Times are changing. The second half of the 19th century and the following years stood for rapid development of various tools based on electricity. Expansion of telecommunication and progress of electronic media constitute important elements of this period. It may be said, we now live in the Internet era, and there is a perception that anyone who does not jump on the technology bandwagon is going to be left far behind. The growth of online interactions can be observed by the inconceivable increase in the number of people with home PC and Internet access.
The main objective of the paper is to present a brief characteristics of the process of development of the third sector in Poland after the fall of communism in 1989. The author first discusses the theoretical background of the idea of non-governmental sector and the discourse upon which in Poland this sector was constituted as a domain of associations and foundations activity. Next, the turning points in the recent history of the third sector in Poland, are presented. They are linked in particular to the adoption of two historical pieces of legislation – the Act of 1989 on Associations and the Act of 2003 on Public Benefit Activity and Volunteering. The author also reviews the key current problems of the third sector in Poland which serves as an attempt to foresee in which direction Polish non-governmental orgnisations (NGOs) may evolve in the near future.
The analysis of theoretical and methodological aspects of the essence, content and specificity of the application of technologies’ legitimation of political power in Ukraine at the stage of democratic transformation has been shown in the article. These technologies are defined as a kind of social engineering, deliberate, purposeful action to influence a wide range of subjects of political relations, with the aim of creating a positive image of the government using evidence-based set of tools, methods and procedures. The attention has been focused on the unexplored side of the legitimation of power – its symbolic regulation and organizations, in particular the mythologizing and ideologizing. The legitimacy of power in Ukraine before the events of the Euromaidan was being achieved thanks to legitimate technology of simulation of democratic changes, which is a type of the virtualization technology. The analysis of the nature of the relationship between the state and society at the time of independence with the release of the respective stages, which in fact match the timing of presidential candidacies and is evidenced by the domination of certain legitimate technologies, has been implemented. At the present stage of socio-political development of Ukraine the populism in all the richness of its forms and manifestations and means of use acquires threatening volumes. The most dangerous consequences of destructive influence of populism are: the formation of an overly simplified picture of the socio-political reality; the delegitimization of the existing political and social order due to its constant criticism; the formation of two-dimensional («people» – «enemies») picture of the world with the simultaneous vulgarization of the complex problems’ solution, etc. The process of legitimation of political power during elections, and, respectively, the related electoral technologies, occurs at all stages of the electoral process – well before the official nomination of the applicants to obtain powers. For example, for the formation of public opinion in the period between elections the technology of the customized polls which referred to the defendants in the upcoming elections is used. The legitimation of power occurs during the nomination and registration of candidates, political parties and blocks of political parties – participants in the electoral competition, in the formation of their campaign offices and funds of the election commissions, election campaigning, the actual voting and also during appeals and judicial processes. Especially dangerous to society and to the development of democracy is manipulative constitutional and legal technology, when the electoral laws and even constitutional provisions «wing» as the political situation. The ruling circles with the manner of application of certain provisions of the electoral system, particularly the type of electoral system, size of entry barriers, permission or prohibition of participation in elections of blocs of political parties, the order of formation of election commissions, etc. form the preconditions for the victory of certain political forces. The modern period of social development is marked by a significant influence on the formation of people’s consciousness of communication and information technologies, as television and radio create the illusion of presence of the broad masses of the population, including the audience abroad. Psychological and image-based technologies are designed to influence the consciousness and sub consciousness of the person. The use of such technologies is quite different from the ordinary informing of man. They are aimed at disruption of its activities. The purpose of these operations – is the impact on the public consciousness in a certain direction, aiming at the subordination of the will of the people and their behavior in such a way as to force them to act, if not against their own interests, then with a significant «correction» in favor of the initiators of the use of such technologies. The technologies are used not only for political legitimation of the power, but its de-legitimization. A common practice of de-legitimization of candidates seeking to get to power is the technology of «black PR», «dirty» technologies, the publication of compromising materials on the Internet with their subsequent legalization in the Ukrainian mass media, etc. The special feature of the development of the political process in Ukraine is the use of «dirty» technologies associated with the artificial aggravation of inter-regional contradictions. Their use has become widespread since the early 2000s and lasted until the beginning of the dramatic events connected with the annexation of Crimea and the exclusion of the Eastern territories of the country by an external aggressor. The main direction technologies of the political power legitimation is their virtualization and symbolic regulation, the content of which depends on the characteristics legitimate periods of functioning of the political power in Ukraine. The current stage of the political power legitimation in Ukraine, which began with the overthrow of the regime of Yanukovych, certifies the playback of her previous technologies of democratic reforms’ imitation.
