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In the paper I present an analysis of the critical approach to the phenomenon of modern bureaucracy by Hannah Arendt within the theoretical framework of cultural evolution. Bureaucracy, understood as the thoughtless rationalization of human behavior, is a process leading to the minimization of the public sphere, understood as the domain of freely performed politics, and consequently to the creation of impersonal tyranny. Contemporary concepts of cultural evolution allow to search for a new model of explanation of this phenomenon, which transforms the understanding of politics and man himself in the contemporary world.

Europe/the European Union, with its obvious trump cards, should be an active and efficient player on the international arena. Such are the expectations of the United States, formulated especially by the administration of Barack Obama. However, from the American perspective, the EU has not proved successful as an important international actor, engaged in resolving global problems and prepared to assume greater responsibility for the course of events in the world. This inertia of the EU resulted in the marginalisation of Europe in American politics, as manifested by the latter's pivot to the Pacific Rim. It was only after the developments in the Ukraine, which resulted from Russia's imperial tendencies, that a greater activity and coherence in American and European politics was triggered, having a positive influence also on transatlantic relations. ; Europe/the European Union, with its obvious trump cards, should be an active and efficient player on the international arena. Such are the expectations of the United States, formulated especially by the administration of Barack Obama. However, from the American perspective, the EU has not proved successful as an important international actor, engaged in resolving global problems and prepared to assume greater responsibility for the course of events in the world. This inertia of the EU resulted in the marginalisation of Europe in American politics, as manifested by the latter's pivot to the Pacific Rim. It was only after the developments in the Ukraine, which resulted from Russia's imperial tendencies, that a greater activity and coherence in American and European politics was triggered, having a positive influence also on transatlantic relations.

The starting point of these considerations is the characteristics of the problem of "uncertain democracy" in the perspective of the Polish intellectual Leszek Kołakowski. After World War II, Europe revised its heritage which resulted in the rise of two totalitarianisms. The road to unification weakened particular national interests in favour of a guarantee of peace and the best possible democratic forms of conflict resolution. Despite this, democracy is currently in crisis. The uncertainty of the democratic era focuses on three problems: How to reconcile the diversity of national interests with the attempt to unify the rule of law in European countries? How does cultural relativism influence indifference to the atrocities of the world? How is a democratic Europe to protect itself from the undemocratic ideologies that are entering it? All three areas focus on the self‑degeneration that democracy is struggling with and its weakening in the face of the reemergence of radical forms of thinking, ideologies and worldviews that were to be the panacea after the tragedy of the war.

The growing complexity of human world both on local and global level force far-reaching specialization and professionalization in political activity as well. The same time in instead of increasing essential assets of politics Poland we deal with explosion of politics' mediagenic. Polish politicians with pleasure reduce any political debate to the level of emotions appealing to simple associations and stereotypes. Expert Found was the one that have had to bring our political scene to the higher level. However, it seems that it is failed creation and political parties are not able to take advantage of founds that are transferred to such institution. It also constitutes certain temptation for political activists and their background to whom occur preparation of paid opinions having doubtful usefulness for party organizations. It seems that Expert Found could be successfully eliminated from political-legal polish system but questions regarding essentiality of our political scene might be regulated by natural social processes. Politics in democratic systems respond on particular demand and if such expectation of their electorate will be than they are forced to increase a standard of politic they pursued. It is as well optimistic conception as full of hope since in Poland there is still a need for efficient politics characterized in professionalism.

After the end of the World War II neoconservatism has become the most significant political doctrine in the United States of America. Many neoconservatists were Trotskyists in the beginning, however, lately they have become associated with the Republicans. The neoconservative ideology's main aim is to justify the imperial role of the USA. Neoconservative intellectuals believe in the values of American policy (like liberal democracy and economic freedom) and are concerned about the necessity of promoting it in the rest of the world, which is usually accompanied by distrust towards states opposing those values. They support increasing defence and military spending. Neoconservatists influenced politics of majority of American presidents elected after 1945, especially Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. ; Fundacja Studentów i Absolwentów Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego "Bratniak"

Spatial and social mobility in an increasingly globalized world is associated with new challenges for social sciences, including political science. This also applies to methods and methodology. The article aims to reveal the cognitive potential that lies in the use of multi–sited ethnography for research on politics and on the study of political behaviors (das Politische). The utility of this approach is illustrated on the basis of the research on social and spatial mobility of small town residents conducted with the use of this method.

