I join those who claim that the category of political culture in science is confusing and useless, and that its isolation for research purposes is pointless2. I omit the history of the notion of political culture, I do not deal with its definitions, I do not refer to the classification, I do not consider what should be adapted to political culture from one or another understood culture in a general sense. My focus is on showing that what is called "political culture" is essentially nothing other than politics, policy, polity or the selected elements that contribute it.
This text is a review article of Michał Masłowski's monograph "Myths and political symbols of Central and Eastern Europe". Masłowski's publication presents the most widespread myths, political and national symbols of Central and Eastern Europe, along with an explanation of their origin and influence over the often turbulent centuries from the early Middle Ages to the present day. The author approaches this topic in an interdisciplinary way, trying to present what shaped nations and their culture in this part of Europe.
The article discusses the formation and development of a multi-party system in the Republic of Uzbekistan. The state and problems of the formation and development of a multiparty system are analyzed. The practice of consistent improvement of the national electoral legislation and a new level of election conduct is reflected. The process of democratic transformations is considered, which has an impact on the political parties of the country and is constantly deepening as the political and legal culture increases, the socio-political activity of the population increases. The author has put forward proposals and recommendations to activate the activities of political parties and strengthen the multi-party system.
The purpose of this article is to analyse the legal regulations concerning the governing bodies of the parliaments in Norway and Denmark, as well as selected elements of the system practice related to their functioning in the last several years. A comparative study of the aforementioned institutions in both parliaments makes it possible to identify similar elements, as well as to point out existing differences, especially in the system practice. One common feature is the axiology underpinning the activities of the governing bodies and the resulting high political culture characterising the deputies in charge in the Storting and the Folketing. The analyses made are based on the assumptions and categories of neo-institutional methodology in political science. The main thesis of the article is that the high efficiency and professionalism of both parliaments, as determined by objective indicators, is the result of a consensual and pragmatic attitude of those elected to leadership positions and proposed by the party groups. This attitude is fostered by the widespread occurrence of minority parliamentarism in political practice in both states.
The Industrial Monuments Route of the Silesian Voivodeship is a cultural route that does not follow a strictly defined course and consists of several dozen sites scattered throughout the Silesian Voivodeship. Its functioning, which results from the strategic assumptions of the Silesian Voivodeship authorities, drives tourist traffic in its facilities, which often also operate on a commercial basis, which affects the interest in tourism in the region, including the need for tourists-consumers to use products offered within the framework of tourism economy of the Silesian Voivodeship. The aim of the study is to assess the offer of goods and services used by tourists on the described cultural route and its relationship with the needs reported by these consumers. The degree of fulfillment of these needs was tested during direct research on the Industrial Monuments Route. The survey took place in the period May-August 2019 in the form of a direct interview with consumers visiting several selected facilities of the Route. The degree of fulfillment of the reported needs and the level of accessibility to goods and services on the Industrial Monuments Route were largely assessed as at least sufficient. Some of them still require improvement, which may be a signpost for the local government officials of the Metropolis GZM (pol. Górnośląsko-Zagłębiowska Metropolia) cities and municipalities on the one hand, and for entrepreneurs offering their products near the Industrial Monuments Route on the other hand.
The aim of the study is to analyze the issues of midterm and snap elections during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland. In particular, the nature of such elections was considered. Numerous restrictions including, for example, the prohibition of assembling or movement of people, had an impact on the course and implementation of the basic functions of elections. The aim of the paper is also to determine whether, in the light of the applicable regulations, it is permissible to change the date of voting in the ordered local elections during the COVID-19 pandemic. It should be noted that in the period from March to April 2020, and then from November 2020 to June 2021, this practice became almost universal. The resolution of this problem is of significant importance, as each act ordering elections should guarantee the holding of elections within a strictly defined time and, moreover, every action of the proper body should be based on legal provisions. The practice of postponing voting in local elections, which occurred during the pandemic, weakened the so understood (as of a guarantee) nature of the act of ordering elections, at the same time inspiring a discussion on the legal admissibility of such actions. In this study, the formal and legal method was used and the achievements of the doctrine and judicature were analyzed.
