Środkowoeuropejskie Studia Polityczne, 2019, nr 2
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Item The activity of the Mamy Głos Foundation in the context of youth political activism(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2019) Pająk-Patkowska, BeataThis paper aims to examine the activity of the Mamy Głos Foundation [We have a voice], an organization founded in 2015 by junior high school students from a handful of towns in Poland. For this purpose, a review of available materials about this organization will be carried out and information will be collected using in-depth interviews with the founders of the organization. The main research question concerns the motivation behind young people’s activity in the foundation, the methods used to achieve the goals of the organization and its founders’ profiles. Their activity will be presented in the context of political activism among young people, including gender differentiation.Item Impact of Brexit on the status of the English language in the European Union(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2019) Kużelewska, ElżbietaWielka Brytania przystąpiła do EWG/UE w 1973 r. Jej członkostwo było jednym z drażliwszych problemów w polityce brytyjskiej w ciągu ostatnich czterdziestu pięciu lat. Wielka Brytania jest najbardziej eurosceptycznym państwem członkowskim UE. Wartością dodaną wniesioną przez Londyn do UE był język angielski, który sukcesywnie wypierał język francuski z funkcji języka roboczego Unii. Język angielski jest nie tylko językiem oficjalnym UE (obok pozostałych 23 języków oficjalnych), ale przede wszystkim ma pozycję dominującą w komunikacji pomiędzy UE a światem zewnętrznym oraz pomiędzy instytucjami europejskimi i podczas nieformalnych spotkań. Celem artykułu jest analiza pozycji języka angielskiego w UE, umacniania się jego statusu oraz udzielenie odpowiedzi na pytanie o to czy zachowany zostanie obecny status języka angielskiego w UE po opuszczeniu jej przez Wielką Brytanię.Item Formation of populism in Spain: towards the explanatory framework of the 15-M Movement mindset(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2019) Orella Martínez, José Luis; Rak, JoannaThis article aims to identify the major cores of the 15-M Movement mindset and explain how particular historical factors shaped it. The research problems are to identify the types of relations the movement established between the people and the ruling elites in its political manifestos, and the sources of these discursively created relations. The research field encompasses the content of political manifestos published between the Spanish general election on March 9, 2008 and immediately after the demonstrations held on May 15, 2011. To solve these problems, the research applies source analysis of the political manifestos. These are: (1) The Manifesto of ¡Democracia Real YA!; (2) The Manifesto of the Puerta del Sol Camp, and (3) The Manifesto “May 68 in Spain.” The research uses the technique of relational qualitative content analysis to determine the relations between the semantic fields of the major categories of populism, ‘the people’ and ‘the elites,’ as well as to identify the meanings formed by their co-occurrence. The tool used is a content analysis instruction whose major assumption is to identify all the attempts to create images of ‘the people,’ ‘the elites,’ and relations between them.Item Non-military dimension of the hybrid war in Ukraine(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2019) Rogozińska, AgnieszkaThe article analyzes the structure, content, properties and effects of the Russian-Ukrainian ‘hybrid war’ in its non-military dimension. Particular emphasis is placed on the aspect of the information and propaganda war, as well as activities in cyberspace. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is described in the context of the new war strategy of General Valery Gerasimov. Contemporary practice of hybrid actions in the conflict in Ukraine has revealed that, for the first time, a stronger opponent, Russia, uses the full spectrum of hybrid interaction on an opponent who is weak and unable to defend the integrity of its territory. The military conflict of 2014 showed not only the weakness of the Ukrainian state, but also, more importantly, the inefficiency of the organizations responsible for ensuring international security: NATO, OSCE and the UN. In the longer term, it should be noted that the escalation of hybrid activities in Ukraine clearly threatens the states on the Eastern flank of the North Atlantic Alliance. The analysis conducted refers to the problem defined in the form of questions: what is the essence of hybrid operations? What is the nature of non-military hybrid operations? What was the course of these activities in Ukraine? How was international law interpreted in relation to this conflict?Item Saturation of the media with conspiracy narratives: content analysis of selected Polish news magazines(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2019) Czech, FranciszekThe article has three dimensions: methodological, theoretical, and empirical. A point of departure for the methodological remarks is a characterization of the three main approaches in the vibrant interdisciplinary research field dealing with the phenomenon of conspiracy theories. In this context, the content analysis