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The article discusses the relationship between the occurrence of international conflicts and the desire of states to implement their own geopolitical interests. The key factor in the emergence of conflicts is the concept of an inter-civilization clash by Samuel Huntington, where the role of states in the formation of the international system is the trigger for decision-making. The author states that in modern conditions Russia defends its interests, which should not be perceived by other actors of international relations as a threat, but as competition.

This paper analyses various forms of cooperation between local institutions in European cities, which emerge from the impact of European regulations laying down general provisions on structural funds, mostly in the programming period 2000-2006. Cities are an important focus because they bring together various actors and institutions which benefit from EU funds. The main question of the paper is: how do European regulations on structural funds affect cooperation among local actors in European cities? More specifically, the paper addresses the issue of whether mobilization around EU funded projects contributes to the emergence of new forms of cooperation or whether actors benefiting from EU funds are based on pre-existing local networks and relationships. The research design involves the analysis of formal vertical and horizontal interactions among local and regional authorities and other local institutions in the city, around EU funded projects. Cooperation among the actors and institutions is analysed from two perspectives: 'top down' and 'bottom up'. Top town cooperation concentrates on decision making processes involving the evaluation of project applications for EU funds. Bottom up cooperation focuses on the mobilization of local actors which benefit directly from EU funded projects. Specifically, this paper analyses existing forms of interaction between actors within two European cities: Krakow (from a new member state) and Glasgow (from an old member state). The comparative analysis aims to find similarities and differences in mobilization of actors and interactions among them around EU funded projects. / W poniższym artykule analizowane są różne formy współpracy pomiędzy lokalnymi instytucjami w miastach europejskich, które wyłaniają się pod wpływem rozporządzeń wspólnotowych ustanawiających przepisy ogólne w sprawie funduszy strukturalnych, zwłaszcza w okresie programowania 2000-2006. Miasta dostarczają wyjątkowo interesujący materiał dla zrozumienia nowych relacji instytucjonalnych, albowiem skupiają one w sobie szereg rożnych instytucji, które korzystają z funduszy europejskich. Pytanie badawcze dotyczy zagadnienia jak rozporządzenia wspólnotowe w sprawie funduszy strukturalnych wpływają na współpracę pomiędzy instytucjami lokalnymi w miastach europejskich. W świetle powyższego, kluczowym staje się zagadnienie, czy mobilizacja wokół projektów finansowanych z funduszy europejskich przyczynia się do powstania nowej formy współpracy czy też współpraca między instytucjami wokół projektów jest oparta na już istniejących układach instytucjonalnych w mieście. W celu odpowiedzi na postawione pytania należy przedstawić jak przebiegają formalne pionowe i poziome relacje między lokalnymi i regionalnymi władzami publicznymi a innymi instytucjami na terenie miasta wokół projektów finansowanych z funduszy europejskich. Współpraca pomiędzy instytucjami jest analizowana zarówno od strony procesu decyzyjnego, dotyczącego oceny wniosków o dotacje z funduszy europejskich (odgórna współpraca), jak i od strony instytucji bezpośrednio zgłaszających się do wspólnego korzystania z funduszy europejskich (współpraca oddolna). W szczególności artykuł analizuje istniejące formy współpracy pomiędzy instytucjami lokalnymi w dwóch miastach europejskich: w Krakowie, miasta z nowego kraju członkowskiego Unii Europejskiej, i w Glasgow, ze starego kraju członkowskiego Unii Europejskiej. Analiza porównawcza ma na celu znalezienie różnic i podobieństw w mobilizacji i współpracy instytucji lokalnych wokół projektów finansowanych z funduszy europejskich.

The assessment of the implementation of the environmental policy in China is usually made in the context of the application of environmental law. The author proposes a different approach, assuming that the policy outcomes depend not only on such or other prerogatives at individual levels of management but on the mutual interaction of individual actors. The article indicates to what extent the central authority is able to define policy goals along with an adequate system of supervision of implementation, what is the perception of local authorities, and in what conditions local authorities are willing to accept the objectives of the ecological policy. It has been identified in which conditions sub-national authorities may distort centrally planned activities related to environmental protection.

