Przegląd Politologiczny, 2011, nr 3
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Item Duch d’Hondta w Strasburgu. Zasada proporcjonalnej dystrybucji stanowisk w Parlamencie Europejskim(Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2011) Kirpsza, AdamProportionality is an intrinsic feature of parliamentary democracy. It is a principle stating that, depending on its size, each political party has a commensurate ability to influence legislature. This is confirmed by comparative studies which show that proportionality is a significant principle in the distribution of parliamentary posts in a majority of West European states. Consequently, even deputies from the smallest parties can chair commissions or lead sessions of the chambers, and by this token participate in the political decision-making process. This softens the domination of the majority party and – in line with Arend Lijphart’s concept – generates consensual democracy, based on the search for broad compromises instead of simply outvoting the opponent. Given this picture, a question emerges whether the situation is similar in the representative institution of the European Union, i.e. the European Parliament. The paper answers this question positively. The standard of proportionality has strong roots in the European Parliament forming a fundamental principle expressed in terms of d’Hondt’s formula applied to distribute posts among different political groups. This mainly concerns the division of the members of the Presidium and commission chairmen, who exercise the most important decisive functions. The implementation of the idea of appropriate representation may not be ideal, but divergences are rare, insignificant and usually they result from political bargaining that favors smaller fractions. The proportionality principle is also binding when distributing parliamentary posts inside political groups. There is a strong and positive correlation between the size of national delegations and the number of key posts they obtain in the Parliament – members of the Presidium, commission chairmen and coordinators. Only in the case of the latter is proportionality subjected to certain distortions, following from their key political importance. This, however, does not interfere with the general picture of symmetric participation of national groups in appointing parliamentary posts. In conclusion, the standard of proportionality allows all political groups to adequately participate in the work of the European Parliament, which deserves to be emphasized, the more so, as it is not formalized.Item Idea kolegialnej władzy wykonawczej(Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2011) Żyromski, MarekMontesquieu’s idea of the tripartite system already expressed a concern with preventing one power from dominating excessively. Another argument for the collegial nature of power is the concern with the continuation of state authorities at the time of crisis (e.g. the tragedy in Smoleñsk). The idea of collegial executive power emerged already in antiquity as evidenced by the two kings in Sparta, the collegiums of archons in Athens, two consuls in the Roman Re- public, or the system of tetrarchy, initiated by Diocletian. At present we have the ‘rotating presidency’ in Bosnia or the French principle of ‘cohabitacion’.Item Instytucja prawyborów w Polsce. Prawybory prezydenckie (1995–2005)(Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2011) Adamczyk, AnitaThis paper is devoted to the presidential pre-elections in Poland. It is the second part of a study concerning the parliamentary pre-elections held in Poland. The timeframe of this pa- per covers the period between 1995 and 2005. The paper begins with an overall analysis of pre-elections organized by political parties in Poland, following American patterns, where a candidate for the presidency is to represent a certain group. Next, the pre-elections held in the town of Wrzeœnia in 1995 and 2005, in Nysa in 2000 and Szczecin in 2005 are explored. An assessment of the accuracy of these pre-elections’ results is carried out. The paper also discusses other initiatives similar to pre-elections, addressed at young peo- ple in high schools and universities.Item Integracja polityczna Polaków na emigracji. Polonia w Austrii – studium przypadku(Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2011) Nowak, Ewa; Bernacka, Ryszarda Ewa; Riedel, RafałThe main purpose of the survey discussed in this paper is to answer the question of which factors describe the status of political integration of Poles in Austria. Political integration concerns the phenomenon of joining the political life of a given political system and, to some extent, also its results. For the purpose of this study the notion of political integration is to stand for the involvement of the ‘visiting’ citizens in the political life of the ‘host’ state, in particular political participation, taking the form of public activity and voting in elections. The survey adopts a general theoretical model where the state of integration of Poles in Austria is comprehended in terms of a three-element political culture (comprising cognitive, emotional-and-assessing, and behavioral elements). It