzenia w 2011 r. Europejskiego Urzędu Nadzoru Finansowego dwa lata później zdecydowano się powierzyć EBC nadzór bankowy nad najważniejszymi instytucjami finansowymi na obszarze Unii Europejskiej. Trudno dziś rozstrzygnąć, czy połączenie polityki pieniężnej i nadzoru pod jednym dachem EBC było posunięciem korzystnym, dopiero za kilka lat będzie można ocenić, czy zwiększyła się efektywność nadzoru. ; The discussion involving the conflict of interest between the implementation of monetary policy and banking supervision influences the institutional solution to the question of the inclusion or non-inclusion of the supervisory function among the tasks of the central bank. Consequently, credit institutions were, for many years, left unsupervised. This situation would have probably continued until today, had it not been for the financial crisis of 2008-2013. Despite the appointment of the European Financial Supervision Office in 2011, supervision of the main EU financial institutions has recently been vested in the European Central Bank. Whether this decision was the right move will only be known in (the) years to come, when the effectiveness of this supervisionhas been assessed.

The aim of the article is to determine the functions of spatial policy instruments and to determine the aspects in which a spatial policy instrument could be used. Analyses pertain to especially local plans of spatial management. The most important function is the protection of spatial order. Besides, spatial policy instruments could have other functions, connected with the environment, social policy or antique protection.

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.