The aim of this paper is to present the theoretical basis of public diplomacy and the characteristics of methods and areas of cross-border cooperation conducted by local governments in Podlaskie Voivodship. Report, in particular, draws attention to the civic and local government dimension of Polish foreign policy. Undertaken analysis was targeted to recognition of existing practices in this area, as well as to identify conclusions and recommendations for further development of decentralized foreign policy.
This report first discusses the basic theoretical concepts related to citizenship and local government cross-border cooperation. Attention was drawn to priorities of Polish decentralized foreign policy and sectoral diversification of cross-border cooperation actors in the Podlaskie Voivodship. Next the existing and planned cross-border cooperation initiatives present in the public programs and strategies of local governments and districts were discussed. Later in the report an attempt to summarize the areas and methods of cooperation were undertaken as well as some main conclusions and recommendations were pointed out.

Celem artykułu jest ustalenie, jak przebiega rywalizacja polityczna na poziomie samorządowym w woj. opolskim, tzn. czy lokalne podmioty skutecznie współzawodniczą z partiami politycznymi i czy ostateczny rezultat wpisuje się w specyfikę elekcji na poziomie subnarodowym (tzn., czy upartyjnienie wzrasta wraz ze szczeblem samorządu), czy też odznacza się jakimiś cechami charakterystycznymi. W tym celu przeprowadzona została analiza statystyczna wyników wyborów samorządowych 2014 roku, uwzględniająca partyjne komitety wyborcze oraz komitet wyborczy Mniejszości Niemieckiej, który traktujemy jak protopartię. Analizie podlegała zarówno liczba kandydatów, jak i liczba wybranych radnych oraz wójtów, burmistrzów, prezydentów z poszczególnych ugrupowań. Najważniejsze wnioski są następujące: władza samorządowa na szczeblu wojewódzkim jest obecnie na Opolszczyźnie silnie upartyjniona. Na poziomie powiatów, najwięcej kandydatów w wyborach wystawiają partie polityczne. Ogółem, na 246 radnych powiatowych (w tym radnych Opola – miasta na prawach powiatu), 127 mandatów zdobyli kandydaci startujący z list partii. W wyborach do rad gmin powyżej 20 tys. mieszkańców, odsetek mandatów radnych, uzyskanych przez partyjne komitety wyborcze wyniósł 34,2 proc. a w gminach poniżej 20 tys. – 13,6 proc. Wyniki te potwierdzają tezę o malejącym upartyjnieniu wyborów wraz ze szczeblem samorządu. ; The aim of the article is to analyse how political competition at the local level in the Opole Voivodeship is organized; whether local actors effectively compete with political parties and whether the final result fits into the specifics of election at the subnational level. For this purpose, a statistical analysis of the results of the local government elections in 2014 was made. We take into account party election committees and the German Minority Electoral Committee, which we treat as a proto-party. Both the number of candidates and the number of elected councilors and mayors, were analyzed. The most important findings are as follows: local government at the voivodship level is currently strongly partydependent in the Opole region. At the district level, the largest number of candidates are registered by political parties. In total, 246 district councilors (including Opole), 127 seats received candidates from the party committees. In the elections to the communes over 20 thousand of the inhabitants, the percentage of seats of party-dependent councilors was 34.2 percent and in the village communes (less than 20 thousand of the inhabitants) – 13.6 percent.

Celem artykułu jest ustalenie, jak przebiega rywalizacja polityczna na poziomie samorządowym w woj. opolskim, tzn. czy lokalne podmioty skutecznie współzawodniczą z partiami politycznymi i czy ostateczny rezultat wpisuje się w specyfikę elekcji na poziomie subnarodowym (tzn., czy upartyjnienie wzrasta wraz ze szczeblem samorządu), czy też odznacza się jakimiś cechami charakterystycznymi. W tym celu przeprowadzona została analiza statystyczna wyników wyborów samorządowych 2014 roku, uwzględniająca partyjne komitety wyborcze oraz komitet wyborczy Mniejszości Niemieckiej, który traktujemy jak protopartię. Analizie podlegała zarówno liczba kandydatów, jak i liczba wybranych radnych oraz wójtów, burmistrzów, prezydentów z poszczególnych ugrupowań. Najważniejsze wnioski są następujące: władza samorządowa na szczeblu wojewódzkim jest obecnie na Opolszczyźnie silnie upartyjniona. Na poziomie powiatów, najwięcej kandydatów w wyborach wystawiają partie polityczne. Ogółem, na 246 radnych powiatowych (w tym radnych Opola – miasta na prawach powiatu), 127 mandatów zdobyli kandydaci startujący z list partii. W wyborach do rad gmin powyżej 20 tys. mieszkańców, odsetek mandatów radnych, uzyskanych przez partyjne komitety wyborcze wyniósł 34,2 proc. a w gminach poniżej 20 tys. – 13,6 proc. Wyniki te potwierdzają tezę o malejącym upartyjnieniu wyborów wraz ze szczeblem samorządu. ; The aim of the article is to analyse how political competition at the local level in the Opole Voivodeship is organized; whether local actors effectively compete with political parties and whether the final result fits into the specifics of election at the subnational level. For this purpose, a statistical analysis of the results of the local government elections in 2014 was made. We take into account party election committees and the German Minority Electoral Committee, which we treat as a proto-party. Both the number of candidates and the number of elected councilors and mayors, were analyzed. The most important findings are as follows: local government at the voivodship level is currently strongly partydependent in the Opole region. At the district level, the largest number of candidates are registered by political parties. In total, 246 district councilors (including Opole), 127 seats received candidates from the party committees. In the elections to the communes over 20 thousand of the inhabitants, the percentage of seats of party-dependent councilors was 34.2 percent and in the village communes (less than 20 thousand of the inhabitants) – 13.6 percent.

