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The examination of public policy in Poland should refer to the terms, analytical categories as well as theories, which have already been postulated in this research field. The article aims to present an overview of the development of public policy theories in the long run. To begin with, the typological and stages approaches were presented. The theories of public policy were presented as two broader classes based on the differentiation into rational and interpretative paradigms. The application of the first one was examined in greater detail in the area of defining the choices of the ways to address public issues. The interpretative paradigm was presented mainly in connection with the argumentative approach as well as an attempt to combine the rational and interpretative approaches in the context of a rational discussion. The overview ends with the presentation of a few ways of organising the public policy research field through the research questions, the research areas, the theoretical-methodological framework as well as the archetypes of the public policy analysts' activity.

In contemporary states the aims of public policy are more often met through the implementation of regulatory instruments. It appears vital then to analyse their theoretical background as well as to contextually specify the conditions of their effective implementation. The following paper aims to conduct an analysis of the regulatory instruments such as standards, soft law along with self-regulation. There are three types of regulatory standards pointed out (goal-oriented, resultative, specific). The choice of a given standard often depends on context-specific factors, and additionally it involves an important dilemma, i.e. whether they should be unified for all the subordinate entities or differentiated in terms of the given features of the regulated entities. The author analyses the so-called 'soft law' as a regulatory instrument, which is implemented both in national and international regulatory systems. The term is used within the framework of regulatory policy and holds that the aims of public policy can be met through the application of soft, and sometimes 'informal' tools, that in certain circumstances might turn out to be equally effective as typical hard regulatory tools that are subject to sanction. The article additionally aims to address the issue of self-regulation that encompasses a set of rules that economic entities have created in a voluntary way (informally) and reciprocally claim as legally binding. These can also entail formal rules (e.g. the codes of conduct) that are fully executed in courts. In the summary section it is claimed that the choice of regulatory instruments is the one that should be dependent on the level of maturity of the institutional structures functioning within an economy as well as the capacity of entities to adequately react to informative market signals.

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.

Public deliberation mechanisms play an important role in the process of the EU public policy making because they are to compensate the shortage of representative democracy. One of them is social consultation carried out mainly by the European Commission. The paper consists of the analysis of open public consultation role in designing and implementing the EU sector policies. Their growing importance and frequency of use with regard to the economic policy and its kinds is clearly visible. The aims of such consultations are various. They are primarily used as an instrument of legitimacy of decisions taken by the Commission as well as an important source of information about the stakeholders' opinions and stance. The case of social consultations concerning the transatlantic agreement TTIP is analysed here in detail due to the significance of social mass protests which used to occur and owing to the imp

The text points out the need for significant changes in the disability policies, which result from the paradigm shift from medicine to social issues. Three theoretical approaches are presented and briefly discussed, which might be helpful when analyzing the public policy towards disability and eventually be used when reformulating it. First, the biographical approach and the trajectory of everyday life are presented. Then, the problem is discussed in the context of the social exclusion followed by the analysis of the public policies from the perspective of the expected failure. Finally the text presents the differences between social and public disability policies and points out the advantages of the approach typical for public policy-related sciences.

The main obstacles in the implementation of public policies emerge at the earlier stages of the agenda-setting and the formulation of goals due to institutional constraints. They comprise the ambiguities about the governing center and thus about the real actors of the public policy process. The government fully controls the legislation, although this results from a functional unity of the executive and the legislative powers rather than from formal regulations. The parliament gets deprived of its influence on public policy. The government, however, is not able to fulfill its functions, either. The evidence shows that the main actor in programming public policy is the administration, and the decision-taking process is dispersed among separate ministries without any real coordination and oversight. The law is an instrument of communicating decisions taken at the pre-legislative stage. The use of objective data and public consultations is occasional, although they could compensate for the declining role of the parliament. This makes the selection of proper policy instruments yet more difficult.

Evaluation has accompanied public interventions for almost 100 years. At least since the prevalence of the NPM model evaluation should be regarded as a management tool and its role and effectiveness ought to be analyzed in this context. Meanwhile, the relationship of evaluation and management processes does not seem to be widely discussed in the literature. This article is an attempt to fill this gap. It presents a selection of the literature on management (mainly strategic) and evaluation relating to the place of evaluation in the management cycle of public intervention. Then it proposes a model of evaluation as the process accompanying the management of public intervention, which may be the basis for future analyzes of the use of evaluation.

The following discussion took place in September 2018 at the Warsaw School of Economics. It focused on both senior politics, experts, and analysts. The discussion was moderated and planned by Andrzej Klimczuk, associated with the Warsaw School of Economics, and invited to the discussion: Barbara Szatur-Jaworska, social politician and gerontologist from the University of Warsaw, Paweł Kubicki, economist, Warsaw School of Economics, Marek Niezabitowski, sociologist from the Silesian University of Technology, Ryszard Majer, social politician , Agnieszka Cieśla, architect and urban planner, Warsaw University of Technology, Marzena Rudnicka, founder and president of the National Institute of Senior Management (biographical notes at the end of the debate). Panelists during the discussion analyzed the following issues: I. Beginnings of the senior policy, its definition, strategic documents of the state, II. The role of local governments in animating activities within the framework of senior policy and non-governmental organizations, III. Creation and role of the law on seniors, IV. Diversification of the environment of seniors, V. Activities in other countries within the framework of the senior policy, VI. Changes in social awareness, the evolution of attitudes towards older people, old age, ageing, VII. The market for products and services for seniors, VIII. Seniors' activity, formal and informal, activity infrastructure, IX. Housing for older people and ageing population X. The role of the state and self-government in the senior policy, dialogue with the authorities, public-private partnership, XI. Challenges and directions of development of the senior policy, XII. The deficit of care services, XIII. Senior and pension policy, XIV. Convergence and divergence in the senior policy.

During the discussion, the panellists analyzed several main issues: I. The role of the family and public institutions in long-term care. II. System solutions in the policy of supporting carers of dependent people. III. The method of financing care for elderly dependent people (including the role of social insurance). IV. The ability to provide care to dependent people and public expenditure on it, forms of support for carers. V. The role of the market in providing care and state activities. Outsourcing of carers of dependent people. Relationship between bottom-up actions and top-down actions taken by central authorities. VI. Reconciling the role of a caregiver with work on the free market.