Suchergebnisse

Israel's party system has been characterized by the bipolar rivalry between the left-wing and right-wing blocks since the late 1970s. In recent years we could have seen at least two trends that seem to diverge from this model. For the last 9 years, the Likud party has formed three successive governments which have made Benjamin Netanyahu the longest continuously serving prime minister in the history of Israel. Another new occurrence is the preservation of a significant representation of the centre parties for four Knesset terms in the row. The aim of the paper is to verify whether Israel's party system has departed from the two-blocs bipolar model. Based on the empirical data (election results, government formation, party's political platforms) it examines whether the parties' rivalry in the years 2009–2018 differed qualitatively from the previous period. To answer this question the paper investigates three hypotheses. First – Likud has become a dominant party in Israel. Second – a dominant and stable Israeli right-wing parties' bloc has formed. Third – an enduring and relevant centre sector has emerged in Israel's party system.

Burma/Myanmar seems to be a perfect ground for transitional justice with both long-failed transitions to democracy that seemed to succeed in 2015 finally and smouldering civil war taking place there since 1948 (since the 1990s limited to Borderlands). Unfortunately, the political realities in Burma/Myanmar make it unlikely, if not impossible, for transitional justice to be applicable in Burma/Myanmar. The victorious in 2015 elections democratic opposition party, National League for Democracy (NLD) came to power thanks to the political deal with the former military government and is consequently being forced to cohabitate politically with the army that still holds critical political checks over the government. It made NLD's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi to conduct moderate domestic policy without trying to charge the generals for their former crimes. In this circumstances, transitional justice is unwanted by mainstream political actors (NLD, the army) and seen as threatening to peace by many in the Myanmar society. This approach firmly places Burma/Myanmar on one side of the 'peace vs justice' dilemma. It answers the "torturer problem", one of the central problems of transitional justice – how to deal with members of the previous regime which violated human rights – in 'old fashion' way, by granting them full amnesty. As such Burma/Myanmar case also falsifies an optimistic claim that transitional justice is necessary for political reforms.

In 2017 statistics showed that Chinese Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in Poland for 2016 amounted to a more than half of all Chinese FDI in Poland for the 2000–2016. Yet the overall amount of Chinese FDI remains modest in comparison with Western Europe or even with Hungary. Despite much proclaimed Sino-Polish rapprochement in 2015–2016 and high hopes for OBOR/BRI initiative in Poland, cooperation with China has not been a breakthrough for Poland in terms of economic results. There have not been ground-breaking Sino-Polish projects and Polish government's desire to strengthen ties with China loosened in late 2016/early 2017 (though it may revive now).There are several reasons for that, from the perception of Poland as non-attractive for majority Chinese investments, via lack of overall Polish strategy of attracting these investors to discrepancies of economic interests between Poland and China.

The article presents an analysis of the role of demos in power relations in democratic states. The author of the text postulates the need for contemporary political science research to expand its analyses beyond formal structures of political institutions and include in its scope also features of demos – the "cultural factor" to better understand the functioning and chances for success of democracy in different states.

Establishing good law has been an old dream of humanity. Back in ancient times leaders such as Hammurabi, Solon, and especially Justinian the Great, and many others, while attempting to codify and reform the law, were driven by the ideal of "good law". ! is same idea inspired Montesquieu in his De l'esprit des lois ("! e Spirit of the Laws"). Monumental legal acts in Napoleon's times or the time of German unifi cation, as well as copying these acts into the legal systems of the countries of the Far East, for example, Japan, serve as additional examples on how tempted leaders have been able to implement the idea of "good law", which, quite frequently, is directly stated in the preamble to leading legal acts.

It is not without reason that we reflect more and more on the causes of the current state of political thinking in Polish society. Indeed, in modern times, difficult and uncertain, and turbulent times of great transformation, human thought is clearly not keeping pace. Given the rapidly changing external circumstances we have become increasingly confused and inept. We do not really know how to deal with the emerging threats and challenges of modern times, described by the eminent sociologist and philosopher Zygmunt Bauman as the era of "liquid modernity". It is noticeable that our perception and image of social reality and our role in it, including its political dimension, is quite imperfect and restricted, and that our ideological life is in deep crisis or has perhaps even disappeared.