The aim of the article is to describe the processes of local communities mobilization in the face of (small) schools liquidation in the rural areas. The author focuses on those cases of local activism which resulted in the formalization of undertaken activities and the establishment of local associations willing to lead local schools. The article presents determinants of social mobilization processes, pointing to the important role of local authorities (executive bodies) and teachers perceived as leaders of local activism. Based on the results of qualitative research conducted in selected rural municipalities in Poland, the author identifies three models of local activism leading to the creation of local (grassroots) associations that act as school governing bodies. Two of the identified models of activism are of a cooperative nature, based on the co-action of local authorities and the local community. While third one is non-cooperative. In this case, the mobilization of the local community and the formation of the association resulted from the lack of community acceptance for the decision of the municipality related to schools liquidation. Theoretical frameworks of the article are based on the concept of local governance, assuming the active participation of nonpublic actors in the process of public tasks implementation. The author also refers to the concept of public participation and presents selected definitions of social activity. The article is based on empirical research conducted in the form of semi-structured interviews and available statistical data (GUS). The author used the following methods: the literature review method and elements of the comparative and systemic methods. ; Celem artykułu jest opis procesów aktywizacji społeczności lokalnej w obliczu likwidacji szkół na obszarach wiejskich, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem tych, których efektem była formalizacja działań i powołanie stowarzyszeń prowadzących szkoły. Autorka koncentruje się na uwarunkowaniach procesów aktywizacji społecznej, wskazując na istotną rolę władz lokalnych (organów wykonawczych) oraz nauczycieli, jako liderów lokalnej mobilizacji. Bazując na wynikach badań jakościowych prowadzonych w wybranych gminach wiejskich, wskazuje na trzy modele aktywizacji prowadzącej do powstania oddolnych stowarzyszeń prowadzących szkoły. Dwa ze zidentyfikowanych rozwiązań mają charakter kooperatywny, oparty na współpracy władz lokalnych i społeczności lokalnej. Jeden zaś niekooperatywny, w przypadku którego władze gminy nie wspierały społeczności lokalnych w tworzeniu oddolnych stowarzyszeń, które podjęłyby się prowadzenia szkół. W tym przypadku aktywizacja społeczności lokalnej i powstanie stowarzyszenia były rezultatem braku akceptacji społeczności dla decyzji władz gminy. Ramy teoretyczne artykułu wyznacza koncepcja współrządzenia na poziomie lokalnym (local governance), zakładająca aktywny udział podmiotów niepublicznych w procesach realizacji zadań publicznych. Ponadto autorka dokonuje przeglądu definicji aktywności społecznej i partycypacji publicznej. W artykule wykorzystane zostały wyniki z badań empirycznych prowadzonych w formie wywiadów półustrukturyzowanych wśród 60 interesariuszy lokalnej polityki oświatowej oraz danych zastanych (GUS). W badaniu wykorzystano takie metody jak analiza literatury przedmiotu oraz metoda porównawcza.

