The article analyses the current situation in Estonia and Lithuania in the context of the position of both states and their public relations strategy and image since 1991, as well as the role of national minorities in this process. The authors emphasize that even though Estonia and Lithuania tend to be treated as very similar state organisms, they chose different ways of building their legal and democratic structures. Despite many similarities between the two states, such as location, size, small population, common historical background and, above all, ethnic divisions, one should pay attention to successful attempts to strengthen the statehood of Estonia and Lithuania.
The author analyses the selected aspects of capitalism in the countries of Central Europe. The author presents the various theoretical concepts that refer to the issue in question involving the concept coined by L. King and I. Szelenyi, which holds that the systemic changes in the countries of this region are specifically characterised by the perspective of 'from without' capitalism. They believe that the specificity of the capitalist system lies in the fact that in the key times of the post-communist changes of the political system, the issue of the absence of an important class of private owners was not addressed. In the West private proprietors were the ones that constituted the main driving force of an open-market economy. The article presents the advantages and drawbacks of an economic model formed by the dominant share of foreign capital, with an emphasis placed on the consequences of the issue in question on the limitations of the subjectivity of economic policy of a state as well as the development chances of local businesses. It manifests the fears that the model created in Poland (and in other countries of the region) after the year 1989 sets the role model for local enterprises of corporate subcontractors of mainly traditional or niche products and services.
The aim of this paper is to indicate a diverse nature of the issues investigated in public policy sciences, particularly emphasizing the importance of the health policy in explaining social reality. By resolving public problems, numerous needs of society, inter alia, health needs can be met. One of the sciences which explains social problems and public policy has an interest in is the health policy. Both the health policy and public policy have two dimensions, i.e. applicable and theoretical. In terms of 'applicable' one, active participation of all social life entities affecting awareness of developing health resources is vital. And in the theoretical one, as a science, health policy addresses theoretical problems related to satisfying health needs of individual and collective populations. However, in the existing definitions of the health policy, there is no reference to "health needs". One can only assume that this category is used intuitively as it is hard to imagine numerous activities and decisions taken without identifying the needs, so that the health system could meet them. Reverting to health policy in its practical sense it is crucial to teach the public responsibility for their own behavior towards health. Health education deals with the skills needed to care about health in an accountable and independent way. This kind of education plays an important part in the implementation of public policy since its task is not only to transfer knowledge, but also to develop skills to make informed choices and decisions and thus to shape a democratic society with an independent way of thinking. The applicable role of the health policy is to improve the management of the health sector. In this respect, the organization of the treatment process, which is to provide comprehensive medical care for patients and therefore to improve the existing relations of a public nature, is essential.
The following publication elaborates on the notion of international tax competition and international tax avoidance in the light of cross-border public policy. In terms of intercommunity relations, tax competition may be defined as a phenomenon consisting in application of various tax instruments for the purpose of developing a state's economy and prosperity by means of increasing competitiveness of the domestic business activity or attracting foreign investments. Tax competition is a natural consequence of the processes of globalization since in the reality of growing business interrelations, tax considerations exert more and more influence over investment decisions of holding companies. It reveals the dissonance between the interests of the particular member states in the EU and the interest of the European Union as a whole. Usually it is difficult to mark the border between a harmful and an advantageous tax competition.
Ireland's industrial relations have come into a new stage of relationship between the government and social partners after a period of effective social partnership functioning. One of the symptoms of this new approach is a mechanism based on the public service agreements. The Public Service Stability Agreement 2013-2018 - Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA) can be an example of that kind of pacts. The main goal of this paper, therefore, is a presentation of the agreement including an analysis of its significant records and atmosphere around the pact. To achieve the goal the paper is structured as follows: the introduction includes a short description of social pacts as well as new public service agreements. The second part draws our attention to LRA's records. The third section discusses the attitude of different actors of industrial relations to Lansdowne Road Agreement. Finally, the conclusion is a short summary giving answers to the researched questions.
There are also theoretical issues such as: adequacy of this discipline of knowledge to the analysis of the realities of public action in Poland. This issue arises due to the fact that public policy emerged as a discipline of knowledge in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, on the basis of its specificity. Moreover, the theories evident in public policy science have been developed in the West, mainly in America. The local realities were the basis. Therefore, the question arises whether we should build our theories or adapt those that have been developed elsewhere. Meanwhile, we do not have many or even most elements of the Anglo-Saxon tradition, even in terms of the size of our analytical achievements. We are not even inclined to conduct such an advanced analysis of social and economic phenomena. Hence, it seems important to me to ask about the theoretical potential of this discipline in relation to the analysis of public activities in Poland.
The paper deals with the European cooperation in outer space, which in the course of half a century has led to the creation of the European space policy, another European public policy. At the beginning of the paper, the definition framework for public policy was outlined and the European space policy was briefly presented. The analysis begins with an indication of the reasons for establishing cooperation for space, then it covers the history of European space efforts as well as the attempts to institutionalize that cooperation. In the further part of the paper, the process of working out the European space policy and the most recently announced European space programme are analysed. Finally, the conclusions resulting from the analysis give the answer to the questions raised in the paper about the ability to effectively design and execute the space policy, the results of implementation of particular space policy programmes, allocation of resources for the benefit of society, the position of the EU in international relations.