By undertaking discussion on the aspect of special forms of commemoration, we may obtain a lot of useful information about the remembrance policy of a given country. That is why the analysis of the issue of the sites of memory seems to be of key importance for understanding problems related to the state’s interpretation of the past from the perspective of an authoritarian regime, political transition and democracy. The aim of this paper is to address one of the elements of a broader issue, i.e. the study of the politics of memory. This element focuses on the presentation of the most significant sites of memory in two countries with the experience of authoritarianism – Chile and Georgia – emphasizing changes which took place in the sphere of commemoration from the beginning of democratic transformation to the moment of achieving full democracy. By describing these places we are showing the main directions and framework assumptions of the remembrance policies of Chile and Georgia, reflected in the form of spatial and visual objects of the “living history”.
W artykule autorzy dokonali próby oceny zmian systemu prawnego Polski po 1989 r., jakie dokonały się w wyniku demokratycznej transformacji. Po 1989 r dokonano w Polsce szeregu zmian ustrojowych, systemowych, prawnych, gospodarczych oraz społecznych. Konstytucja z 1997 r. określiła ramy systemu sprawowania władzy w Polsce uwzględniając takie te wymagania prawne, które wynikają z przynależności Polski do NATO i Unii Europejskiej. Przemiany podniosły sprawność demokratycznego systemu prawa, dając możliwość efektywnego uczestnictwa obywateli w życiu społecznym. Jednak społeczeństwo w Polsce ma niski poziom zaufania do prawa, sądów oraz sędziów. Polski system prawa po transformacji nie wyzbył się charakteru biurokratycznego, spolityzowanego układem rządzących. Ponadto poszanowanie prawa, które jest modelem postępowania administracji państwowej, jako niezbędne minimum dla jej oceny politycznej, zderza się z konfliktowością polityki i wytwarza funkcjonalne podziały w sferze realizacji demokratycznej natury państwa prawa.
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In the article, the author sat tempted to assess the changes in the Polish legal system after 1989, which took place as a result of the democratic transformation. After 1989, a number of political, systemic, legal, economic and social changes were made in Poland. The Constitution of 1997 defined the frame work for the system of governance in Poland and resulting from Poland’s accession to NATO and the European Union. Transformation shave improved the efficiency of the democratic system of law by enabling citizen stop articipate effectively in the life of society. However, society in Poland has a low level of trust in law, courts and judges. The Polish legal system after the transformation did not get rid of its bureaucratic character, politicised by the system of government. Moreover, respect for the rule of law, which is a model of conduct for the state administration, as anecessary minimum for its political assessment, is confronted with conflicts of policy and creates functional divisions in the sphere of implementation of the democratic nature of the rule of law.
The aim of the article is to present a picture of the exiled in a society undergoing processes of democratic transformation on the basis of Crematorio (2009), a novel by Rafael Chirbes, and Niskie Łąki by Piotr Siemion (2000). The author employs a research method from comparative literature and refers to the category of supranationality (“supranacionalidad”) proposed by Claudio Guillén, a Spanish comparativist. An analysis of the texts indicates that the presence of the exiled, notwithstanding fundamental differences concerning e.g. the evaluation of capitalism, serves to extract and highlight the end of great narrations which accompanies transformation processes: in the Spanish novel it is the end of ideology (communism) and history (F. Fukuyama) whereas Niskie Łąki refers to the end of the romantic paradigm (M. Janion).
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