In his book author explains social and political phenomena that are connected with political change in local conditions in Poland in 1989. As yet there has been no empirical study that would consider first partly free election to the last parliament of People's Republic of Poland in local conditions. In 1989 there were 108 electoral constituencies in Poland to the Sejm elections, and free election to the Senate were conducted in 49 provinces of Poland. Chojnice was a capital city of election constituency no. 14 to the Sejm and a part of election to the Senate conducted in Bydgoszcz Province. As over the time social issues are perceived through stereotypes and tend to be mythologized, it seems important to author to show such events and phenomena on firm basis. It is worth emphasizing that results from 1989 elections in local conditions are generally unknown. Poles do not know results in their local constituencies because nearly thirty years after the elections official results from local constituencies still have not been not published anywhere. Thus, this study is based on primary sources, newspapers from that time, literature of this particular issue. The analysis and synthesis is based on a number of theoretical perspectives: behaviorism to describe interaction between political actors – electoral system – party systems; political process and political change; Joseph Schumpeter's assumption that political competition is of fundamental importance for the democracy; Samuel Huntington's theory of third wave of democratization. All the data is analyzed in quantitative perspective. There is no hypothesis as the study is a descriptive and explanatory one. Its main goal is to highlight earlier unknown phenomena. This study is about local politics in a one-party state during the time of political change, so author refers to the politics on state level from that time. The most important questions refer to: continuity of activity of new social movement members from the time of the carnival of Chojnice "Solidarity" in the years 1980-1981 and their involvement in 1989; political negotiations and emergence of political leaders during that time; political will of citizens to take part in political change and their will to change the political system; attitudes of political actors from PUWP and "Solidarity"; individual nature of facts from that time taken under consideration from the perspective of local reality; attitudes of local regime members towards political change; results of elections in Chojnice constituency on 4th and 18th June 1989; differentiation of political behavior in Chojnice constituency; picture of society of that time; influence of cultural and ethnical identity as well as people's ties (mainly with Catholic Church) and roots on their political choices. Political behavior is one of the main category of this study. Author highlights not only electoral system but also describes process of political leaders' emergence on local scale. In this perspective election campaign is portrayed as a political fight between candidates of Citizen Committee of "Solidarity" and candidates of Polish United Worker's Party (PUWP) and its political satellites. As a matter of fact, author stresses the importance of category of the legitimization and shows that members of PUWP (in Poland known as PZPR) were not totally delegitimized by citizens in 1989 election in Chojnice constituency. In fact, PUWP was mostly legitimized by Poles in the northern part of Bydgoszcz Province during that election. The study consists of the following parts: introduction, 8 chapters, summary, bibliography, index and appendix. The first chapter describes electoral system and law that was enforced in 1989. The second one analyzes political climate and political situation around elections to the Sejm and the Senate. The third chapter is also mostly analytical one. Author describes local communists apparatchiks' attitude towards political change. The fourth chapter shows the process of political leaders emergence from both sides of the political conflict. The fifth chapter describes personal features of candidates to the Sejm and the Senate. The sixth chapter shows election campaign. The seventh one shows election results. The eighth chapter describes political attitudes and behavior of citizens in Chojnice constituency. In the appendix readers may find results from constituency districts of Chojnice town, and Chojnice country. As a result of this study some unexpected conclusions emerged after empirical study, for example: one of the most prominent one is that citizens of People's Republic of Poland do not reject totally PUWP and its monopoly for power and authority; paradoxically candidates from "Solidarity" movement were not selected as democratically as candidates from PUWP ; deep differences in political attitudes in Chojnice constituency depended on the scale of people's religiousness and the tradition of political opposition in town, as well as on ethnic groups; the highest support for political change was among Kashubians, whereas the lowest in the groups called Krajniacy and Borowiacy. ; Monografia powstała ona w wyniku analizy procesu wyborczego tzw. przełomu politycznego związanego z wyborami czerwcowymi 1989 r. Jest to studium zdarzeń i zjawisk z tamtego okresu, z okręgu wyborczego nr 14 Chojnice, który to okręg do Sejmu PRL obejmował w wyborach kontaktowych całą północną część województwa bydgoskiego i był jednym ze 108 takich okręgów w Polsce. W książce przedstawiono zarówno genezę decyzji politycznych stojących za wyborem przedterminowych wyborów w 1989 r. przez reżim komunistyczny, jak i między innymi proces wyłaniania liderów na listy wyborcze. Zaprezentowano postawy polityczne, kontekst społeczno-polityczny, stanowisko lokalnych struktur Polskiej Zjednoczonej Partii Robotniczej i jej działaczy wobec perspektywy głębokich przemian politycznych, które zapowiadały wybory czerwcowe, jak i też zaprezentowano reakcje powyborcze chojnickich komunistów. Dokonano także analizy porównawczej, według podstawowej jednostki jaką była gmina, ukazując zróżnicowanie postaw również w odniesieniu do przynależności etnograficznej wyborców w okręgu wyborczym nr 14. Analizie poddano także wybory do Senatu, koncentrując się na przebiegu kampanii, kandydatach oraz wynikach z terenu północnej części województwa bydgoskiego. Całość studium jest wynikiem analizy materiałów źródłowych - tj. dokumentów Państwowej Komisji Wyborczej, Rady Państwa oraz Komitetu Miejskiego PZPR w Chojnicach i Komitetu Gminnego PZPR w Chojnicach oraz relacji i wspomnień.

