Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny, 2009, nr 2
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Item DWUDZIESTOLECIE POLITYKI PIENIĘŻNEJ NBP WPŁYW TRANSFORMACJI I INTEGRACJI GOSPODARCZEJ(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Przybylska-Kapuścińska, WiesławaThe paper demonstrates the scale o f transformations taking place in the central bank’s monetary policy between 1989 and 2009. The National Bank o f Poland needed to be transformed in a modern central bank, capable o f functioning in a market economy. In order to facilitate that, various legal and institutional changes needed to be made and the existing laws required necessary amendments. They are analysed and presented in the paper. Next, the eclectic monetary policy that the Bank pursued in the years 1990-1997 is described, and its strong and weak points identified. After that the new strategy, continued till date, focused on inflation targeting is discussed and its effects and reasons for implementation, as well reasons why inflation is hard to control in Poland, explained. The paper ends with a description of the evolution o f the tools and instruments used by the National Bank o f Poland in the last twenty years.Item DYNAMIKA TRANSFORMACYJNEJ RECESJI I EKSPANSJI (Z PERSPEKTYWY ZMIAN STRUKTURY WŁASNOŚCIOWEJ FIRM)(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Winiecki, JanThe paper is an attempt to explain the dynamics of output change in transition and its determinants. The author stresses, first o f all, the differences between the normal business cycle and the transitional recession and expansion. The most important are the much larger scale of output fall in post-communist transition and the different sets of firms (dominant set of new private firms in transition). In his opinion the factor dynamising the behaviour of economic agents is the ownership form. In transitional recession state firms dominate. For a number of reasons at the beginning of the transition the demand for their (usually obsolete and low quality) products goes down. Also, the aggregate output falls as new private firms are too small to countervail the fall in the state sector. The few privatised firms have problems of their own and their output does not increase much, either. With the passage of time the proportions change. Newly established and already expanding private firms, as well as more numerous privatised firms, increase their output so much that their increases outweigh the losses of state firms. The expansion begins. The author points out that all transition economies have gone through such correctional recession, while not all experienced expansion. He ascribes the difference to the development of the new private sector, which in the first couple of years of transition is clearly more efficient than the privatised sector (to say nothing about the inefficient state sector). The rapid expansion of the new private sector, or its quantitative and qualitative weakness, is dependent in this author’s opinion on the successful implementation of the transition programme and on civilisational differences (how the country performed before communism).Item EWOLUCJA PRZEDSIĘBIORSTW W POLSCE W OKRESIE TRANSFORMACJI GOSPODARKI PO 1989 ROKU(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Urbanowska-Sojkin, Elżbieta; Banaszyk, PiotrThe paper focuses on the changes in the activity of companies in Poland between 1989-2009. Those changes concern the goals o f business activity, methods of its realisation, both in respect of its fundamental function and supporting functions, and sources of the competitive advantage, market behaviours, particularly in relation to customers, competitors, vendors and other organisations from the business environment. Consequences o f globalisation, especially those seen in the fragmentation of economic activities and tools of its implementation (outsourcing and offshoring), deserve a special attention. Both development strategies have been used by Polish entrepreneurs. The business goals have undergone economic rationalisation, manifested as a necessity to solve problems such as the operating profitability of a given business or activity, the scope or extent of a given economic activity justifying its continuation, or cost-effectiveness of the traditional cooperative agreements. Today, transnational, or global, companies play a key role on the business market. Likewise, the role and impact o f the ideas and technologies of the information society are of fundamental importance. Furthermore, transformations in the organisation o f businesses are also important. Their structures are becoming better adapted to the current requirements of competitive markets and they substantially reduce fixed costs. For the purposes o f the study and to illustrate the changes taking place in the basic quantitative and qualitative features o f companies operating throughout Poland, the authors used statistical information published by Poland’s Main Statistical Office (GUS).Item GWARANCJE HARMONIJNEGO KSZTAŁTOWANIA SIĘ WZAJEMNYCH RELACJI PAŃSTWA POLSKIEGO I KOŚCIOŁA KATOLICKIEGO W KONKORDACIE Z 1993 ROKU(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Góralski, WojciechThe Concordat between the Holy See and the Republic of Poland concluded on 28 July 1993 and representing the new, post-Council model of such an agreement has been shaped in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council whose fundamental principle governing the relationship between the state and the church