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Mobility of students, mobility of scientists and ECT system — implementation of the Bologna Process in Polish universitiesThe article introduces the idea of the Bologna Process – a European-wide initiative which focuses on changes in the higher education system. The strategic aim of this policy is to create a European Higher Education Area and to improve its international competitiveness The authors analyze the genesis of the idea of the Bologna Process, briefly discuss its strategic objectives, the tools used to achieve them and describe the stakeholders taking part in the implementation of the policy at the European and national levels. The essay concentrates on the description of the two out of six main tools of the Bologna Process: mobility and ECTS system as well as their implementation in Polish universities

Rated both positively and negatively, Shinzō Abe has achieved a lot as prime minister. He contributed to a new perception of Japan in the international arena. During the eight years of his rule in power, his administration carried out reforms aimed at better coordination of security policy, strengthened the position of the prime minister in this field, and increased the involvement of the SDF in ensuring security. They resulted primarily from changes taking place in its security environment: the development of North Korea's missile and nuclear program, the assertive attitude of the People's Republic of China, and an increase in arms spending and the intensification of Chinese military activity in the region (around the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands and in the South China Sea). The article aims to analyze the changes in the security policy introduced during the rule of Shinzō Abe in the internal aspect.

Publikacja recenzowana / Peer-reviewed publication ; The objective of the article is to indicate similarities as well as discrepancies between the Polish and German governments' stands on the crisis and conflict in Ukraine. The author tries to respond to the question: What will be the implications of the conflict in Ukraine for the "Eastern policy" of Poland and Germany? Will they result in the continuation of their current "Eastern policy", its evolution or maybe they will bring an essential change to their policy in the region? In author's opinion, taking into account significant differences between the Polish and German foreign policies towards Russia and Ukraine between 2014 and 2015 as well as before that period, the possibility for enhanced cooperation between the two governments in relation to their foreign policy towards Russia and Ukraine will continue to be remote in the upcoming years.

This essay investigates mutual relations between China, Russia and Ukraine during the five month groundbreaking period between November 2013 and March 2014, in which failed attempts to suppress anti-government demonstrations (in particular in the so-called Maidan) brought about a change of the government. Meanwhile Russia, taking advantage of political instability in Ukraine, contributed to further destabilization of the country and forced the annexation of Crimea. The essay features an account of these events along with an overview of the PRC's stand on them. The utterances of Chinese diplomats together with government press statements will be scrutinized here in order to answer the questions of whether Beijing intends to get more involved in solving world's crises than it used to up until now as well as whether it means to play a major role in the world's politics in general.

Polish society gathers features specific to "late modernity" period. In this period grows up the meaning of organizational forms, flow of information, trust to other people and complicated technical systems, uncertainty, taking a risk as well as progressive economic, political and cultural globalization. One of threats and challenges is the process of population ageing. The article attempt to recognition of specific safety problems of old men's in Białystok. Safety is treated as necessary condition for far more researches on practical solutions connected with the professional activity of seniors and growth of their social participation. Assurance of seniors safety can lead to lowering costs of their maintenance as well as the formation of positive attitudes towards old age and cultural openness. The work brings closer connections between safety and social capital topics as well as chosen empirical analyses.