method is discussed as a promising approach to gain new data on conspiracy narratives. On the theoretical level, the concept of conspiracy narratives is discussed in reference to the popular understanding of the conspiracy theory. The main aim of the empirical part is determining to what extent the media are saturated with different kinds of conspiracy narratives. The analysis covers over 200 articles from two popular Polish news magazines (Sieci and the Polish edition of Newsweek) which occupy positions on opposite sides of the political divide in a society polarized, inter alia, by a conspiratorial suspicion that in 2010 an airplane carrying President Lech Kaczyński on board was deliberately crashed in Russia.Item Promotion of regional and traditional products(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2019) Oleksiuk, Inga; Werenowska, AgnieszkaThe main goal of the studies described in this article may be defined as an analysis of the promotional processes of regional and traditional products executed with the use of symbols regulated by European law: Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG), Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). The analysis presented here and the trends in promotional activities deducted from it, primarily result from the specifics of the goods. The shape of the information system is also influenced by social and cultural factors decisive for the recognizability and renown of the products, which have been confirmed by the results of the questionnaire conducted for the study. What is worth noting is the correlation between quality and tradition, reflected, among other things, in declarations regarding the reasons for the choice of these products: the sense of pride and the willingness to continue the traditions were chosen by 45% of the survey participants. The Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) has proven to be the most recognizable European symbol (38%).Item The Rule of Law and the EU Budget for 2021–2027: More Solidarity or Renouncing the Values of the EU?(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2019) Georgiev, DenchoThis paper looks at the proposals of the European Commission for the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021–2027, and explores how to achieve a better future for Europe by ensuring compliance with the legally binding values and objectives of the EU: democracy, equality, the rule of law, economic, social and territorial cohesion and solidarity between the member states. It is argued that introducing progressivity, a reform of the EU’s finances involving a paradigm shift in the financing of policies with redistributive effects and a reform of the system of the EU’s ‘own resources,’ would ensure that solidarity becomes a matter of the rule of law and not of governance through conditionalities and fines. It is pointed out that, unless the EU undertakes an effective reform of its redistributive policies to ensure that progressivity and solidarity in the EU become a matter of the rule of law, the Union will bear less and less resemblance to a democracy and will increasingly look like an empire with an economically stronger and more rapidly developing ‘core,’ and an economically weaker ‘periphery’ in the East and the South lagging behind the ‘core.’ What is needed is collective action by the member states most immediately interested in a reform to make the system of EU’s ‘own resources’ less regressive and to introduce progressivity in the financing of the policies of the EU. It would take significant skill for those countries to organize themselves as a group and to act together in the course of the adoption of the legislative proposals for the next MFF in order to make the EU more equitable.Item International sports organizations as diplomatic actors. The case of FIFA exerting influence on states(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2019) Kobierecki, Michał MarcinContemporary diplomacy has evolved into a network involving various new actors, including international sports organizations. The article is dedicated to the issue of the sports diplomacy of international bodies which are in charge of international sporting competitions, particularly the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), an organization that manages football on a global level. The research presented in this article is a case study dedicated to the issue of the influence of international sports organizations on the governments of sovereign states, specifically FIFA. The objective of the research is to investigate whether international sports organizations are able to make governments change their political decisions. The hypothesis that has been investigated states that international sports governing bodies are diplomatic actors capable of influencing states.Item Civil society as an actor in the political processes of local governance reform in Ukraine(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2019) Zheltovskyy, VadymOne of the first laws adopted by the new political leadership in Ukraine in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity in 2014 was the new concept of local governance reform and the organization of territorial authority in Ukraine. The aforementioned law, as well as official declarations by top politicians on the necessity of empowering Ukrainian