The author analyses the socio-cultural determinants which influence the internal structure of collective action. It is determined by: the ability to fulfill contracts, the predictability of behaviour and showing trust to others. The author goes on to describe the factors that limit them as a result of the specificity of social relations in the Polish society, which 82 Janusz Hryniewicz Studia z Polityki Publicznej are dominated by the network of micro-groups and it means that only within them - not within the wider society - one can see social relations, in which contracts tend to be fulfilled and trust guaranteed. At the same time, the author indicates that the Polish society's capacity for collective action seems to be limited as a result of the fact that the Cartesian culture has not been fully adopted. There are many ramifications of that including a lower potential to analyse the goals of collective actions and making them more rational. In the Cartesian type of societies, their members are more favourably inclined to act together. They are more favourably adapted towards democracy, collective action and one can see a higher level of self-organisation, a wider range of personal freedom, as well as the setting up of associations. There is no need to impose top-down directives and top-down coordination when collective action must be taken.
The paper analyses instruments used for implementation of public policy. Broad background, including descriptions of debates in scientific literature on certain instruments, typologies of instruments, as well as factors that influence the choice of instruments, has been provided. The second part of the paper focuses on the relation between policy design in Poland and the structure of public policy instruments. Policy design in Poland favours "hard" instruments of public policy at the expense of catalytic instruments which could have been used to great extend to solve complex policy problems.
Loans indexed and denominated in foreign currencies were granted in Poland to those not receiving income in a foreign currency, in the period from 2000 to 2013. In this period, housing loans were the fastest growing item in bank assets in Poland. Only in the period from December 2002 to the end of 2012, the share of housing loans in the assets of banks increased more than five times, and in receivables from the non-financial sector increased fourfold. A significant change in foreign exchange rates (e.g. CHF, EUR, USD and JPY) in relation to the zloty contributed directly to the current value of the costs of operating liabilities, as well as the valuation of the total mortgage obligations relating to foreign exchange, the value of credit and its costs calculated in PLN. The significant ease of obtaining a mortgage in foreign currencies in relation to the PLN loan resulted in the entry into the group of borrowers of individuals and households who would not receive a PLN loan at the time, and would not, therefore, lead to a real estate purchase transaction. The author points out the social consequences of the emergence of a significant group of citizens burdened with high indebtedness. In his opinion, a generation of "credit slaves" emerged as a new social phenomenon - living with the awareness of a long-standing unpaid financial obligation. This limits the socio-economic activity, and builds indifference to debt, i.e. a state in which each subsequent commitment 'does not worsen' such a bad situation. The author also presents the proposals and activities of political groups and the borrower community itself aimed at solving this situation. The subject of the analysis is the scale and socio-economic effects of placing mortgage loans relating to foreign currencies on the market. The aim of the study is an attempt to identify the socio-economic effects and scale of the public policy negligence against the crisis of the so-called 'foreign currency loans'. The analysis was carried out on the data from the period 1989-2016.
Enactment of the Polish Act on Urban Regeneration has granted municipalities new opportunities of using spatial policy development tools, including ones related to the legal, spatial, and participatory domain. The inefficiency of public authorities in the spatial management system manifests itself in insufficient skills as well as the lack of will and determination to shape and protect spatial order. Speaking of urban regeneration, this inefficiency becomes evident, but not only, in the erroneous or incomplete diagnosis of issues that should trigger regeneration processes; the lack of prompt and thoughtful response to the diagnosed problems; the lack of active cooperation with stakeholders (attributable both to the low level of social capital and the attitude of bureaucrats). Ultimately, this inefficiency leads to the implementation of the municipal regeneration program only by public authorities and not by regeneration stakeholders. Based on these findings, the article seeks to determine whether and to what extent urban regeneration tools can reduce the inefficiency of public authorities in the spatial management system (in relation to areas subject to regeneration). The conducted analysis of case studies demonstrates that regeneration tools are not employed to their full potential (to unlock all the related benefits). Participation tools are not fully utilized, either (especially those linked to the operation of the Urban Regeneration Committee).
The article aims to observe the purpose and subject of "public policy sciences" from the perspective of living space. The role of housing policy and settlement in this respect is at the core of the paper reasoning. It requires reflection on the relationships of social, housing and settlement policies, and their location on the background of other elements and disciplines of social sciences in the context of living. Public policy relations of a systemic, political, economic and social character, as well as of natural and ecological one, which complement the concept of sustainable development, are also discussed. This concept focused more than ever on a fair and decent habitation of successive generations, by substantially increasing the role of housing and settlement policy, highlights that the aim and subject of "the public policy sciences" is the living space.
The aim of the article is to deepen the discussion on the conceptualisation of migration policy as a specific public policy. The author analyzes the definitions of this policy formulated by Polish researchers and points out that their characteristic features are: the concentration on activities of state institutions and the reference to the functional and technical level of policy appropriate for public policy. At the same time, she observes that particular areas of public activity, including immigration, emigration and often also integration policies, are included in the scope of migration policy. The author proposes her own definition of migration policy as the totality of instruments, political actions and decisions designed and/or undertaken by the state authorities in relation to migration processes and their participants. She argues that migration policy should be distinguished from migration management, the term which was coined in order to name the (ostensibly) depoliticized, global migration control system.
The article is focused on the issue of the representation of interests in the process of shaping public policies. In particular, it addresses issues related to regulatory management regarding relations with interest groups and strategies used by stakeholders in consultation processes. In addition, we aim to discuss the role that interest groups play in public policies. The analysis concerns the activities of Polish interest groups in the area of copyright, which deserves attention due to the diversity of actors and the asymmetry of interests. The analysis makes it possible to state that the actions taken by stakeholders in strengthening the representation of their interests lead to "overrepresentation" of these interests, which - in the absence of appropriate regulatory management mechanisms for the participation of parties in consultations - increases the risk of the phenomenon of "regulatory capture" by entities. The data was collected as part of the legislative monitoring of drafts of legal-copyright laws proceeded in 2013-2019, as well as semi-structured interviews conducted in 2015-2018. In order to illustrate lobbying strategies, a method of analyzing social networks was used.