is the protection of religious freedom that is rooted in the right for personal dignity due to every person. The Concordat Agreement governs all matters of interest to both parties and the underlying principles of this relation are based on mutual understanding o f the respective purposes and tasks, thus providing for their autonomy. It strengthens the status quo established by the Act on the relationship of the state with the Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland of 17 May 1989, explicitly displays the will of the parties to sustain mutual concord and agreement, and their readiness to collaborate “for the promotion of the benefit of humanity and the good of the community” (article 1 of the Concordat). The fundamental principle governing the mutual relations of the Polish state and the Catholic Church adopted in the Concordat is the principle of securing either of them independence and autonomy, respective in their own domains (article 1). That principle has been subsequently incorporated in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (article 25 section 3). The Concordat Agreement also includes provisions pursuant to which both parties assume certain obligations, and some others containing unilateral guarantees exchanged by both parties (these constitute the actual subject of this study). The bilaterality of the guarantees seems to provide conditions necessary for a harmonious formation of mutual relations of two communities: political and religious.Item INSTYTUCJONALNE UWARUNKOWANIA STRATEGII ROZSZERZENIA UNII EUROPEJSKIEJ(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Barcz, JanContinuation of the EU enlargement depends, to some extent, on how well the EU institutional system is prepared to “absorb” new members. The main factors that influence this “absorption capability” are, on the one hand, the weakening willingness, or readiness, of the existing member states to take on new members, and the generally poor, albeit differentiated, level of preparation of individual candidate states for EU membership, on the other. For most candidates the requirements o f adherence to the fundamental principles of a democratic state are still a real challenge. The paper analyses three main institutional questions that play a major role in the adjustment processes when new member states gain EU membership (and which also are the key issue o f the EU reform). They include the qualified majority voting in the EU Council, the allocation of seats in the European Parliament, and the determination of the composition of the European Commission. The analysis of the above leads to a conclusion that although the enforcement of the Lisbon Treaty would undoubtedly facilitate further continuation o f the EU enlargement strategy, even under the current Nice Treaty the accession of the West Balean states should pose no real problems. In the case of Turkey, or the Ukraine, however, some basic elements of the “Lisbon Treaty” package would need to be renegotiated.Item KODYFIKACJA PRAWA CYWILNEGO(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Radwański, ZbigniewThe paper contains a short account of the unification of Polish civil law, a task that was accomplished in 1964 with the adoption of the civil code and the family and guardianship code. Those codifications, rooted in the communist system, were substantially modified in 1989. However, despite over 50 amendments, certain elements of the communist doctrine have remained in both codes till today. Therefore further modifications are necessary and will have to be incorporated in a new code of civil law, together with the new system of values set out in the Constitution of 1997 as well as the Community laws that Poland is also required to account for in its legal system. Work on the drafting of a new legislative bill has already commenced at the Civil Law Codification Committee at the Ministry of Justice.Item O ZRÓŻNICOWANIU I DYNAMICE USTROJÓW(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Balcerowicz, LeszekThe essay focuses on the diversity o f political systems, or national systems and their institutions, and identifies four dimensions that characterise that diversity. They are: the scope of the state’s power over an individual, the mechanism of replacing persons holding power, the functioning of the rule o f law, and the level o f law enforcement. The main relationships among them have been discussed and subsequently used to describe the main types of political systems of today’s world: socialism, non-democratic capitalism and democratic capitalism. The second part of the essay is a brief account of thirteen major political transformations known in contemporary history. They include the transition to liberal capitalism, democratisation of the previously introduced capitalism, introduction of socialism, dynamics of socialism, Asian post-socialist transformation, or institutional changes in the former Soviet block. Finally, reasons for limited predictability of the dynamics o f institutional systems are discussed and the internal as well as external forces shaping that dynamics are presented. A differentiation is made between external and internal forces on the one hand and tendencies and shocks on the other. Selected interactions among those forces are also analysed.Item OBYWATEL CZASU TRANSFORMACJI - NIESPEŁNIONE NADZIEJE(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Raciborski, JacekThe paper presents the formation process of democratic citizenship in Poland after 1989. Although the author looks