In 2010, Barbara Budrich Publishers (Germany) published a book titled Political Science in Central-East Europe. Diversity and Convergence on the development and state of political science in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. The book is a collection of 19 country reports (Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine), which, collectively, provide the much needed account on the discipline's institutionalization throughout the region. Individual chapters – written by academic professors or lecturers – include such information as the state of research, teaching, major books and journals, international cooperation, public impact. The chapter on Polish political science was written by professor Teresa Sasinska-Klas, at the time of the publication, the President of the Polish Political Science Association.

The inauguration of Roh Tae Woo as president of the Sixth Republic of Korea in February 1988 can be considered as a turning point in South Korean political history. The five years of the Roh Tae Woo administration, 1988–1993, contained many of the fi rst steps, albeit sometimes transitionally imperfect, toward democracy and an ultimate return to civilian rule of law, as well as greater political freedoms. According to Samuel P. Huntington, the Korean form of democratization was an example of transplacement, in which the government made concessions and opposition political groups accepted it to avoid mutual catastrophe. Furthermore, a case can be made for the mode of democratic transition in South Korea also being like Donald Share's transition through transaction, Terry Lynn Karl and Philippe C. Schmitter's transition by pact, and Adam Przeworki's democracy with guarantees.

The ability to manage other people's behavior has always intrigued philosophers. The fate of each human being and each community depend – in a way that is not easy to measure – on other people. Who are these "other people"? Why can they determine the direction of our thoughts and actions? What relation takes place between them, those who manage, and us, who are willing to be obedient? Which part of our social subjectivity are we willing to give up for the sake of these "others"? Such and many more important questions mark what may seem as an undefined framework of a never-ending, inconclusive discourse. However, once we decide to take an active part in this discourse, we need to take a responsibility to frame the subject matter, at the very least in a conventional manner, remaining aware that when each argument and each statement are equally relevant in terms of their content value, none is worth attention since they all are deprived of their explanatory value.

The leading aim of this paper is to portray the constitutional institution of compensation liability for unlawful acts of public authorities in Polish law related to the development of general principle concerning democratic rule of law. Compensation for damages brought upon the citizens by civil servants constitutes a basic pillar of contemporary democratic state, because it guarantees acting by public authorities in compliances with law and deepen trustfulness. It is also said that the state of the above–mentioned institution indicates the development of democracy.

The paper is a methodological review essay of Michael Bernhard and Jan Kubik's comparative study of politics of memory and commemoration in seventeen Central and Eastern European states twenty years after the fall of state socialism. The goal of the essay is to critically examine Bernhard and Kubik's volume, with a particular focus on the comparative methods they applied to explain how some political and cultural factors at the time of the collapse of communism affected a memory regime in the post-communist democracies. This analysis critically examines four aspects of the study, being: the central theoretical assumptions and contribution in comparative and memory politics; case selection; methodology and data analysis; main findings. Each part includes a summary of the particular aspect of the book, the main strengths and weaknesses, and possible improvements. The review essay emphasis is particularly novel and innovative comparative methodology in studying politics of memory and its universality, suggesting, however, severe problems with a lack of clear and consistent discourse analysis methodology which could affect the quality of final results.

Media and communication are subjects which are closely related. For quite some time in each public debate references are made to an increasing dependence between media and communication processes. Explicit attention is paid to a changing context of the communication process, and especially the process of political communication. The role of media in the process of public communication is, on the one hand, quite traditional; that is to inform the public, popularize information and mobilize citizens to action, all in the name of the public good. On the other hand, it is also noticeable that modern media play new roles such as providers of entertainment, scandals, sensation, enjoyment. All this brings a question: which of these functions tell us about the future of the media, and – consequently – how do they change the process of political communication in the public sphere? And is this what we want?

Numerous public opinion polls conducted in Poland since the 1990s have tried to answer questions linked with the processes of installing, and later stabilizing the new democratic order. Theoretical considerations were conducted on the basis of political science, sociology, and communications studies dealing with the democratic system, tended to concentrate on procedural questions as well as in institutional frameworks dealing with the functioning of the democratic system. Analyses dealing with the social reception of the political transformations and their reflection in the state of social awareness most often were in reference to the situation concerning successive political elections. It would appear the linking of these research approaches, of the so-called theoretical studies of the democratic process in the political system as well as empirical findings, and also perceived social signals resulting from public opinion research, may lead to the creation of more valuable results, as well as the posing of new research questions.