Suchergebnisse

The article deals with the most important changes in the independence and systemic autonomy of local self-government units of the 2018–2023 term. Both normative solutions and actual actions and behaviours that have a fundamental impact on the functioning of local self-government will be analysed. For a more complete picture of the current term, it will be necessary to briefly characterise the changes introduced after 2015. It is also important for the overall analysis to look from the perspective of those currently in power and characterise their vision of the state and the role of local government in the political system. The idea of a strong, effective state determines the perception of the role of local government and the relationship at the interface between local government and government administration.

The extensive amendment to the Electoral Code made by the Act of January 26, 2023 – among other solutions – introduced instruments to facilitate voters' access to polling stations, increasing the turnout level. The aim of the article is to present the adopted solutions and their assessment, made on the background of the legislative process accompanying the adoption of the act. The conducted analysis allows to assume that the discussed solutions do not take into account the interests of all entitled persons to an equal extent, ignore the consistently reported proposals of changes affecting the increase in attendance and imply organizational difficulties due to the moment of their introduction.

The aim of the article is to present the development of biometric technology as a consequence of 9/11 terrorist attacks in the USA and issuing the PATRIOT ACT in 2001. Nowadays biometric technology is popular not only in the public security area (e.g. criminal data bases, face recognition surveillance systems) but is also used in everyday life (e.g. smartphones with touch ID/face recognition). The article shows both sides of biometric devices utilization: advantages and potential negative consequences for individuals.

The article deals with resonance, development, and changes in various forms of atheism in the works of Czech, especially Marxist, intellectuals in the second half of the 20th century. Attention is also paid to their influence on public opinion, especially in connection with a rise in negative attitude of a large part of the Czech public towards religion. The study is based primarily on historical and discursive analyses of the works of principal authors from the 1950s to 1989. Among the authors discussed are important figures such as Ivan Sviták, Milan Machovec, and Vítězslav Gardavský.

The aim of article is to answer the questions: what is the public perception of the terms 'refugee' and 'migrant'? as well as In the light of opinion polls, are these terms equivalent or do they have a different connotation (linguistic content) and denotation (scope)? The starting point for the analysis is the identification of the dictionary-encyclopaedic, statistical and formal-legal meanings of these names. The analysis presented in the article is based on the results of the public opinion research "Social perception of refugees from Ukraine, migrants and actions taken by the Polish state", which was carried out between 2022 and 2023 by the research LAB managed by the author. In order to holistically reconstruct the social perception of 'refugees' and 'migrants', the author developed a multidimensional indicator (index), which he called the Social Perception of Migrants Index (SPMI). The result of the analysis is the identification of the constitutive features of the names 'refugee' and 'migrant' as well as their denotation. The author also proposes to introduce a new concept concerning the migration crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border and the refugee crisis on the Polish-Ukrainian border, which he called a 'hybrid humanitarian crisis'.

The article concerns the cooperation of NATO's eastern flank countries in support of war-torn Ukraine. The aim of the discussion is to show the actions of the B9 countries, implementing the ideas and tasks of defence diplomacy, undertaken during the first year of the war (24 February, 2022 – 24 February, 2023). This support took place in several key areas: political, diplomatic, military, and humanitarian. It was of fundamental importance for maintaining the functioning and stability of Ukraine and its fighting capabilities, especially in the early period after the Russian Federation's invasion. The author tried to verify the following: how was Ukraine supported in practice? Did all B9 countries equally and with the same level of commitment provide assistance in all the identified areas? What factors could potentially strengthen or weaken the B9 countries' involvement in implementing the ideas of defence diplomacy in Ukraine? The analysis was based on current data and materials made available over the past year in the media and on the Internet.

This article seeks to investigate the birth and evolution of the European Political Community – a pan-European multilateral coordination format that has emerged at the initiative of France and in reaction to the Russian full-scale military aggression in Ukraine. The analysis draws on official speeches, think-tank briefs, and the Author's participatory observation conducted during international expert meetings held in early 2023. It is argued that the EPC is still a "moving target" in the early stage of development, where both its objectives and structure are not yet fully defined. From a Polish perspective, it has so far sent a key strategic message to Russia and can serve as a vehicle to re-engage with the United Kingdom or Turkey. But it should not be used as yet another ENP-style waiting room for candidates seeking EU membership.

The following debate took place on March 22, 2019 at the Warsaw School of Economics. The content of the Study on Spatial Chaos report provided the framework for the discussion. Its authors estimated the cost of spatial chaos at PLN 84.3 billion per year. They indicated the main mechanisms leading to the occurrence of this phenomenon.

The author analyses the design and imposition of the bank levy that came into effect on the 1st of February 2016 both from the economic and legal perspective. The author portrays its origin as well as the main solutions. The risks connected with their implementation involving the capacity to collect the tax are outlined. The author also presents the development of the design of taxation of the banking sector in Poland in the past dozen or more years. The author conducts a comparative analysis of the various tax designs that prove effective in many E.U. Member States. This allows to show the similarities and tell the differences between the various state-specific designs and the ones adopted in Poland. The paper is also concerned with the consequences that the bank levy might bring about in Poland. The author postulates that the analysis of its design flaws makes it possible to evade taxation. The author puts forward alternative concepts, which would make the provisions of the law more precise. The bank levy applicable in Poland has also been subject to an in-depth analysis in the context of tax avoidance.

The paper describes the Polish road to NATO which, contrary to the West's expectations and promises, was long and bumpy. The author presents and analyses various obstacles that hindered Polish accession to NATO. The author divides such challenges into objective and subjective barriers, but using other criteria, the author points to specific geopolitical, international, political, social, and military conditions. Furthermore, the author presents the stances of different countries on the enlargement of the North Atlantic Alliance after the Cold War, particularly the attitudes of the USA, Germany, France, the USSR, and Russia as these states were either more or less supportive of Polish efforts to join NATO or not supportive at all. In 1989-1999 the Alliance's position was slowly evolving from being initially unwilling to support Poland's accession to NATO to being sympathetic towards it. In the paper, the author poses a few research questions on the above-mentioned obstacles on the Polish road to NATO and a few theses and hypotheses. The author states that primarily the USSR, later the Russian Federation, was against Poland's accession to NATO. Initially, the West also opposed it. After 1989, its priority was to reunite Germany and stabilize military relations with Moscow through the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) and the elimination of Soviet military bases in post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe.