The presented paper is an analysis of the German minority participation in the Polish local government elections. The electoral results have been compiled and discussed together with the activity of the German associations at the local governmental level. The German minority is concentrated in the area of the Opole Silesia and is an important political factor in this region. The Germans regularly gain many seats in the commune, city and county councils, mostly in rural areas in the Western part of the Opole Voievodeship. They are also important faction in the Opole Regional Assembly. Despite the initial controversies and tensions they proved to be a solid host and an open partner for all political forces on the local political scenes. In broader perspective the participation of the German minority in the Polish local government structures is a natural process of the democratic development which is realized in Poland.
Niniejszy artykuł jest opisem projektu realizowanego na Uniwersytecie Gdańskim, którego celem jest zindywidualizowana praca opiekuna naukowego z wybranymi studentami realizującymi lektorat języka obcego (francuskiego) w ramach studiów na kierunku Lingwistyka Stosowana. Projekt stawiał sobie dwa podstawowe cele: cel realioznawczo-literaturoznawczy (wprowadzenie podstawowych wiadomości o kulturze i literaturze krajów francuskiego obszaru językowego) oraz cel językowy (doskonalenie praktycznej znajomości języka francuskiego jako trzeciego języka obcego). Oba cele realizowano równolegle w cyklu spotkań indywidualnych (tutoriali), w trakcie których stosowano zindywidualizowane formy pracy obejmujące między innymi: lekturę wybranych fragmentów opracowań krytyczno-literackich w języku polskim i francuskim (wstępna praca studenta realizowana samodzielnie przed każdym tutorialem), elementy wykładu akademickiego (charakterystyka wybranych epok oraz zjawisk kulturowych i literackich poruszanych w trakcie tutoriali) oraz wspólną analizę wybranych fragmentów francuskich tekstów literackich będącą następnie punktem wyjścia do głębszej refleksji nad wybranymi zagadnieniami gramatycznymi i leksykalnymi. Elementem podsumowującym każdy tutorial była dyskusja na temat poruszanych zagadnień literackich (epoka literacka, prądy, autorzy, utwory, analogie ze zjawiskami literackimi obserwowanymi w obrębie innych wielkich literatur europejskich) oraz różnorodne ćwiczenia gramatyczno-leksykalne odwołujące się do opracowanego materiału. Dodatkowym elementem utrwalającym nabyte wiadomości było zadanie domowe, które polegało na redakcji krótkich tekstów w języku francuskim nawiązujących do analizowanych utworów literackich oraz prezentowanych treści gramatyczno-leksykalnych. Wstępne wnioski wypływające z realizacji projektu przemawiają za celowością jego kontynuacji.
EN
This article is the description of a project implemented at the University of Gdańsk aimed at individualised work of a tutor with selected students attending a foreign (French) language course within the study of Applied Linguistics. The project had two basic objectives: to introduce information about culture and literature (basic knowledge of culture and literature of French-speaking countries) and to teach language (to improve French language skills as the third language). Both targets were fulfilled within a cycle of one-to-one meetings (tutorials). During such meetings, custom-made forms of work were applied, including: reading selected fragments of critical literary studies in Polish and French (a preliminary work of a student conducted individually before every tutorial), elements of an academic lecture (the characteristics of selected epochs and cultural and literary phenomena discussed during tutorials) and the shared analysis of selected fragments of French literary texts, being the grounds for the deeper reflection on selected grammar and lexical issues. The summary of every tutorial was a discussion on literary problems mentioned during the meeting (a literary epoch, literary currents, authors, works, similarities to literary phenomena observed within other great European literatures) and varied grammatical and lexical exercises that referred to the covered material. An additional element that reinforced the gained knowledge was homework that involved writing short texts in French that concerned the analysed literary works and the presented grammatical and lexical content. The preliminary results of the project implementation weigh in favour of its continuation.
The article shows the press debate in Germany and Poland about political and economical aspects of the Baltic pipeline. On the example of about sixty articles from four German and four polish newspapers and magazines the question was answered, if this investment was an economical or pure political project. The commentators in both countries were widely describing and commenting this issue, and were clearly suggesting that the North European Gas Pipeline was a political project or even a part of a Kremlin strategy of rebuilding their lost empire. The climax of the debate occurred to be the turn of the years 2005 and 2006, when Russia "turned off the gas valve” to the Ukrainę. The event reasoned a panie among the publicists of both Polish and German media. There were many suggestions and itwas spoken about a elear blackmail from the Kremlin side. Ithas to be mentioned that all the press sources were in accordance to each other, no matter what their political sympathies were. Polish publicists tried to show that the pipę was pointless from the economical point of view, presenting huge costs and big technical problems of building beneath the sea. Despite that, also the supporters of the investment had chance to presenttheir opinions in the polish media. German journalists pointed outthe advantages of the investment, which were the alternative way of supplying gas with omitting the "unreliable” countries like the Ukrainę or Belarus, competition for resources with China and India or the plans of creating a central distribution point of Russian gas for the all Europę in Germany. The debate showed as well big controversies and concerns which the Baltic pipeline aroused. Even though the supporters and builders ofthis project tried to persuade the public opinion that the pipeline is an economical project, hardly anybody believed that and some newspapers responded to it with polemics or even ironies.
This paper presents changes that have occurred at the local level in Poland and new German federal states during the process of the post-communist system transformation. The stages of rebuilding the local self-government and its structures are analyzed. The experiences of Poland and Eastern Germany – two states where the system transformation took different courses – were compared. At the same time, both countries have different constitutional orders of the unitary state and federal state, and this context are interesting fields for a comparative analysis. This paper also confronts the two methods of institution building – the importing of well-established institutions and developing them in the evolutionary way, where in both cases path a dependency can be well observed. In Germany this is considered a special case (Sonderfall) of institutional transformation, in which the key role was played by the transference of institutions, personnel and financial means. This was also done much quicker and in a more structured and comprehensive way than in Poland. In the case of Poland, the creation of local self-government structures or shaping the political actors was a grassroots and evolutionary process. This article points out the most important factors that had a crucial significance in the course and results of the transformation and explains different ways of developing the system of democratic local self-government.
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