The assessment of the implementation of the environmental policy in China is usually made in the context of the application of environmental law. The author proposes a different approach, assuming that the policy outcomes depend not only on such or other prerogatives at individual levels of management but on the mutual interaction of individual actors. The article indicates to what extent the central authority is able to define policy goals along with an adequate system of supervision of implementation, what is the perception of local authorities, and in what conditions local authorities are willing to accept the objectives of the ecological policy. It has been identified in which conditions sub-national authorities may distort centrally planned activities related to environmental protection. ; Ocena wdrażania polityki ekologicznej w Chinach dokonywana jest zazwyczaj w kontekście implementacji prawa ochrony środowiska. Autor proponuje odmienne podejście, zakładając, że efekty polityki uzależnione są nie tylko od takich czy innych prerogatyw na poszczególnych poziomach zarządzania, ale także od wzajemnej interakcji poszczególnych aktorów. Artykuł wskazuje, w jakim stopniu władza centralna jest w stanie definiować cele polityki, wraz z adekwatnym systemem nadzoru wdrażania, jaka jest percepcja władz lokalnych, w jakich warunkach władze lokalne są skłonne do akceptacji celów polityki ekologicznej. Zidentyfikowano, w jakich warunkach władze subnarodowe mogą zniekształcać centralnie zaplanowane działania związane z ochroną środowiska.

The role of political parties on the political scene of the biggest Polish cities has been described. The discussion on the significance of political parties at the local level and changes, which are happening to them, including the decreasing membership, the increasing state of dependency and new preferences of voters has been described. On the basis of data, received from the research, that was conducted in 12 biggest cities in Poland — is shown, that the national parties are leading actors in cities' politics and their role — which is criticized by non-partisan politics and thrown into doubt on systemic level — only seems to be growing. ; The role of political parties on the political scene of the biggest Polish cities has been described. The discussion on the significance of political parties at the local level and changes, which are happening to them, including the decreasing membership, the increasing state of dependency and new preferences of voters has been described. On the basis of data, received from the research, that was conducted in 12 biggest cities in Poland — is shown, that the national parties are leading actors in cities' politics and their role — which is criticized by non-partisan politics and thrown into doubt on systemic level — only seems to be growing.

Celem niniejszego opracowania jest przybliżenie podstaw teoretycznych dyplomacji publicznej oraz charakterystyki metod i obszarów współpracy transgranicznej prowadzonej przez samorządy województwa podlaskiego. Raport w szczególności zwraca uwagę na obywatelski i samorządowy wymiar polskiej polityki zagranicznej. Podjętą analizę ukierunkowano na rozpoznanie dotychczasowych praktyk w tym zakresie, jak też na określenie wniosków i rekomendacji, co do dalszego rozwoju zdecentralizowanej polityki zagranicznej. W raporcie w pierwszej kolejności omówiono podstawowe pojęcia teoretyczne związane z obywatelską i samorządową współpracą transgraniczną. Zwrócono uwagę na priorytety zdecentralizowanej polityki zagranicznej Polski oraz na zróżnicowanie sektorowe aktorów współpracy transgranicznej w województwie podlaskim. Następnie w podziale na powiaty omówiono realizowane i planowane inicjatywy współpracy transgranicznej obecne w dostępnych publicznie dokumentach strategicznych samorządów woj. podlaskiego. W dalszej części raportu podjęto próbę podsumowania obszarów i metod współpracy oraz wskazano na główne wnioski i rekomendacje. ; The aim of this paper is to present the theoretical basis of public diplomacy and the characteristics of methods and areas of cross-border cooperation conducted by local governments in Podlaskie Voivodship. Report, in particular, draws attention to the civic and local government dimension of Polish foreign policy. Undertaken analysis was targeted to recognition of existing practices in this area, as well as to identify conclusions and recommendations for further development of decentralized foreign policy. This report first discusses the basic theoretical concepts related to citizenship and local government cross-border cooperation. Attention was drawn to priorities of Polish decentralized foreign policy and sectoral diversification of cross-border cooperation actors in the Podlaskie Voivodship. Next the existing and planned cross-border cooperation initiatives present in the public programs and strategies of local governments and districts were discussed. Later in the report an attempt to summarize the areas and methods of cooperation were undertaken as well as some main conclusions and recommendations were pointed out. ; Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych ; Andrzej Klimczuk

