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The authors analyze the essence of the problem of financialization of economy in the national and global perspectives, at the same time pointing out that this process also refers to the sphere of politics. The example of the 2007+ financial and banking crisis indicates the negative features of this process in reference to economy but also to the financial security of the states and their citizens. In the sphere of politics financialization in the external aspect is reflected in transferring public funds to private economic entities, mainly financial corporations, by virtue of political decisions. In the internal aspects financialization means an increasing role of financial instruments and resources in establishing public authorities, including parliaments and presidential offices. This tendency is considered by the authors to be an immanent feature of contemporary capitalism and a threat to democracy.

The year 1989 was both in Poland and in many other European countries, which were in the sphere of the Soviet influences, the beginning of revolutionary changes: political, economie, social and cultural ones. They also influenced the Polish language of politics which has changed radically for the last 20 years. An important reason for a variety of styles and registers is the instability of the Polish political scene, the abundance of political parties, constantly forming new parliamentary groups and government coalitions, and the disappearance of the others. In the language of the contemporary politics the lexis is particularly extensive and includes thousands of words referring to the public life of the Poles. The major point of the article is the claim that the language of contemporary politics is getting poorer, loses its elegance and becomes more and more primitive. The author sees the reasons for this pauperization in the trends of contemporary culture. He shows the main features of the phenomenon: a turn towards commonness and informality, an emotionality of expressions, a hermetic vision of the world, an impossibility of a dialogue and an increase in populist attitudes.

The article tries to bring to the light the role of symbolism in the organized human life, in general, and the contemporary societies with the accelerating changes almost in all social structures, in particular. The rational of symbolism in changing socio-political and legal environment creates complexity of the issue, which has been studied in the article, taking into account the methodology of complex system theory. The interconnectivity and interdependency of law, morality and politics create the picture of synergy of different social norms with each other in changing environment. Their positive synergy is able to create a perception of the 'ethical state' – the focal point of equilibrium expressed in the attractor of future admired development. In the legal perspective, the symbol of that attractor appears to be the constitution as the society's and the nation's symbol of coexistence based on the values of mutual past, necessary present and admired future. It is substantiated that the Constitution is the phenomenon, representing a concrete constitutional idea and constitutional identity, and should be the one to be considered as such in a lot of people's minds if we intend to have a proper constitutional system and values. Hence, the Constitution is not just a document with a highest legal force, but also a symbol of a concrete constitutional system, and from this viewpoint the Basic Law has a symbolic significance. The authors substantiate that the mentioned significance of the Constitution makes it clear that constitutional policy in any state should be established and implemented in a manner, obviously demonstrating an attitude towards the Constitution, in the frames of which it is considered as a symbol of a concrete constitutional system. The most important circumstance in this context is to never transform the Constitution (directly or indirectly) from a symbol to an instrument in the hands of both the people and the state power and the whole constitutional policy of the state should be based on the discussed essential idea. Moreover, according to the authors the Constitution should not be subject to amendment parallel to every change of political situation of the state or formation of a new political majority merely conditioned by the mentioned changes. The Constitution has a fundamental role from the aspect of regulating social relations, has symbolic significance and can't be used just as a tool for solving ongoing political problems.

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"

The article analyzes the process of displacing law and its values from political thinking. There are many indications that law and its values are not a point of reference for contemporary politics, which results from the ongoing process of democratization. The coherence of virtues, law and politics, variously approached and variable over time, lasted in European culture for more than a thousand years. The Greek models have been adopted and consolidated by the Romans and Medieval thinkers. The breakthrough is brought by Machiavelli's writings, which radically changed the view of politics, free will, power. The nature of the state ceases to mean providing citizens with a happy life, and it begins to concern security. As a result, law becomes a tool to protect this security effectively. ; Artykuł jest analizą procesu wyparcia prawa i jego wartości z myślenia politycznego. Wiele wskazuje na to, że dla współczesnej polityki prawo i jego wartości nie stanowią punktu odniesienia, za co odpowiada trwający proces demokratyzacji. Koherencja cnót, prawa i polityki, różnie ujmowanych i zmiennych w czasie, trwała w europejskiej kulturze przez ponad tysiąc lat. Greckie wzorce zostały przejęte i ugruntowane przez Rzymian i myślicieli średniowiecznych. Przełomem stało się dopiero pisarstwo Machiavellego, który radykalnie odmienił spojrzenie na politykę, wolną wolę, władzę. Istota państwa przestaje sprowadzać się do zapewnienia obywatelom szczęśliwego życia, a zaczyna dotyczyć bezpieczeństwa. Co za tym idzie prawo staje się narzędziem służącym do tego, by owo bezpieczeństwo skutecznie zabezpieczyć.