undergoes external influences, related to the period spent living abroad, and domestic influences of social identity (approached functionally). Additionally, the model assumes that these factors can be internally related. The empirical aspect of the analysis is based on the authors’ own survey carried out using a questionnaire, psychological scale and focus group interview of a sample of Polish émigrés in Austria.Item Internetowe głosowanie w E-stonii na przykładzie wyborów w latach 2005–2009(Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2011) Musiał-Karg, MagdalenaAn increasingly popular tendency can be observed in numerous states in Europe and glob- ally, where modern forms of casting votes are implemented, including, first and foremost, electronic voting via the Internet or mobile telephones. In the opinion of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) advocates modern civilization is facing an era of electronic democracy, which constitutes this new form of exercising power, based on information and communication tools. Estonia is a European leader in applying electronic voting for election procedures. The paper presents an analysis of Estonia’s experience in the field of e-voting in the elections of 2005–2009.Item Koncepcje responsywności jako odpowiedź na postulaty „uwrażliwienia” demokracji przedstawicielskiej(Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2011) Abramowicz, BartoszThe author discusses two concepts of responsiveness in his paper: the concept of active society, developed by Amitai Etzioni, and the concept of responsive public administration by Mateusz Stêpieñ. The author finds both concepts potentially inspiring in the context of theoretical proposals to overcome some dysfunctions of representative democracy. The author of the paper also proposes to include the concepts of responsiveness in the framework of the so-called transformation trend of theories of democracy, which perceives politics as the transformation of individual preferences through rational discussion. The author observes a certain convergence between the concepts of responsiveness and the main assumptions of deliberative democracy (falling into the above transformation paradigm). Both concepts attempt at finding a ‘golden mean’ between liberal and republican visions of state community, while significantly ‘supplementing’ liberal democracy concepts, especially those where politics is reduced to a process of an auction of interests. Etzioni’s concept is more philosophically oriented and can serve as a theoretical foundation for more general considerations on the functioning of a democratic system and the relations between authorities and citizens. A more practically oriented concept of responsive administration can inspire the analyses of a desired model of self-government administration, whose role in the context of relations with the citizens of local communities is sometimes equal to that of local authorities.Item Partia Demokratyczna w midterm elections 2010(Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2011) Różewicz, MaciejThe paper presents the election results of the Democratic Party in the midterm elections 2010. The consequences of these elections encompassed the loss of seats in both houses of Congress as well as the much more painful outcome of the Republican Party winning a majority in the House of Representatives. President Obama assumed complete responsibility for this defeat, and the next two years for him will mean cooperation with the GOP, which will be difficult given the financial crisis. Midterm elections traditionally undermine the party of the President in office – power drains from those who wield it. There always are people who are disappointed with the current policy of the administration, however, in 2010 we can talk about a political earthquake. Apart from the ‘midterm elections effect’, the success of the Republican Party partly resulted from the difficult economic situation and the reform of the health care system. A significant feature of this campaign involved the Tea Party movement, which won a considerable support owing to its critical attitude to President Obama’s domestic policy.Item „Sieć’’ przyczyn współczesnego terroryzmu – analiza czynników, mechanizmów i modeli(Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2011) Wojciechowski, SebastianThe issue of terrorism is the subject of numerous studies and analyses. They are usually devoted to its individual manifestations, forms or mechanisms and relatively rarely concern the reasons for the presence and escalation of terrorism. What is more, they often focus on indicating the main factors that trigger terrorism while lacking a profound analysis or attempts at the systemization of the sources of terrorism. Another drawback lies in the emotional or even ideological approach to the subject, which obviously limits the scientific merit of such considerations. Considering the reasons for terrorism one needs to ask several key questions. What are the main factors that generate terrorism? Is it possible to indicate one or several dominating deter- minants among the sources of terrorism? How can they be arranged? Do the present typologies