Elections are a tool for the competing entities to achieve political goals. Therefore, electoral procedures are a significant element affecting their political perspectives. A change in the electoral system depends on balance of power in the parliament. In practice, two models of electoral reforms are possible. In the first of them, political parties collaborate to reform the system. Thus, they protect the interests of as many parties as possible. In the second one, the majority can force others to accept the solutions that are beneficial for them. The majority promote the institutional patterns and procedures that give them a chance to consolidate or increase the relative power of influence of elections. The presented paper includes the analysis of social preferences concerning a reform of the electoral system in Poland. The study revealed the preference for the cooperative model of changing the electoral system. Only the respondents who identified themselves as having right-wing inclinations approved of the competitive model.
The idea of retrospective voting refers to voting decisions that are based on an evaluation of how the government has managed the economy. Research on economic voting in Poland have been carried out from the beginning of the democratic transformation, focusing on isolating and testing of the transition model specific to the countries of Central Europe. Its differentiating feature is a novel way of simultaneously joining the retrospective and prospective motivations in the behaviour of voters, compared to the conventional model present in consolidated democracies. The retrospective voting model is defined as deciding whether to reward or punish the incumbent party on the basis of past policy performance. Based on analysis and own research, the presented paper evidences that the validity of applying the transitional model in the study of economic voting in Poland has been exhausted, as the retrospective motivation is nowadays predominant in the decisions of voters.
Political corruption is a multidimensional phenomenon, concerning political authorities at all possible levels. It is defined as the abuse of power by political entities in order to obtain personal benefits in the form of greater power or wealth. It shows that the subject of political corruption is not only material benefits but also the mechanisms of increasing the influence or special treatment. The character of political corruption results in the public interest in it, enhanced by the public character of the individuals it refers to. It is also influenced by the processual character of the phenomenon itself, but first of all by the specific attractive nature of corruption in social awareness. The article presents the findings of research concerning opinions on political corruption. Its goal is to study the relationships between the respondents' opinions on political authorities' honesty and the determinants of corrupt phenomena. The main research question is: Is there any relationship between the person's opinion on political authorities' honesty and the person's perception of political corruption? The hypothesis related to the question assumes there is a connection between the perception of political authorities' honesty and the evaluation of components of political corruption. The research is part of a research project carried out by the IPSO ORDO Academic Foundation on the perception of the corruption phenomenon in the public domain.
Taking part in an election, political parties implement their planned strategic activities, which involve making choices regarding competitive goals and maximizing the usefulness of the resources they have. A significant context of party strategies is political uncertainty. The paper discusses the importance of political uncertainty in three areas. First, political uncertainty is an instrument affecting the character of political competition. In the second area, the article presents its role as a factor of competition in the process of campaigning for votes. It also points out that political uncertainty may be a mechanism of institutionalizing new political parties. Some of the implemented party strategies, influencing the level of political uncertainty, assume possible electoral manipulations.
The paper reports the Third International Asian Congress “The Changing Role of Asia in the Contemporary World” that took place in Toruń on May 18–20, 2016. It presents the range and scope of the conference and its main scientific results. The conference report describes influence of the Congress on the development of Asian studies in Central Europe, as well as the reception of this event, including participating diplomats, policy–makers and respected scholars. Moreover, it briefly presents accompanying events of the Congress and its unique character of the place where politics, business, science and culture can merge together.
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