The increasing complexity of the social world forces transformations within public policies, which are trying to adapt to the dynamically changing reality. The implementation of new management techniques in line with the model of metagovernance appears to be a common formula of such adaptation. The model involves complementing the existing management models with horizontal networks of public policy stakeholders as well as establishing the policy regarding three principles - of the required diversity, required reflexivity, and ironic attitude. Public cultural institutions that serve the role of framework institutions support the implementation of new management techniques, primarily by means of creating new and supporting existing networks of cultural policy stakeholders. The description of the institution is based on in-dept-interviews with individuals involved in the creation of public policy in the area of culture pursued in the second half of 2018.
The modern power of the USA is based on traditional sources: the size of the territory and demographics, economy, army and soft power factors (culture, foreign policy, values, public diplomacy). The United States creates a power that has sustainable resources backed by an efficient mechanism of action and the will of the public to implement these plans. Currently, the US has enough resources, and most importantly, in the current international environment, it is able to use them to maintain an advantage over its competitors. The article presents the elements of US power that determine its advantage over other countries and the weaknesses that may limit its influence. This largely determines the research methods used (statistical and comparative). The latter method allows to determine the scale of US hegemony and what are the chances of its maintenance in the 21st century.
The Greek Civil War of 1946-1949 divided the Greek society into allies of the monarchy and supporters of the Communist Party of the Greece-led Transitional Democratic Government of Free Greece. The military arm of the leftist center was the Democratic Army of Greece. Until some time, the communist forces were actively supported by the countries of the Eastern Bloc: Albania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. However, the Stalin-Tito conflict, which intensified from 1948 onwards, contributed to the defeat of the Democratic Army of Greece, caused by the overwhelming military advantage of the monarchist forces. In mid-1949, a decision was made to evacuate partisan units and the civilian population that had been under their control to Albania. Also, Poland, a country that suffered greatly as a result of World War II, helped Greece. First, by providing food, military and medical equipment, and later by accepting over 13,000 children and adults, fighters and civilians from the areas covered by the war, all terribly tired of war and wandering. The group of migrants was organized from scratch, provided medical and social care, work, education, and access to culture. Migrations of people in search of shelter from conflicts, persecution, and poverty are not only a contemporary problem of the European Union. This article presents the reforms initiated by the government of the Polish People's Republic as a result of the escalation of the crisis in the Balkans. In Poland refugees from Greece found completely new living, civilization, cultural, geographical, and economic conditions. Gradually, they managed to settle in this foreign country. Today many of them are grateful to Poland for their help.
As shown by the statistics, East Asian countries control COVID-19 better than other countries. Due to that fact, one should pose the following question: what is it caused by? The article analyzes the actions taken to control COVID-19 in Poland and Malaysia - statistics, the time of introducing restrictions, their types and scope, as well as methods of their enforcement. The choice of countries is dictated by a similar number of inhabitants and the number of tests performed. Malaysia is recognized worldwide as one of the top countries managing the pandemic very well. On the other hand, Poland is one of the world's leading countries with the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19. The descriptive and comparative analysis allowed the author to draw conclusions on the factors that determine success in controlling COVID-19. On the basis of the conducted research, previous experiences and developed action plans for contagious diseases as well as cultural and social factors are of the greatest importance.
This article presents conclusions from observation of the first Citizens' Assembly organized in Wrocław (Poland) in 2020. The analysis starts with placing the panel within the most recent developments in a democratic theory followed by an empirical case study based on covert non-participant observation, document analysis and personal interviews. In conclusion, the paper shows that while citizens' assembly is a promising method for engaging citizens in decision-making process, it poses numerous challenges, especially in terms of framing, organizing and moderating the educational and deliberative stages of the process.
The article discusses the electoral system in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Elections are the process of citizens electing their representatives for specific positions. In this context, the method and principles of conducting the election are important, so that its fundamental rule - universality - is preserved. Although more than a dozen electoral regulations were in force since 1989 and the traditional model of voting at a polling station was still in place, the Polish legislator also provided for postal and proxy voting. Due to the risk related to the COVID-19 pandemic, it would seem that changes to the Polish Electoral Code will be necessary. The adaptation of the new provisions to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997, however, turned out to be too ambitious a task for the domestic legislator. Therefore, the Act of April 6, 2020 on the special rules for holding general elections for the President of the Republic of Poland, ordered in 2020, did not enter into force finally, because the functioning of a democratic state ruled by law requires that fundamental rights and civil liberties, including electoral ones be guaranteed. This study is empirical in nature - it is a case study of a specific legislative action shown in a comparative approach on the example of Poland and the United States of America.