The political transformation initiated in 1989 brought far-reaching changes not only in the economic and social sphere, but also in the local dimension, which seems to be a symbolic sign of the creation of local government administration. Against this background, the social perception and assessment of the perception and functioning of local governments in Poland seem to be particularly interesting cognitively. It depends on whether Poles define local authority as an element of public authority – an efficient manager and administrator who is de facto a "local extension of central authority", or whether it becomes an important point of reference for local activities using the synergy effect consisting in stimulating various actors and entities present in the social space for the good of the local community? The conducted analyses allow to unequivocally reject the veracity of the alternative defined in this way. Local government performs both functions, which synergistically increase its importance and impact. This is also a social expectation. Local communities want to see in local authorities both "good hosts" and "animators and creators" of social reality. This is also confirmed by the analyzed case studies. This may be explained, at least in part, by the high social expectation of decentralisation and the transfer of competences and resources to local authorities.

The aim of the article is to analyze the draft amendment to the constitution of Ukraine from December 2019, in the context of completion of the local government reform. The basic research question is: do Ukrainian political leaders have a real will to decentralize the public authority, or is it forced by external factors, mainly by the Minsk agreements? Sources include official documents and press releases, which were subject to institutional and legal analysis. The comparative approach was applied, referring to Polish experience. It was established, that a draft amendment to the constitution from December 2019, consists of two documents: dated on 13 and 27 December. Both drafts were proposed by the Office of the President of Ukraine in a nontransparent way. It caused protests of local government and expert communities, together with Western partners. Eventually, on 16 January 2020, president Volodymyr Zelensky gave in to pressure and withdrew the proposal. The fate of the prolonged local government reform proves that Ukrainian political agenda is created largely not by internal environment, but by external actors.

Celem niniejszego opracowania jest przybliżenie podstaw teoretycznych dyplomacji publicznej oraz charakterystyki metod i obszarów współpracy transgranicznej prowadzonej przez samorządy województwa podlaskiego. Raport w szczególności zwraca uwagę na obywatelski i samorządowy wymiar polskiej polityki zagranicznej. Podjętą analizę ukierunkowano na rozpoznanie dotychczasowych praktyk w tym zakresie, jak też na określenie wniosków i rekomendacji, co do dalszego rozwoju zdecentralizowanej polityki zagranicznej. W raporcie w pierwszej kolejności omówiono podstawowe pojęcia teoretyczne związane z obywatelską i samorządową współpracą transgraniczną. Zwrócono uwagę na priorytety zdecentralizowanej polityki zagranicznej Polski oraz na zróżnicowanie sektorowe aktorów współpracy transgranicznej w województwie podlaskim. Następnie w podziale na powiaty omówiono realizowane i planowane inicjatywy współpracy transgranicznej obecne w dostępnych publicznie dokumentach strategicznych samorządów woj. podlaskiego. W dalszej części raportu podjęto próbę podsumowania obszarów i metod współpracy oraz wskazano na główne wnioski i rekomendacje. ; The aim of this paper is to present the theoretical basis of public diplomacy and the characteristics of methods and areas of cross-border cooperation conducted by local governments in Podlaskie Voivodship. Report, in particular, draws attention to the civic and local government dimension of Polish foreign policy. Undertaken analysis was targeted to recognition of existing practices in this area, as well as to identify conclusions and recommendations for further development of decentralized foreign policy. This report first discusses the basic theoretical concepts related to citizenship and local government cross-border cooperation. Attention was drawn to priorities of Polish decentralized foreign policy and sectoral diversification of cross-border cooperation actors in the Podlaskie Voivodship. Next the existing and planned cross-border cooperation initiatives present in the public programs and strategies of local governments and districts were discussed. Later in the report an attempt to summarize the areas and methods of cooperation were undertaken as well as some main conclusions and recommendations were pointed out.