We live in a world ruled by liberal democracy. Moreover, it is becoming commonly launched that we have reached the end of politics, as we know it, and are experiencing the beginning of postpolitics. Political life is becoming deprived of its constituents in the name of the technical approach to political processes (postpolitical). Conflict as an immanent part of politics is also becoming a thing of the past, substituted with a win-win type of politics. In our postideological and postpolitical era everyone seems to accept this central consensus. Developing this thesis, the author deliberates on the resilience of a system based on an erroneous, in his opinion, presumption – the presumption of the end of politics and the beginning of the postpolitics, of which the project of deliberative democracy is a striking example. Relating to Mouffe, the author attempts to leverage the corner stone of deliberative democracy – faith in the possibility of disqualifying the essential correlate of democracy, which is inequality, or as Mouffe describes it herself "the element of indetermination". Following the theories of Mouffe, Laclau, Chomsky, or Wallerstein, the author claims that what we really need is a contestation of the status quo, which instead of a radical change of the political system or creating a new system from scratch would consist in creating a deft sewerage system of social frustrations and the ability to manage conflicts. That is exactly what the project of agonistic democracy should serve, in which a Schmittonian oposition of friend/enemy is replaced with an opposition of friend/opponent. The inability to treat political opponents as adversaries, as I substantiate with the example of the military, following Bacevich's terminology, foreign policy of the United States, leads on to the transformation of the language of politics into a language of morality and ethics. And from this point it is not far to the Manichaean visions and managing not politics but a crusade against the evil. The essay does not provide easy answers and the author is far from moralizing. His real aim is to provoke a discussion, an encouragement of critical thinking and search for truth, the truth – as Pinter put it – hidden somewhere in our life. According to the author it is critical, if democracy is to function.

We live in a world ruled by liberal democracy. Moreover, it is becoming commonly launched that we have reached the end of politics, as we know it, and are experiencing the beginning of postpolitics. Political life is becoming deprived of its constituents in the name of the technical approach to political processes (postpolitical). Conflict as an immanent part of politics is also becoming a thing of the past, substituted with a win-win type of politics. In our postideological and postpolitical era everyone seems to accept this central consensus. Developing this thesis, the author deliberates on the resilience of a system based on an erroneous, in his opinion, presumption – the presumption of the end of politics and the beginning of the postpolitics, of which the project of deliberative democracy is a striking example. Relating to Mouffe, the author attempts to leverage the corner stone of deliberative democracy – faith in the possibility of disqualifying the essential correlate of democracy, which is inequality, or as Mouffe describes it herself "the element of indetermination". Following the theories of Mouffe, Laclau, Chomsky, or Wallerstein, the author claims that what we really need is a contestation of the status quo, which instead of a radical change of the political system or creating a new system from scratch would consist in creating a deft sewerage system of social frustrations and the ability to manage conflicts. That is exactly what the project of agonistic democracy should serve, in which a Schmittonian oposition of friend/enemy is replaced with an opposition of friend/opponent. The inability to treat political opponents as adversaries, as I substantiate with the example of the military, following Bacevich's terminology, foreign policy of the United States, leads on to the transformation of the language of politics into a language of morality and ethics. And from this point it is not far to the Manichaean visions and managing not politics but a crusade against the evil. The essay does not provide easy answers and the author is far from moralizing. His real aim is to provoke a discussion, an encouragement of critical thinking and search for truth, the truth – as Pinter put it – hidden somewhere in our life. According to the author it is critical, if democracy is to function.

The objective of the article is to characterize the main trends in development of contemporaneous international affairs (intensification of globalization processes; raise of autonomous or even separatist tendencies; increase of tendencies described as "clash of civilizations"; evolution of international system from unipolar to multipolar world order; mounting environmental issues) and to discuss the most important, according to the author, tendencies in the political environment surrounding Poland. The international context in which Poland in situated has deteriorated during the last few years; that refers to the country's close neighborhood as well as Europe on the whole. New elements that emerged in the international affairs led to new dilemmas in Polish foreign policy, including the necessity to choose between continuation of the politics implemented by the Polish government until now or the potential need to modify it (i.e. Polish foreign policy towards Germany and Polish foreign policy towards its Eastern neighbors).