at citizenship as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, the focus is put on the electoral behaviour of citizens, as it is believed to be the fundamental factor to the consolidation of democracy. Poland is an example of a state with a considerable tension, or incompatibility, between the legislative assumptions expected from citizens living in a democratic system and their actual civic practices. The election turn-out is generally low, Poles seem to have no specific political preferences and their civil rights awareness is generally poor. Only one in three adult citizens follows the basic standards of democratic citizenship while not more than 20% may be called “high-quality” citizens. Problems with citizenship do not result from a poor institutional design of democracy in Poland, or any particular difficulty encountered in its implementation. What seems to have been the case is that at the initial stage of transformation the existing electoral rules hampered the establishment of a stable party-based system. The fundamental modifications of these rules in 1993 confirmed that electoral volatility was the core factor of political instability. However, the author sees the establishment of democratic citizenship as a long-term process and is o f an opinion that despite the deficiencies currently being observed in civic practices o f the young democracy, there is no immediate or direct threat to Poland’s democracy.Item PIĘĆ LAT POLSKI W UNII EUROPEJSKIEJ JAKO PRZEDMIOT DEBATY PUBLICZNEJ(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Ziółkowski, MarekThe paper focuses on the main threads of the public debate on Poland’s place in the European Union that have been argued since 1 May 2004, the date of Poland’s EU accession. It presents different interests (i.e. goals considered beneficial) and values (i.e. goals considered just and fair) that are being pointed out by different social groups. The ongoing dispute may be viewed as a classical opposition that exists between the modernisation theory and the dependence theory, where the main focus, or object, is to find the “golden means” or “happy medium” between the wide opening and full participation in the global system, or closing up in an attempt to preserve economic independence and protect national values and traditions. Those issues have become fundamental political and ideological arguments dividing Poland internally. The are voiced by EU-enthusiasts, EU-realists,EU-sceptics, and (in the smallest number) EU-opponents. Each group claims to act in Poland’s national interest (albeit understood differently by different groups) but whatever the reason, this debate is taking place in a country whose citizens, Poles, are the greatest EU-enthusiasts on the continent, experiencing the concrete material economic benefits and civilisation progress flowing from it, and seeing the Community regulations as a guarantor of a “return to normality”. The debate on the European Union and Poland as its member is gradually becoming more specific. What is more, it begins to demonstrate certain elements of irony, auto-irony and humour, being the best proof that Poles are becoming more conscious and self-assured members of the EU community.Item POKŁOSIE OKRĄGŁEGO STOŁU PRZESZŁOŚĆ DLA PRZYSZŁOŚCI(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Woźniak, ZbigniewThe political contract concluded a t the “Round Table” twenty years ago continues to produce much controversy, and when confronted with the subsequent political changes it reveals its sociotechnical and tactical character. The negotiating team representing the Solidarity and opposition consisted largely of city intellectuals with long-time oppositionist history, capable of presenting the existing authorities a different vision of Poland and its society. They also managed to win legalisation of independent trade unions and other social organisations, turn their 35% parliamentary representation into a stronghold from which they continued to attract more followers, both from the Democratic Alliance and Peasant Party, formerly allied to the ruling Workers’ Party, and eventually create grounds for electing the first opposition prime minister. With this accomplished, the economic reforms have accelerated and the political scene has become more diversified. However, there are still reforms th a t need completion before the citizens can be fully integrated to participate actively in the transformation of their own country, and become more interested in public matters. Therefore, in the concluding part of the paper, effects and consequences of the unfinished political transformation are indicated. This is followed by the author’s own concept of a balanced society with integrated citizens.Item POLSKA - W POŁOWIE DROGI MIĘDZY PIERWSZYM A DRUGIM SKOKIEM MODERNIZACYJNYM(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Drozdowski, RafałThe starting point for the discussion presented in the paper is an assumption that the first stage of the transformations of the political system in Poland (as a transition from “real socialism” to “real capitalism” ) has practically come to an end. Poland is nevertheless facing another phase, in which not mere stabilisation o f the newly implemented system, but securing Poland a place among the most developed countries will be at stake. The author analyses barriers that are currently limiting the conditions for a successful “second modernisation leap” . The main factors are: 1) growing privatism of individuals, crisis of the “common good” idea, and