Health insurance expenditures on drug refunds in 2004-2012Drug expenditures in each country account for a large share in total health expenditures. Hence experts, media and societies are becoming very interested in the drug policy in their country, where one of the important components is reimbursement/refund policy. Good governance in the drug sector means not only taking up allocation, redistribution and stabilization tasks that belong to the government, but also taking into consideration differences in interests of different stakeholders on the drug market. If it is disregarded, even ideal theoretical solutions will not work in market reality. This article presents and comments basic facts on development of universal health insurance expenditures on drug refund in the last 13 years in Poland, especially in 2012 after implementation of the new bill on refund policy. This law led to a dramatic decrease in drug refund cost share in total expenditures of the National Health Fund (Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia, NFZ) from 15% in 2011 to 11.2% in 2012. Still the share of drug refund has already had a decreasing tendency in NFZ expenditures starting from 2005. Available data contradict suspicions that savings on drug refunds in NFZ has led to an increase in patients' health expenditures on prescription drugs. Costs of substitutive full-price drugs (equivalents for refunded ones) bought by Polish patients in 2012 increased only by 650 mln PLN, while NFZ's refund expenditures decreased by almost 2 billion PLN, and patients' copayment in the case of refunded drugs dropped by one billion PLN. However, drug consumption was reduced. Conducted analysis also showed a systematic, and positive for patients, growth in the share of almost fully refunded drugs – drugs with low fixed copayments (from 49% in 2004 to almost 65% in 2012) and lower 30% patients' copayment in NFZ refunds. Which in fact is in contradiction with the common opinion that NFZ is running a policy of shifting more drug costs on patients. What is concerning are regional discrepancies (between regional – voievodship branches) in refund expenditures per insured person (the difference between the highest and lowest is 49 PLN – 28%).

The objective of scientific forecasting is to present the most probable course of an analyzed phenomenon, taking into account the direction and dynamics of its development. In the course of making forecasts one endeavors to determine the conditions providing for the evolution of this phenomenon. Twenty-something years of an independent Ukraine is decidedly too short a period to facilitate responsible hypothesizing on the development of internal and external situation of this country, but some suppositions are justified. On account of the limitations of this paper the author analyzes only selected events from the recent history of Ukraine. The analysis does not answer the question of whether the recurring crises in Ukraine result primarily from phenomena that cyclically occur in a democracy (i.e. elections), and are simply inherent in it or not. Alternatively, when the chronic nature of a crisis (not: crises) is assumed, it may be concluded that as Ukraine emerges 'unscathed' from each stage of the crisis it evolves towards a new, more advanced phase, in consistence with Kondratiev's theories of economic and political cycles. ; The objective of scientific forecasting is to present the most probable course of an analyzed phenomenon, taking into account the direction and dynamics of its development. In the course of making forecasts one endeavors to determine the conditions providing for the evolution of this phenomenon. Twenty-something years of an independent Ukraine is decidedly too short a period to facilitate responsible hypothesizing on the development of internal and external situation of this country, but some suppositions are justified. On account of the limitations of this paper the author analyzes only selected events from the recent history of Ukraine. The analysis does not answer the question of whether the recurring crises in Ukraine result primarily from phenomena that cyclically occur in a democracy (i.e. elections), and are simply inherent in it or not. Alternatively, when the chronic nature of a crisis (not: crises) is assumed, it may be concluded that as Ukraine emerges 'unscathed' from each stage of the crisis it evolves towards a new, more advanced phase, in consistence with Kondratiev's theories of economic and political cycles.

This paper's objective is to study the impact of the war in Ukraine on the Eastern policy of the European Union. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to highlight this policy's position in the overall international activity of the EU, as well as its characteristic features, main goals, instruments, and two components: the strategic partnership with Russia and the Eastern Partnership (EaP). The substantive part of the paper contains an analysis which, taking into account the implications of the war in Ukraine, is intended to justify three research hypotheses. They concern: the complete failure of the strategic partnership with Russia, then the serious crisis of the EaP and, finally, the possibility of achieving success in the Eastern policy in the form of Ukraine's accession to the EU. As indicated in the conclusion, this would provide the European Union with a permanently strong position in Eastern Europe.

The subject of this study is to present the concept of a model solution for the public security system of monocentric and polycentric agglomeration. Taking into account the security conditions of a large urban agglomeration, one universal scheme of police organization has been adopted. Its func-tioning on the basis of specific forms and methods to some extent limits the autonomy of police chiefs in shaping safety in accordance with the specificity and internal social and organizational conditions of the agglomeration. Among the available research methods, the participatory observation method was used in particular. Nevertheless, the basic scientific method for obtaining empirical data was a diagnostic survey. Furthermore, the article presents the opinion of police officers on the transfer of solutions from the Warsaw agglomeration to other agglomerations in Poland. The author's conceptual proposal of a model solution for the public safety system of a large urban agglomeration was presented.