The COVID-19 pandemic that has affected the world in 2020 and 2021 has had, is having and will have an impact on most areas of human life. This is a direct impact – such as health or economic consequences, as well as indirect – reevaluation of social relations, systems of values and culture norms. Since the fight against pandemic is in most regularly functioning countries a matter of public policy, this pandemic has a very serious impact also on the sphere of politics in general. This article aims to analyze what impact this pandemic had on the political situation in the United States in 2020. The year 2020 was a presidential election year in the United States, an election for which a significant part of the international community was waiting for mostly because of the clarity and diversity of the candidates. The aim of this paper is to answer the question to what extent the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the course of the campaign and especially the rhetoric and behavior of the candidates. It will also consider the impact going in the other direction, i.e. how and if at all, the fact that in 2020 we were dealing with the election period influenced the actions taken by the authorities at different levels in the fight against the pandemic. One of the main conclusions of the analysis is that the pandemic, given both the context of this particular election, the specific polarization of American society, and the opinions of individual electorates on important values, put Donald Trump in a particularly uncomfortable position and knocked out of his hands many of the advantages that had contributed to his victory four years earlier. The specific constellation of analyzed factors meant that, in the opinion of the author of the article, Donald Trump could not emerge victorious from this situation unlike many other leaders of countries whose ratings and evaluation in the reality of the fight against the pandemic were growing and improving. ; Pandemia COVID-19, która dotknęła świat w 2020 i 2021 r., miała, ...

The aim of the paper is to analyze how Europeanization is used as an instrument of the European Union's foreign policy in the field of promoting democracy in the world. This fi rst requires an indication that all EU activities, including its relations with the international environment, are based on specific normative foundations. They include the so-called European values regarding, generally speaking, the promotion of democracy and broadly
understood human rights, as well as strengthening peace in international relations. "European values" are not only political and ideological guidelines, but also legal norms enshrined in EU treaties, so the promotion of democracy is one of the basic goals of the EU's foreign policy. Analysis of the EU's promotion of democracy requires the presentation of the main categories used to study this issue, i.e. showing what is understood by Europeanization, as well as by the associated concepts of democratization and socialization. Then mechanisms of europeanization are examined, as well as its results and evaluation of its effectiveness is provided. In this respect the case study is very helpful, in that it examines the results of
Europeanization in relation to the EU partner countries covered by the Eastern Partnership. The paper ends with fi nal remarks constituting a summary of the studied issues.

Europa/Unia Europejska, dysponując niekwestionowanymi atutami, powinna też być aktywnym i skutecznym graczem na arenie międzynarodowej. Takie były oczekiwania Stanów Zjednoczonych, formułowane zwłaszcza przez administrację Baracka Obamy. Jednak z amerykańskiej perspektywy Europa nie sprawdziła się jako ważny aktor na scenie międzynarodowej, zaangażowany w rozwiązywanie problemów globalnych i gotowy brać większą odpowiedzialność zabieg spraw w świecie. Tainercja Unii Europejskiej powodowała, że nastąpiła marginalizacja Europy w polityce amerykańskiej, czego wyrazem był "pivot to the Pacific Rim". Dopiero wydarzenia na Ukrainie, będące efektem imperialnych tendencji w działaniach Rosji, spowodowały większą aktywność i koherentność polityki amerykańskiej i europejskiej, prowadząc też do wzmocnienia układu transatlantyckiego ; Europe/the European Union, with its obvious trump cards, should be an active and efficient player on the international arena. Such are the expectations of the United States, formulated especially by the administration of Barack Obama. However, from the American perspective, the EU has not proved successful as an important international actor, engaged in resolving global problems and prepared to assume greater responsibility for the course of events in the world. This inertia of the EU resulted in the marginalisation of Europe in American politics, as manifested by the latter's pivot to the Pacific Rim. It was only after the developments in the Ukraine, which resulted from Russia's imperial tendencies, that a greater activity and coherence in American and European politics was triggered, having a positive influence also on transatlantic relations.

European Union and Indian Union signed the cooperation agreement in 1994 and a strategic partnership 10 years later. Europe was feeling safe and secure, which was well-described in 2003 in the European Security Strategy, so the approach to the relations with India stressed their economic aspects. In 2007, both sides have started negotiations of the Free Trade Agreement. They still have not concluded but in the meantime the world has changed dramatically. In the current international "disorder" both India and Europe are looking for new partners and vectors of influence, defending multilateralism and democratic values. The paper analyses 5 factors which severely influence these relations. They can bring both sides closer and make the strategic partnership stronger: Rise of China as a global power; Increase of American-Chinese competition and rivalry; Russia's coming back to the international game of power; Rise of India as a regional power and global player, the world largest democracy and a counterbalance to China; Brexit and internal dynamics in the EU. The text is based, among others, on research and discussions taken under umbrella of the India-EU Think Tank Twinning Initiative - the project implemented by 10 best European and Indian think tanks.