In March 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, local elections were held in Bavaria: the first round of voting took place on 15.03.2020 (traditional and postal voting) followed by the run-off ballot on 29.03.2020 (postal voting alone). The political decision to rely solely on postal voting in the second ballot was made unanimously by all the political fractions represented in the Bavarian parliament in the sense of responsibility for public health. The run-off ballot was held in constituencies where voting in the first round did not yield a winner. There were 34 such constituencies out of a total of 96. In this way, a research sample was created embracing the above-mentioned 34 constituencies, randomly and evenly dispersed throughout the entire Bundesland, and a control sample comprising the remaining constituencies. The purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis according to which the postal voting held in Bavaria in March 2020, amidst the pandemic, led to an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. The results of this study may be relevant for the discussion that in April and May of 2020 was going on in Poland - and never eventually settled - where public health concerns were raised. The Bavarian example was invoked by both supporters and opponents of postal voting as the sole form of voting in the Polish presidential elections originally scheduled for May of 2020. The Bavarian precedent was instrumentalized as an argument made - respectively in favor or against - sticking to the originally adopted electoral timeline.
Artykuł odwołuje się w swojej analizie do postrzegania wartości Unii Europejskiej z perspektywy człowieka jako dobra najwyższego w kontekście zmian medialnych oraz protestów kobiet w Polsce pod koniec 2020 roku oraz społecznej aktywności demonstrującej przywiązanie Polaków do UE. Na początku trzeciej dekady XXI wieku istotnymi wartościami, podkreślanymi w przestrzeni publicznej są: dobro jednostek, wolność wypowiadania swoich poglądów, równość polityczna, społeczna oraz ekonomiczna dotycząca wszystkich, niezależnie od rasy, płci, orientacji seksualnej, kultury, religii, sympatii politycznych. Są one podstawą funkcjonowania wspólnoty ludzkiej w tym UE. Przestrzenią do obrony tych wartości, stały się nowe media w tym niezwykle istotne media społecznościowe. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest praktyczna analiza, styku wartości o tradycyjnym, humanistycznym znaczeniu takich, jak kultura słowa oraz debaty publicznej z walką o wolność manifestowania swoich poglądów oraz obrony wartości przy użyciu nowych mediów. Co wbrew pozorom nie jest sprzeczne. Język protestu młodego pokolenia, nie jest poprawny, sięga do wulgaryzmów, ponieważ bardzo często jest to nie tylko zmiana pokoleniowa, lecz odpowiedź na język polityki i polityków. Polem do analizy jest spór polityczno-ideologiczny wywołany na polskiej scenie politycznej. Analiza na gruncie badań politologicznych oraz nauki o mediach, oparta została na badaniu źródeł zarówno literatury naukowej, jak i Internetu oraz mediów społecznościowych. Studium przypadku są wydarzenia związane z protestem kobiet w Polsce oraz innymi wystąpieniami przeciwko polityce rządu. Charakter mediów społecznościowych powoduje, iż nie funkcjonuje w nich cenzura, jakakolwiek kontrola form wyrazu oraz treści. Jest to praktyczna realizacja wolności i prawa do wyrażania swoich poglądów oraz protestu. Taka forma wolności prowadzi do wulgaryzacji życia publicznego. Niejednokrotnie wulgaryzacja, słowna, gesty, symbole i ich użycie mają swoje źródła w obserwacji życia politycznego. Zdaniem autorów, ta forma wyrażania myśli, w tym również służąca obronie podstawowych społecznych wartości wymaga przedefiniowania i zrozumienia kontekstów kulturowych. ; The article refers in its analysis to the perception of the values of the European Union from the human perspective as the highest good in the context of media changes and women's protests in Poland at the end of 2020 and social activity demonstrating Poles' attachment to the EU. At the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, the important values emphasized in the public space are: the good of individuals, freedom of expression, political, social and economic equality concerning everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, culture, religion, political sympathies. They are the basis for the functioning of the human community in this EU. New media, including extremely important social media, have become a space to defend these values. The aim of this article is a practical analysis of the intersection of values with a traditional humanistic meaning, such as the culture of speech and public debate, with the struggle for the freedom to express one's views and defend values using new media. Contrary to appearances, it is not contradictory. The language of protest of the young generation is not correct, it reaches to profanity, because very often it is not only a generational change, but a response to the language of politics and politicians. The field for analysis is the political and ideological dispute sparked on the Polish political scene. Analysis based on political science research and media science was based on researching the sources of both scientific literatures, the Internet and social media. The case studies are related to the women's protest in Poland and other protests against government policy. Due to the nature of social media, there is no censorship, no control of forms of expression and content. It is a practical realization of the freedom and the right to express one's views and protest. This form of freedom leads to a vulgarization of public life. Often, vulgarity, verbal, gestures, symbols and their use have their source in the observation of political life. According to the authors, this form of expressing thoughts, including the one serving to defend basic social values, requires redefining and understanding cultural contexts.
