Suchergebnisse

Year 1989 marked a breakthrough in the presence and development of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Poland. The freedom of association was restored, and the society immediately took advantage of this freedom. Since the early 1990s, decentralization has been coupled with a revived activity of the civic sector, and a clear increase in the number of 'grass-root' initiatives, stimulated by the society itself. The number of NGOs has kept growing, including the associations, foundations, and church organizations. The scope of their activity, the number of employees and the tasks they undertake have been expanding. In order to understand the essence of social economy, and primarily to notice the opportunity to develop the state on the basis of the principles of social economy, it was necessary to change the definition of the essence of the state and society, their role, and to correlate their mutual objectives and needs. The administrative reform executed in Poland in 1999, resulted in moving the burden of public tasks from the central government to the units of territorial self-government. The administrative reform introduced three layers of territorial division in order to promote self-governance, facilitate the operation of local authorities, and bring them closer to citizens. Over the last twenty years, NGOs have become a valuable partner in territorial self-government by performing various kinds of public tasks and thus becoming an exceptionally significant element of social policy. The principles regulating the co-existence of the third sector and the state are laid down in the act of law of April 24, 2003 on public benefit and volunteer work, which provides a comprehensive regulation of the activity of NGOs in the realm of public life, the principles (subsidiarity, sovereignty of parties, partnership, efficiency, fair competition, and transparency), and the form of cooperation between such organizations and the organs of public administration with respect to the performance of public tasks. It should be emphasized, however, that while NGOs have taken over services rendered in some areas, their potential has not been fully utilized. The functioning of social organizations manifests civic freedom and society's self-organization. The activities of the third sector organizations allow the fulfillment of important social needs, such as the need for spontaneous association, social initiative and organizational autonomy. The functioning of social organizations has an advantageous influence on the activity of public and private organizations. The NGOs in Poland and abroad play an increasingly significant role, both in the development of civic society of democratic states, and also in the process of performing public tasks and the development of economies. At present, forms of cooperation between NGOs and the territorial self-government are being sought. This may indicate that both local authorities and the third sector organizations have reached a point where they are ready to form a real partnership. This is an optimistic statement, especially given the opportunity to develop the sector of social economy using the financial means of the EU structural funds. Along with the ageing of affluent societies, social exclusion, poverty and unemployment are the fundamental social problems for Poland and the whole of modern Europe. The subjects of the third sector of an economy can play a key role in solving these problems.

According to a contemporary Pole, Ukraine is a country which, having broken out of the clutches of communism, makes its way towards Europe, the place it has always belonged to. The proof of that are the Ukrainians' European aspirations—to become a member of the EU or NATO, as well as the events of the Orange Revolution, which proved that Ukrainians are mature enough to break free from Russia for the sake of democratization of the country, following the example of Western European countries. However, Ukrainians themselves are no longer so unanimous. A careful look at the country of our neighbours makes it evident that both in the sphere of politics as well as culture the Ukrainian nation is strongly divided. This was demonstrated by the Orange Revolution, which made the West realise that in Ukraine a fight is taking place, where the choice of an eastern or western variant is at stake. Ukrainians are also divided as far as their identity is concerned, both cultural and national, for whose roots they are still searching, both in Russia and Western Europe. We may say that as far as the matter of their place on earth is concerned, Ukrainians are almost in exactly the same place as they were eighty years ago.

This article concerns problems of evolution of the Polish position towards the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) of the European Union (EU) since the Polish aspirations to accession to the EU. Therefore, the first point is addressed to the Polish position on these issues prior to accession to the EU. There are analyzed the then EU's relations with NATO, including the problem of their mutual competition, and Polish anxiety concerns to this issue. There are discussed the efforts of following governments and key political positions. It is proved that the process of gradual improvement of relations between the EU and the NATO meant that Poland became increasingly modify its skeptical position towards the European initiatives. The main attention is focused on the possibility of the implementation of Poland's national interests. There is presented intensification of Polish involvement in the creation of the ESDP. A particular manifestation of Polish involvement in the development of the ESDP became our involved in the creation of the EU Battlegroups. There are presented problems relating to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and changes in the documents of the Polish national security, too. Moreover, there are analyzed changes in the international situation and relations between major Polish partners in the EU. An important issue, which is discussed in this article, is the involvement of Poland in the EU mission in Africa, and the importance of Polish initiative of the Eastern Partnership . The author argues that Poland needs for its national security the two institutions, both the EU and the NATO. Therefore, in the interest of Poland is to support European initiatives to strengthen the ESDP.

This article attempts to answer the question whether neonasizm and neofascism are a serious threat to the modern world, especially for Poland. The author shows some reasons of extremism – right occurring in our country mainly the restrictiveness of constitutional regulations in this matter. We can find in this article the way of groups functioning, technical recruiting new members and methods slogans popularization of these organizations on the basis of Polish National Revival, Lech Bubel's activity and subculture of skinheads. The most significant neo-Nazis' and neofascist slogans were quoted in this article so that the author is going to prove that they are widely available and that their authors are unpunished. It also shows some differences between modern extreme movements and our indigenous ones, and emphasized increasing similarity of Polish movements to the foreign ones. Furthermore, the author proves that in the European countries not only the society but also the government become more and more radical. However the article also presents social initiatives of the fight against extreme, such the organization called "Never Again" which promoted three major campaigns : "Music Against Racism", " Let's kick racism out from the stadiums" and "Racism Delete". The author wants to show the scale of the problem that is the expansion of neo-Nazis' and neofascist groups. She stresses the need to break with the passivity against extreme – right in Poland and the need to take action against its activity, both government and citizens.

Beyond comparison In this article, the author takes up the issue of the so-called "crisis" of comparative literary studies (Comparative Literature), at the same time trying to outline the presentday condition of the discipline and to point to the objectives which it should attempt to attain today. Beside other detailed problems, the author analyses the threats posed by the hegemonic status of English which has become a specific 'foundational language' in Comparative Literature. However, in the principal part of his analysis, the author tries to go beyond the tendency towards 'unification and totalisation of thought,' which is present in Comparative Studies, by means of a search for 'commensurability' between the elements being compared,, and also beyond the equally popular strategy of 'divisiveness' that consists in continual emphasis on and proliferation of differences. He juxtaposes these two dominant trends with a model of conducting Comparative Literary Studies based on the concept of language of friendship or even love – an idea stemming from the philosophical thought of Lyotard and Badiou. In this approach, reading becomes an 'event of love, which, like love, is what is without and beyond compare.

The problem of the so-called democracy deficit in the European Union (EU) is one of the most important challenges the EU faces at the beginning of the 21st Century. Strengthening democratic legitimacy of the EU and getting its institutions closer to its citizens were amongthe crucial objectives of the Treaty establishing the Constitution for Europe and of the Treaty of Lisbon. The article deals with several new provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon the Author finds closely related with the problem of democracy deficitin the EU. The Author points out such amendments of the Treaty ofLisbon as establishment of the post of the President of the European Council and that of High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, new definition of the qualified majority voting inthe Council, strengthening of political power of the European Parliament, new provisions on democratic rules in the EU or bigger role of national parliaments in the process of European integration and analyses the influence of these amendments on the problem of democracy deficit in the EU. The Author considers whether these new regulations reduce or not the democracy deficit in the EU.

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.