The Treaty of Trianon (hereinafter Trianon), the enormous losses of territory and co-ethnics, and the shaking of Hungary's status as a dominant power in the Carpathian Basin imputed a tragic understanding of contemporary Hungarian history on the Hungarian society, invoking the idea of a trauma lasting even today. Trianon's understanding became a divisive issue for political parties after 1989, highlighting the ever-deeper divisions between right and left-liberals, since 2010. Its "overcoming" is a flagship project of the government's politics of identity, with modest success so far. Thus, the 100th anniversary was a crucial moment as a test case for a self-professed nationalist, traditionalist, conservative political force for manifesting a comprehensive politics of memory. In the light of the newly built monument at the heart of Budapest, with the Hungarian names of all localities on the territory of pre-1918 Hungary inscribed on its wall, a cautious shifting back to territorial revisionism was expected. In this article, I will argue that even with such tendencies being, obviously, present, the official commemorations were crafted with a surprising message, that attempts to turn the canonical understanding of Trianon upside down and reframe it into a common catastrophe of Central Europe. Doing so places the consequences in the context of the decolonization of history, the present decline of empires, and the emergence of nation-states while combining it with important tropes of the traditional, anti-liberal and revisionist Trianon discourse. Nevertheless, the result is a transparently political message that is not only driven by easily visible actual political goals (V4 and Central European), but one that detaches the politics of memory from historical references and legacies and creates a set of shallow symbols for utter instrumentalization, to recombine at will, in a vulgarised sense of post-modernism.

"Jakie są dążenia Iranu? Co chce osiągnąć Republika Islamska w regionie? Jakie są jej motywacje, szanse i oczekiwania? Skąd wynika często diametralnie odmienna ocena zasadniczych kwestii przez irańskich decydentów i Zachód? Próba odpowiedzi na przynajmniej część z tych pytań stanowi aspirację prezentowanej książki. W tym celu poproszono wybitnych ekspertów od Iranu, by zmierzyli się z najbardziej palącymi tematami."--

Political but Non-party In recent years, involvement has become almost the main topic of literary life; this is due largely to the fact that, firstly, there has emerged a group of authors who manifest not only their political views, but also their obligations; secondly due to the fact that some critics appeal for a "political turnaround" in literature and thirdly, due to the popularization of the thought of several world philosophers, with Jacques Rancier at the helm, who try to extract the political out of the aesthetic, and fourthly, as a consequence of the reactivation of old languages – Marxist one on the left side and conservative-identity one on the right. The resistance which these tendencies have aroused in some milieus is associated with the conviction that the discovery of the political possibilities of literature and its interpretation leads (or will lead) to its literariness, utilitarization, subordination to the languages that dominate on the public scene. The author of the article shares the above fears; he is of the opinion that literature should rather be an instrument for undermining instruments, pragmatism and sociologism by means of a language that does not belong to the territory of defined discourse; whereas the most interesting aspect of its political nature consists in its ability to resist politics.

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.

The article presents the most recent Polish analyses concerning the thought of Niccolò Machiavelli on the background of trends in the contemporary international literature on this thinker, focusing on Romuald Piekarski's book Koncepcja cnót politycznych Machiavellego na tle elementów klasycznej etyki cnót (Machiavelli's Concept of Political Virtues against the Background of the Classical Virtue Ethics, Gdańsk 2007). The author points out that Piekarski's work uses the methodology appropriate to the philosophy of politics, while the important monograph by Igor Kąkolewski, based on modern methodology of the study of political discourse, seeks to reconstruct an image of tyranny in the political culture of the Renaissance, and the book by Piotr Kimla devoted to political realism utilizes fairly typical methodological assumptions for the studies of political and legal thought. While in Piotr Kimla's opinion Machiavelli is a "philosopher of security" seeking to stabilize the state with a strong power, Piekarski regards Machiavelli as a philosopher whose postulates assume the superiority of foreign policy over domestic one, and thus lead the unsettling of the political institutions. In turn, Kąkolewski argues that Machiavelli's works are the key to understanding the sixteenth-century discourse on tyranny, which began the process – culminating in the nineteenth century – of axiological neutralization of such terms as "dictatorship" or "despotism". Romuald Piekarski's analyses, though carried out from a completely different point of view, correspond with those theses. According to Piekarski (who refers to famous Leo Strauss' thoughts), Machiavelli was a thinker who broke with the classical, i.e. antique and Christian, concept of virtue in politics, and the contemporary research on politics which assumes refraining from value judgment and axiological pluralism is a specific legacy of Machiavelli's approach. Following the considerations of Piekarski and Kąkolewski, the author of the article states that distant heritage of that approach is a kind of inability of contemporary reflection on the politics to explicitly, i.e., in an unambiguous manner, asses such political phenomena as tyranny.