the generally low level of social capital; 2) spontaneous, bottom-up resistance to the market efficiency logic; 3) remarkable situationism and short-time perspective of many adjustment strategies; 4) substandard level of general education and poor education system, and 5) growing asymmetry between the aspirations of the consumer society, also with regards the social status, and inadequate means to satisfy them. The paper ends with a question which segment of the society could undergo further modernisation. In the author’s opinion it will neither be the old middle-class, that was left behind the main stream of the transformation, nor the new middle-class, still not very numerous and encountering various structural barriers to its development. It seems, therefore, that the burden o f further modernisation will be put on the shoulders o f the highly diversified and specifically Polish proto-middle class that combines selected features of the old and new middle class and the “post-proletariat”. Consequently, further modernisation processes in Poland will be o f an “enclave” character, selective and structurally inconsistent.Item POLSKA TRANSFORMACJA GOSPODARCZA NA TLE WYBRANYCH KRAJÓW EUROPY ŚRODKOWEJ(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Kowalski, TadeuszThe aim of this paper is to provide an empirical analysis of Poland’s economic transformation process. Poland’s case (its initial conditions, growth and development) is compared with the transformations that have taken place in the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Slovak Republic, Lithuania and Ukraine. The transformation process ran in two phases: a phase of stabilisation and implementation of the fundamental constitutional changes, and a phase of development. The paper offers a general overview of those phases, with a special focus on the macroeconomic context, institutional framework and development factors. It also highlights the issue of the conditions and factors of national economy competitiveness. The applied approaches complement one another, creating a context for international comparison of the operation of factors that stimulate and inhibit the transition process. While highly evaluating Poland’s economic transformation, the analysis identifies many opportunities that had not been taken. The most important ones include: lack of effective response (regarding quantitative and qualitative economic policy) to the lowest in Europe employment rate; failure to bring the privatisation process to a conclusion; reform fatigue and slowdown, also with respect to fiscal reforms which otherwise could facilitate meeting by the Polish economy o f euro area membership requirements and allow Poland to improve its competitive position. In the future, Poland’s ability to overcome the above-mentioned weaknesses will be of crucial importance. Moreover, it is essential for Poland to increase the rates of domestic savings, supply and investment. Fast changes in the GDP structure and starting effectiveness reserves that underlie the improvement of broadly understood institutional environment are also necessary.Item POLSKA TRANSFORMACJA W PERSPEKTYWIE POSTKOLONIALNEJ(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Golka, MarianThe paper consists of four parts. The first one outlines the main, general theses of the author’s deliberations, the second presents the basic assumptions of the post-colonial theory, or perspective, the third contains a brief characteristics o f the mechanism o f changes after 1989, and the fourth offers evaluation of selected effects o f transformation from the perspective of the adopted theory. The climate for political transformations in Poland was unfavourable and it was largely carried “blindfold”. Consequently, its consequences were both positive and negative. The positive effects have many supporters o f the transformation, while the negative ones are much less frequently quoted. From the post-colonial perspective, the main negative effects include: the debt loop, sub-standard political culture (of citizens and politicians), quasi-tribal attitudes, good climate for corruption, impaired feeling of safety and various pathologies observed in different areas o f public life.Item PRAWO WYBORCZE A USTRÓJ DEMOKRATYCZNY(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Łączkowski, WojciechOne of the major reasons for socio-economic crises in democratic states and dissatisfaction of their citizens lies in the defects of the election procedures. This concerns, in particular, viewing the majority principle as an autonomous purpose of free elections. It is commonly acknowledged that the electoral act satisfies democratic standards if it guarantees a result which is consistent with the will of the majority of electors. Areas such as individual traits of candidates, as well as an objective value of their responses to referendum questions, become of secondary importance and are not covered by the electoral law. Such an approach seems to be correct and is usually not challenged, and is even regarded to be an axiom that needs no justification. The matter ceases to be so certain, though, when in the hierarchy of purposes in a democratic system, the common good and personal interest related to it are placed above the majority principle. Although such a situation is generally provided for by constitutions, in political practice, when solving specific matters, this is no longer obvious and the will of the majority gains absolute dominance. In the assessment of such a state of