of reasons for terrorism take into account the comprehensive range and specific na- ture of this phenomenon? Apart from answering the above questions, the main purpose of this study is to indicate the main reasons for terrorism combined with the author’s attempt to systemize them by means of the interferential model of reasons for terrorism. It encompasses both the sources of terrorism and their mutual relations, the factors that affect terrorism and the mechanisms and changes that occur with respect to these phenomena.Item Tematy polsko-ukraińskie Bohdana Osadczuka w paryskiej „Kulturze”(Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2011) Hofman, IwonaThe paper aims to revise the journalistic and political work of Bohdan Osadczuk in the Paris Kultura periodical in order to celebrate his ninetieth birthday. Osadczuk (a.k.a. BEO, J. Czarnomorskyj) formally started cooperation with Jerzy Giedroyæ’s periodical in 1952 finishing it when the monthly was closed in 2000. Taking into consideration the diversity of literary genres employed by Osadczuk one can evidence how important his articles and reviews were, especially those published after 1990. The political changes that affected Poland and Ukraine formed a turning point in Osadczuk’s writing, confirming that he had returned to his role of a chronicler, which characterized him over the time of his involvement with the periodical. This co-author of ‘the eastern concept’ discussed Polish-Ukrainian issues in over a hundred journalistic texts published in the first decade following the ‘fall of the peoples’, and devoted to the symptoms of normalization in Polish-Ukrainian relations and the negative consequences of ignorance concerning mutual prejudices. Osadczuk also recorded his impressions from visits to Ukraine, concentrating on social and cultural matters. He was the last reviewer of the policies of the presidents L. Krawczuk and L. Kuczma. The paper constitutes a review of the issues discussed in B. Osadczuk’s journalism.Item Uwarunkowania awansu zawodowego kobiet na polskich uczelniach(Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2011) Przybylska-Maszner, Beata; Trosiak, CezaryThe paper deals with the issue of the professional promotion of women working in the aca- demic sector, in the context of Poland’s membership of the European Union. The authors dis- cuss European legal requirements in this respect in order to assess the state of implementation of the recommendations issued by the European Commission and the European Parliament, and included in the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Re- cruitment of Researchers in Poland. Next, using statistical data from the 2007 and 2011 re- ports of the Central Statistical Office, the authors describe the proportion of women in the structures of academic workers at different levels of academic career and attempt to explain the conditions of the situation they identify. A considerable part of the paper concerns the results of pilot studies carried out among fe- male academics of the Faculty of Political Science and Journalism of Adam Mickiewicz Uni- versity for the purpose of this paper. Finally, the authors recommend concrete solutions for changing the legal and institutional conditions in order to increase the number of female aca- demics.Item Współczesne stosunki polsko-rosyjskie: uwarunkowania, problemy, implikacje(Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2011) Zięba, RyszardContemporary Polish-Russian relations are examined, taking into consideration the broad internal conditions in Poland and in Russia. Negative mutual stereotypes prevail in both countries, shaped in the course of a complicated history of mutual relations, while the concepts of international policies in both states are underdeveloped and divergent. Polish-Russian relations are increasingly more influenced by external conditions, such as the profound change Europe is going through and the evolution of the entire international order. The most important modern issues in Polish-Russian relations concern the persistent differences in the perception of the history of mutual relations, dissimilar concepts of the European security system, and energy security. The conditions of relations between Poland and Russia affect Poland’s ability to pursue its international interests in many areas: in relations with Russia and the CIS, in the forum of international organizations (NATO, EU, Council of Europe, OSCE and the UN), in relations with Poland’s closest allies and partners (Germany, France, U.S. and Ukraine). Finally, Polish-Russian relations influence the position and international role of Poland, limiting it when these relations are bad or augmenting it when they are good. Since late 2007 Poland has been trying to conduct a pragmatic policy and normalize its relations with Russia. In general, Polish-Russian reconciliation seems feasible.Item Życie międzynarodowe rzeczy. Przedmioty luksusu i codziennego użytku w społecznej historii stosunków międzynarodowych(Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2011) Gałganek, AndrzejThe international life of objects. Luxury items and necessities in the social history of international relations