One of the main challenges European democracy has faced recently is growing political radicalism, and primarily the increasing importance of populist parties originating from both left and right sides of the political arena. This paper refers to the theoretical assumptions concerning this phenomenon to analyze the operations of the 'Die Linke' party in the German party system. This party is an excellent example of taking skillful advantage of the circumstances favoring the development of the populist tendencies that have emerged following the recent, radical, social, and political changes in the Federal Republic of Germany. Against the background of European extremist left-wing parties, the paper presents the influence this Left-Wing Party exerts on the changing balance of power on the German political arena on a regional and national level, the ideological profile and party platform, and the changing structure of both its members and voters.

One of the main challenges European democracy has faced recently is growing political radicalism, and primarily the increasing importance of populist parties originating from both left and right sides of the political arena. This paper refers to the theoretical assumptions concerning this phenomenon to analyze the operations of the 'Die Linke' party in the German party system. This party is an excellent example of taking skillful advantage of the circumstances favoring the development of the populist tendencies that have emerged following the recent, radical, social, and political changes in the Federal Republic of Germany. Against the background of European extremist left-wing parties, the paper presents the influence this Left-Wing Party exerts on the changing balance of power on the German political arena on a regional and national level, the ideological profile and party platform, and the changing structure of both its members and voters.

The aim of the article is to reconstruct the theoretical foundations of the local government, reestablished in 1990, taking into account the state and political theories, whose standards have been established with regard to the local government during the interwar period, as well as the concept of the civil society, built upon the foundation of the civil movements of the 1980s that aimed at democratizing the authoritarian regimes of Central and Eastern Europe. The idea of the civil society, which reemerged after two centuries, not only inspired a nation-wide political protest movement and democratic modernization of the state, but also became one of the cornerstones of the conception of the local government, as cooperation with the local organizations, considered to be the most important agents of the third sector, has been inscribed directly into the local government statutes.

Polish political science is accused of not being as global as Polish sociology, or of not taking the scientific method and scientific theory very seriously. In contrast to the three basic social sciences (psychology, economics and sociology), political science is more limited to description and humanistic interpretation. One may ask why Polish political science, as it results from the above accusations, deviates slightly from the positivist pattern. The hypothesis suggests that this may be related to the education of the founders, the first managers of political science (directors of institutes, representatives of political science in the Central Commission of Scientific Degree). As it turns out, they were mostly lawyers, and to some extent historians. Graduates of basic social sciences were rare. Political science also lacks (considering textbooks) influential methodologists. As a consequence, there are fewer social methodological subjects in political science studies than in the other aforementioned fields of study.

A point of departure for this study was an observation that, in political sciences, much more often the focus is on the phenomena happening in the political centres of European states than on those taking place in their regions. The foregoing, however, seems a serious impediment to further the knowledge on making political decisions and their practical implementation. When one follows closely the processes the countries of our continent go through, it is hard not to notice that the events unfolding in the regions more and more often, and to a much greater extent, impact the politics of both particular states and the structures of the unified Europe. Perfect exemplifications of the aforesaid assumption have been in the recent years Scotland and Catalonia. Therefore, the main aim of the present study is to indicate principle reasons that would offer a compelling justification to investigate social, political, and economic phenomena occurring at the level of region in Europe.

The article addresses current trends in the European transformation and compares the structure which is being built to ancient and medieval empires. The imperial order appears to be productive for the EU, due to it easily embraces the heterogeneity existing within the Union, as well as contributes to the strengthening of the EU institutional legitimacy and efficiency in global governance. The ongoing EU transformations, promoted by the German-French lobby and supported by the authorities in Brussels, are indirectly leading to the emergence of an imperial structure, which is secured by a soft power, instead of a rule of sword. Taking all this into account, an attempt is made to define the role of Poland, the largest post-2004 enlargement state, in the new structure. To make this attempt sufficient a brief analysis of current Polish foreign policy and economic growth is provided. ; Artykuł nie zawiera abstraktu w języku polskim