citizens to take part in the decision-making process and shape their local communities, led to positive expectations regarding the transformation of local governance in Ukraine. Therefore, this article addresses the issue of the legal basis framing the functioning of civil society in Ukraine, focusing on major attempts to conduct reform and on the main outcomes of implemented actions. Additionally, emphasis is placed on the current state of cooperation between social and political actors, and the trends in civil participation in the decision-making process regarding decentralization and local governance reform in Ukraine.Item The influence of illiberal democracy on the effectiveness of attempts to control lobbying in Hungary (2010–2014)(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2019) Olejnik, MaciejLobbying, understood as all actions performed by or on behalf of interest groups directed at influencing of the process of policy formation and implementation, occurs in every political regime. The article examines whether the illiberal type of democracy that exists in Hungary (2010–2014) exerts an influence on the effectiveness of lobbying control. Illiberal democracy differs from liberal democracy with regard to five systemic core principles, such as the rule of law, government control and accountability, the integrity of political elites, media freedom and civil rights and protection of minorities. This article shows that all of these systemic criteria constituting illiberal democracy were met in Hungary between 2010–2014. Examination of the case of Hungary with regard to lobbying control suggests that illiberal democracy had diminished the effectiveness of lobbying control in this country.Item Education and information in consumer policy in the Republic of Poland(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2019) Malczyńska-Biały, MiraThe article is based on an analysis of national and European legal acts, documents and source literature and its aim is to describe education and information in consumer policy in Poland. The protection of consumer rights within the scope of information and education is presented as a prime objective of the consumer policy strategy of the European Union and government programs of consumer policy in Poland. Certain aspects of information and education policy of the government are investigated, which are included in the Consumer Policy Strategy 2014–2018. The competencies of consumer authorities in the institutional context are thoroughly discussed in terms of education and information in Poland. Moreover, the consumer identity of information and education policy between Poland and the European Union is indicated.Item Farmland and people as essential resources of Poland in the concepts of Polish agrarians (1931–1946)(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2019) Janicki, TadeuszAgrarianism was founded in Germany in the second half of the nineteenth century, but it exercised the greatest influence in the predominantly agricultural countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Central European agrarianism was the ideology of peasants and it proclaimed that land was the greatest wealth of the nation, agriculture was the most important branch of economy, and peasants were the morally healthiest and thus the most valuable part of the society. Agrarianism was a personalist ideology, which proclaimed a conception of man as a subject of social and economic life. It criticized both extreme liberalism and totalitarian political ideology and advocated the concept of a ‘third way of development’ – between capitalism and communism. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the formation and development of Polish agrarianism, and the related process of transfer and reception of knowledge. The analysis focuses on the concept of land, man and labor, formulated by the representatives of the mainstream of agrarianism. In the 1930s, the Polish agrarians voiced demands for land reform and the development of smallholder agriculture which, in their opinion, made an optimal use of the land, capital and labor, that is, the most important resources available to interwar Poland.Item The impact of Brexit on the member states’ ability to build blocking coalitions in the Council(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2019) Kleinowski, MarcinUsing a proprietary computer program, simulations of voting in the Council after Great Britain’s withdrawal from the EU were carried out. In the case of some of them, a methodological innovation consisting in departing from the assumption that the emergence of each possible coalition is equally probable was used. The analysis conducted indicates that after Brexit the ability of the Council members to form small minimally blocking coalitions will change significantly. At the same time, the assessment of the ability of states to block decisions in the Council and made on the basis of the Preventive Power Index, differs fundamentally from the results of the analysis focusing on building small minimally blocking coalitions. This research is funded by the National Science Centre, Poland, under project no. UMO-2016/23/D/HS5/00408 (SONATA 12 grant) entitled “The Impact of Brexit and Unconditional Introduction of the ‘Double Majority’ Voting System on Decision- Making in the Council of the European Union.”