Artykuł odwołuje się w swojej analizie do postrzegania wartości Unii Europejskiej z perspektywy człowieka jako dobra najwyższego w kontekście zmian medialnych oraz protestów kobiet w Polsce pod koniec 2020 roku oraz społecznej aktywności demonstrującej przywiązanie Polaków do UE. Na początku trzeciej dekady XXI wieku istotnymi wartościami, podkreślanymi w przestrzeni publicznej są: dobro jednostek, wolność wypowiadania swoich poglądów, równość polityczna, społeczna oraz ekonomiczna dotycząca wszystkich, niezależnie od rasy, płci, orientacji seksualnej, kultury, religii, sympatii politycznych. Są one podstawą funkcjonowania wspólnoty ludzkiej w tym UE. Przestrzenią do obrony tych wartości, stały się nowe media w tym niezwykle istotne media społecznościowe. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest praktyczna analiza, styku wartości o tradycyjnym, humanistycznym znaczeniu takich, jak kultura słowa oraz debaty publicznej z walką o wolność manifestowania swoich poglądów oraz obrony wartości przy użyciu nowych mediów. Co wbrew pozorom nie jest sprzeczne. Język protestu młodego pokolenia, nie jest poprawny, sięga do wulgaryzmów, ponieważ bardzo często jest to nie tylko zmiana pokoleniowa, lecz odpowiedź na język polityki i polityków. Polem do analizy jest spór polityczno-ideologiczny wywołany na polskiej scenie politycznej. Analiza na gruncie badań politologicznych oraz nauki o mediach, oparta została na badaniu źródeł zarówno literatury naukowej, jak i Internetu oraz mediów społecznościowych. Studium przypadku są wydarzenia związane z protestem kobiet w Polsce oraz innymi wystąpieniami przeciwko polityce rządu. Charakter mediów społecznościowych powoduje, iż nie funkcjonuje w nich cenzura, jakakolwiek kontrola form wyrazu oraz treści. Jest to praktyczna realizacja wolności i prawa do wyrażania swoich poglądów oraz protestu. Taka forma wolności prowadzi do wulgaryzacji życia publicznego. Niejednokrotnie wulgaryzacja, słowna, gesty, symbole i ich użycie mają swoje źródła w obserwacji życia politycznego. Zdaniem autorów, ta forma wyrażania myśli, w tym również służąca obronie podstawowych społecznych wartości wymaga przedefiniowania i zrozumienia kontekstów kulturowych. ; The article refers in its analysis to the perception of the values of the European Union from the human perspective as the highest good in the context of media changes and women's protests in Poland at the end of 2020 and social activity demonstrating Poles' attachment to the EU. At the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, the important values emphasized in the public space are: the good of individuals, freedom of expression, political, social and economic equality concerning everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, culture, religion, political sympathies. They are the basis for the functioning of the human community in this EU. New media, including extremely important social media, have become a space to defend these values. The aim of this article is a practical analysis of the intersection of values with a traditional humanistic meaning, such as the culture of speech and public debate, with the struggle for the freedom to express one's views and defend values using new media. Contrary to appearances, it is not contradictory. The language of protest of the young generation is not correct, it reaches to profanity, because very often it is not only a generational change, but a response to the language of politics and politicians. The field for analysis is the political and ideological dispute sparked on the Polish political scene. Analysis based on political science research and media science was based on researching the sources of both scientific literatures, the Internet and social media. The case studies are related to the women's protest in Poland and other protests against government policy. Due to the nature of social media, there is no censorship, no control of forms of expression and content. It is a practical realization of the freedom and the right to express one's views and protest. This form of freedom leads to a vulgarization of public life. Often, vulgarity, verbal, gestures, symbols and their use have their source in the observation of political life. According to the authors, this form of expressing thoughts, including the one serving to defend basic social values, requires redefining and understanding cultural contexts.