affairs, one should also take into consideration the fact that the communication techniques used in election campaigns may distort the truth about the candidates or the actual value attached to the particular options offered in the referendum outcomes. Hence it seems necessary to incorporate in the electoral act as well as in the constitution certain criteria that would guarantee minimal thresholds of moral character and would determine the substantive competence of candidates running for public office. What is more, the law should preclude referenda on matters the objective value of which does not depend on the views of the electors. This concerns in particular issues requiring specialist knowledge, which average electors do not have, and matters pertaining to the truth (natural, historical, economic, moral, etc.).Item PROCES PRAWODAWCZY DWÓCH DEKAD - SUKCESY I NIEPOWODZENIA(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Wronkowska, SławomiraThe paper offers a synchronic characteristics of the amendments to Polish legislation made over the last twenty years (1989-2009). It accounts for the changes that have taken place in legislative institutions, the law-making rules and procedures, the regulations determining the content of the law, and the political and social environment of the legislation process. Two theses have been formulated: a) there has been a fundamental change in the legislation model, moving from paternalistic to legalistic, manifested, inter alia, by individual’s rights determining the borders which the legislative power must not go beyond, transparency of the law-making rules, and the existence of institutions overseeing the constitutionality o f laws b) the new procedures are still unsatisfactory and fail to fully guarantee elimination o f the dangers of passing defective laws while the legalisation of new provisions continues to receive inadequate social support. The paper ends with a conclusion that political transformations in Poland coincided with the difficult process o f adjusting Polish law to the requirements of the new Constitution and harmonising its provisions with Community law. Although a huge legislative work has been accomplished, modern law making structures guaranteeing stability and functionality of a legal system are still missing.Item PRZEPISY OGÓLNE PRAWA ADMINISTRACYJNEGO I DEFINIOWANIE POJĘĆ(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Zimmermann, JanThe twenty years o f transformations in Poland are a good opportunity for proposing some ways in which the condition of Polish administrative law could be improved. One of the recommended actions is formulation o f general provisions of that branch of law. There two basic ways in which such an act could be drafted and substantially passed. A minimalist action would be to add to the existing system the missing elements, thus consolidating the system without any modification or intervention. Alternatively, the “general part” of administrative law could be created. A way to do that would be first, to identify, and next, to extract from it those elements or provisions that are of general character, and subsequently encapsulate them in one separate normative act. The definition o f the basic legal concepts of administrative law is of fundamental importance and several groups of such concepts may be identified. The first one includes concepts for which a statutory definition seems indispensable. In the first place this applies to concepts from the administrative law system that establish the mutual relationships between the administering subjects. The second one includes those concepts for which a statutory definition is at least disputable. To those belong concepts like an organ of public administration, or, in particular, concepts of individual forms o f the public administration activity. The necessity of defining an administrative decision produces some controversies as well. The third and last group includes those concepts, the defining of which seems to be out of the question. This includes, first of all, the concept of administrative recognition as defined in the draft bill on general provisions of administrative law which is the main subject of analysis in this paper. Defining general clauses, especially those of public interest, is also unacceptable.Item Spis treści(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009)Item SPRAWSTWO BEZ WYKONANIA CZYNU ZABRONIONEGO(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Zoll, AndrzejThe conception of the participation form o f a crime proposed by J. Makarewicz does not answer many fundamental questions. The general stance of the Polish contemporary doctrine of criminal law is that neither incitement nor aiding and abetting is a participation form of a crime, but only a separate and independent type o f a prohibited act, the description o f which (apart from the characteristics typical of incitement or aiding and abetting) also includes the description o f the act to which the inciter has induced, or in which the aider and abettor offered assistance. The conception proposed by J. Makarewicz may be fully applied to the participation forms leading to either the actual commitment o f a crime (committed personally or in conjunction with another) and in a non-executed form (leading, supervising or ordering a crime). What still remains to be solved is a question what charges should be formulated in respect of a person who has supervised a prohibited act that was ordered, i f the “to-be” perpetrator, or performer of the