Chojnice's June '89. The local study of the shockwave process of democratization In his book author explains social and political phenomena that are connec-ted with political change in local conditions in Poland in 1989. As yet there has beenno empirical study that would consider first partly free election to the last parliamentof People's Republic of Poland in local conditions. In 1989 there were 108 electoralconstituencies in Poland to the Sejm elections, and free election to the Senate wereconducted in 49 provinces of Poland. Chojnice was a capital city of election constitu-ency no. 14 to the Sejm and a part of election to the Senate conducted in BydgoszczProvince. As over the time social issues are perceived through stereotypes and tendto be mythologized, it seems important to author to show such events and pheno-mena on firm basis. It is worth emphasizing that results from 1989 elections in localconditions are generally unknown. Poles do not know results in their local constitu-encies because nearly thirty years after the elections official results from local con-stituencies still have not been not published anywhere. Thus, this study is based onprimary sources, newspapers from that time, literature of this particular issue. The analysis and synthesis is based on a number of theoretical perspectives: behaviorismto describe interaction between political actors – electoral system – party systems;political process and political change; Joseph Schumpeter's assumption that politicalcompetition is of fundamental importance for the democracy; Samuel Huntington'stheory of third wave of democratization. All the data is analyzed in quantitativeperspective. There is no hypothesis as the study is a descriptive and explanatoryone. Its main goal is to highlight earlier unknown phenomena. This study is aboutlocal politics in a one-party state during the time of political change, so author refersto the politics on state level from that time. The most important questions refer to:continuity of activity of new social movement members from the time of the carni- val of Chojnice "Solidarity" in the years 1980-1981 and their involvement in 1989;political negotiations and emergence of political leaders during that time; politicalwill of citizens to take part in political change and their will to change the politicalsystem; attitudes of political actors from PUWP and "Solidarity"; individual natureof facts from that time taken under consideration from the perspective of local reali-ty; attitudes of local regime members towards political change; results of elections inChojnice constituency on 4th and 18th June 1989; differentiation of political behaviorin Chojnice constituency; picture of society of that time; influence of cultural andethnical identity as well as people's ties (mainly with Catholic Church) and roots ontheir political choices.Political behavior is one of the main category of this study. Author highlightsnot only electoral system but also describes process of political leaders' emergenceon local scale. In this perspective election campaign is portrayed as a political fightbetween candidates of Citizen Committee of "Solidarity" and candidates of PolishUnited Worker's Party (PUWP) and its political satellites. As a matter of fact, authorstresses the importance of category of the legitimization and shows that members ofPUWP (in Poland known as PZPR) were not totally delegitimized by citizens in 1989election in Chojnice constituency. In fact, PUWP was mostly legitimized by Poles inthe northern part of Bydgoszcz Province during that election.The study consists of the following parts: introduction, 8 chapters, summary,bibliography, index and appendix.The first chapter describes electoral system and law that was enforced in 1989.The second one analyzes political climate and political situation around elec-tions to the Sejm and the Senate.The third chapter is also mostly analytical one. Author describes local com-munists apparatchiks' attitude towards political change.The fourth chapter shows the process of political leaders emergence fromboth sides of the political conflict.The fifthh chapter describes personal features of candidates to the Sejm andthe Senate.The sixth chapter shows election campaign.The seventh one shows election results.The eighth chapter describes political attitudes and behavior of citizens inChojnice constituency.In the appendix readers may find results from constituency districts of Choj-nice town, and Chojnice country.As a result of this study some unexpected conclusions emerged aer empi-rical study, for example: one of the most prominent one is that citizens of People'sRepublic of Poland do not reject totally PUWP and its monopoly for power andauthority; paradoxically candidates from "Solidarity" movement were not selectedas democratically as candidates from PUWP ; deep differences in political attitudesin Chojnice constituency depended on the scale of people's religiousness and thetradition of political opposition in town, as well as on ethnic groups; the highest su-pport for political change was among Kashubians, whereas the lowest in the groupscalled Krajniacy and Borowiacy.