The article presents the most recent Polish analyses concerning the thought of Niccolò Machiavelli on the background of trends in the contemporary international literature on this thinker, focusing on Romuald Piekarski's book Koncepcja cnót politycznych Machiavellego na tle elementów klasycznej etyki cnót (Machiavelli's Concept of Political Virtues against the Background of the Classical Virtue Ethics, Gdańsk 2007). The author points out that Piekarski's work uses the methodology appropriate to the philosophy of politics, while the important monograph by Igor Kąkolewski, based on modern methodology of the study of political discourse, seeks to reconstruct an image of tyranny in the political culture of the Renaissance, and the book by Piotr Kimla devoted to political realism utilizes fairly typical methodological assumptions for the studies of political and legal thought. While in Piotr Kimla's opinion Machiavelli is a "philosopher of security" seeking to stabilize the state with a strong power, Piekarski regards Machiavelli as a philosopher whose postulates assume the superiority of foreign policy over domestic one, and thus lead the unsettling of the political institutions. In turn, Kąkolewski argues that Machiavelli's works are the key to understanding the sixteenth-century discourse on tyranny, which began the process – culminating in the nineteenth century – of axiological neutralization of such terms as "dictatorship" or "despotism". Romuald Piekarski's analyses, though carried out from a completely different point of view, correspond with those theses. According to Piekarski (who refers to famous Leo Strauss' thoughts), Machiavelli was a thinker who broke with the classical, i.e. antique and Christian, concept of virtue in politics, and the contemporary research on politics which assumes refraining from value judgment and axiological pluralism is a specific legacy of Machiavelli's approach. Following the considerations of Piekarski and Kąkolewski, the author of the article states that distant heritage of that approach is a kind of inability of contemporary reflection on the politics to explicitly, i.e., in an unambiguous manner, asses such political phenomena as tyranny.

The article elaborates on the political parties in Polish Third Republic, from the inception of multi‑party system to contemporary days. Its aim is to analyse the evolution of Polish political parties and to point out advantages and disadvan‑ tages of the process. The Polish parties have undoubtedly undergone a major evolution over the past 25 years and it would seem that in some areas they are becoming similar to parties of Western Europe. However, the author indicates that on many levels their transition remains incomplete – a best‑case scenario – or superficial. This in turn leads to a problematic paradox – strengthening of Polish political parties has contributed to weakening the state rather than en‑ hancing its capabilities. In this sense, the strength of Polish political party seems to be merely a facade behind which serious structural problems are hidden. The alarmingly low levels of trust in politics and social activity alongside the process of cartelization are leading to yet unidentified consequences. ; Arkadiusz Nyzio

There is a quite big progress in the area of education on acceptance and tolerance towards multiculturalism. The main supporter of politics of multiculturalism is Will Kymlicka, and therefore I refer to his thoughts in this essay. However, in contemporary socio-cultural situation of Western civilization, we need something more than the mere acceptance of cultural diversity. It is worth promoting educational programmes that include themes related to the raising of citizens' awareness of boundaries of self – both in the individual and group aspect. At the same time majority groups should be supported by some tools that would help them to protect their identities without harming others.

The analysis of the Russian-Ukrainian relations case study shows two different models of determining contemporary historical memory. The first (Russian) consists of continuing the imperial traditions in historiography and politics of memory, focused on maintaining the superpower myths of the tsarist and Soviet empires. The second (Ukrainian) points to an attempt by researchers and the political class to escape from the influence of Russian historiography as well as to shape their own national historical narrative and policy of memory, connected with in the European tradition. Geopolitical and historical determinism are the basis of Vladimir Putin's imperial policy, trying to imitate the founders of the tsarist (Peter I) and Soviet (Stalin) empires. The conflict of the Russian imperial historical memory with the Ukrainian one was a significant reason for the aggression of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine. The Russian Federation has chosen an aggressive model of memory policy, treating history as a tool of influence against the so-called near and far abroad.