act only realises the characteristics of the object, without realising (or showing) any characteristics of the subject part. In my opinion, one should never claim that the person supervising a crime has actually managed or supervised the realisation or performance of a prohibited act whose attributes always characterise the subject as well. Under the currently applicable laws, in such cases we could determine the instance of co-perpetration. This solution, however, is not free from imperfections. It is therefore suggested that the scope of article 18 para. 1 of the penal code should be extended on indirect perpetration as well.Item STRATYFIKACJA A SYSTEM SPOŁECZNY W POLSCE(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Domański, HenrykThe paper analyses the functioning of the social system in Poland from the stratification mechanism perspective. Basing on the results of research carried out in the last decades, the author attempts to identify the conditions in which the recent changes have taken place in the stratification mechanism and the consequences they had on institutions and social attitudes. An analysis of the above leads to a conclusion that those mechanisms function according to a certain logic that is well known both in theory and in practice. Contrary to the theses suggesting a decline of social stratification, there is nothing to suggest that intergenerational transmissions of social status or educational inequalities have weakened. Likewise, marital homogamy and friendship patterns remain substrantial. In the second part of the paper the author attempts to answer the question whether within this stable system of social distances, a “ruling” class and a “middle” class are emerging, as they seem to be (both from the theoretical and empirical point of view) the most predestined classes to play a significant role in the transformation process.Item SUBIEKTYWNE SPOJRZENIE NA PRZEMIANY USTROJOWE LAT 1989-2009(Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, 2009) Winczorek, PiotrThe paper presents some personal reflections on the political transformations taking place in Poland between 1989 and 2009. It also contains some reminiscences of the author’s participation in the drafting of new constitutional provisions which secured those transformations a legal framework. The author recalls discussions within the “Round Table” political reforms team in which he participated on behalf of the Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Demokratyczne) and where he advocated restoration of the office of the President. Against that background, the constitutional regulations shaping that institution and its evolution in the last 20 years have been presented. The author expresses an opinion that the dispute involving the President’s and Prime Minister’s executive competences observed in Poland today is mainly of a personal nature, rather than stemming from constitutional regulations which, as such, require no essential modifications. Likewise, there is no need for any major amendments to the existing Constitution o f 1997 in the formation of which the author also participated as a member of the National Assembly Expert Team. Postulates put forward from time to time by different political fractions and calling for substantial redrafting of the constitutional provisions (or passing a new Constitution) are rather exaggerated and insufficiently grounded. This, however, does not mean that certain amendments, or partial novel provisions should not be at all considered. Issues such as the principle that a criminal conviction precludes a person from running for an MP’s seat, amendments to the constitutional provisions regulating the tasks of the National Bank of Poland which will enable Poland to enter the “Euro zone” or the possibility of transferring decisions regarding infringement of the constitutional provisions to the jurisdiction the Supreme Court or the Constitutional Court, should be given due consideration when new political decisions are being deliberated. Difficulties that might be encountered in practice when it comes to the realisation of important and binding decisions voted for in nationwide referenda and drafting relevant bills for parliamentary voting are also discussed. The question of the continuity of the Polish state and the validity of its laws in the period between 1944 and 1989/90 is also analysed. It is argued that although at some point Poland lost some of its sovereignty (i.e. during the Polish People’s Republic), that continuity was nevertheless preserved, at least with regard the applicability of relevant laws when legal relations between Polish legal subjects were being established. Otherwise, a proposition that between 1944 and 1989/90 that continuity was disrupted would cause a huge legal chaos resulting in a situation in which justified public interest of many citizens would suffer. In the concluding part, the author comments on the political tendencies observed in Poland in the years 2005-2007. Although the opinions that they were leading to an authoritarian government were somewhat exaggerated, they were nevertheless capable of stirring concern, especially if e.g. they sought to adopt into the political system solutions which promoted political practices characteristic of a centralised system of administration. All in all, the political outcome of the period 1989-2009 is viewed as a valuable accomplishment and the author expresses an opinion that its significance will fully manifest itself in a longer historical perspective.