scholarly journals Voter turnout at the national level in Poland – selected aspects

2020 ◽  
pp. 73-86
Author(s):  
Marcin Rachwał

The article addresses the issue of voter turnout at the national level in Poland in 1990–2019. In particular, the author focused on 2019, when the turnout in parliamentary elections was the highest throughout the period under analysis. The aim of the study is to determine the reasons for this increase in the electoral activity of Polish citizens. The analysis leads to the conclusion that after the Law and Justice party took power in 2015, significant modifications of the social system, including the political system, ensued, thereby altering selected features of the electoral situation and raising the level of political emotions. The outcome involved a significant increase in voter turnout in 2019, when the elections to the European Parliament, as well as to the Polish parliament (the Sejm and Senate) were held. The study employs the following methods: analysis and criticism of literature (sources), the systemic method, and statistical methods.

1973 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 332-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léon Dion

THE DIVERSIFICATION IN THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION AND the growth of the political system have increased the number of instances of decision-making and intensified the relations between social and political forces. Parties and pressure groups are not enough in themselves to channel the interests, ideologies, and stresses, originating in the social system, into the political system. Nevertheless, during the last forty years, other, less familiar channels have broadened considerably and of these it is what we call the consultative councils which have made the greatest impact. So much has their importance grown in recent years that they must be considered as a mechanism of systemic interaction, comparable in weight to those of the pressure groups or parties. The consultative councils have, in fact, become a major cog in the political system and any attempt to exclude them is doomed to failure.


Author(s):  
Zbigniew Machelski

The category of the system of government in Poland requires reference to ‘the governance style’ of the right, and to the tendency that has appeared in international politics in recent years to call it populist nationalism. The objective of this paper is to show that in the case of Poland after 2015, the thesis of the retreat of democracy has no factual grounds, and it can be countered through the use of evidence. The system of government in Poland after the Law and Justice party came to power cannot be described as a contradiction to democracy. Citizens are not being manipulated and deceived. They are aware of the content of decisions made by the executive branch. The opposition is able to act freely, and it is supported by independent private media. There are many veto points in the political system. The government can count on public support that is stronger than that of the governments from the period before 2015.


2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (188) ◽  
pp. 495-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Syrovatka

The presidential and parliamentary elections were a political earthquake for the French political system. While the two big parties experienced massive losses of political support, the rise of new political formations took place. Emmanuel Macron is not only the youngest president of the V. Republic so far, he is also the first president not to be supported by either one of the two biggest parties. This article argues that the election results are an expression of a deep crisis of representation in France that is rooted in the economic transformations of the 1970s. The article analyses the political situation after the elections and tries to give an outlook on further political developments in France.


Author(s):  
Anatolii Petrovich Mykolaiets

It is noted that from the standpoint of sociology, “management — a function of organized systems of various nature — (technical, biological, social), which ensures the preservation of their structure, maintaining a certain state or transfer to another state, in accordance with the objective laws of the existence of this system, which implemented by a program or deliberately set aside”. Management is carried out through the influence of one subsystem-controlling, on the other-controlled, on the processes taking place in it with the help of information signals or administrative actions. It is proved that self-government allows all members of society or a separate association to fully express their will and interests, overcome alienation, effectively combat bureaucracy, and promote public self-realization of the individual. At the same time, wide direct participation in the management of insufficiently competent participants who are not responsible for their decisions, contradicts the social division of labor, reduces the effectiveness of management, complicates the rationalization of production. This can lead to the dominance of short-term interests over promising interests. Therefore, it is always important for society to find the optimal measure of a combination of self-management and professional management. It is determined that social representation acts, on the one hand, as the most important intermediary between the state and the population, the protection of social interests in a politically heterogeneous environment. On the other hand, it ensures the operation of a mechanism for correcting the political system, which makes it possible to correct previously adopted decisions in a legitimate way, without resorting to violence. It is proved that the system of social representation influences the most important political relations, promotes social integration, that is, the inclusion of various social groups and public associations in the political system. It is proposed to use the term “self-government” in relation to several levels of people’s association: the whole community — public self-government or self-government of the people, to individual regions or communities — local, to production management — production self-government. Traditionally, self-government is seen as an alternative to public administration. Ideology and practice of selfgovernment originate from the primitive, communal-tribal democracy. It is established that, in practice, centralization has become a “natural form of government”. In its pure form, centralization does not recognize the autonomy of places and even local life. It is characteristic of authoritarian regimes, but it is also widely used by democratic regimes, where they believe that political freedoms should be fixed only at the national level. It is determined that since the state has achieved certain sizes, it is impossible to abandon the admission of the existence of local authorities. Thus, deconcentration appears as one of the forms of centralization and as a cure for the excesses of the latter. Deconcentration assumes the presence of local bodies, which depend on the government functionally and in the order of subordination of their officials. The dependency of officials means that the leadership of local authorities is appointed by the central government and may be displaced.


Author(s):  
Ross McKibbin

This book is an examination of Britain as a democratic society; what it means to describe it as such; and how we can attempt such an examination. The book does this via a number of ‘case-studies’ which approach the subject in different ways: J.M. Keynes and his analysis of British social structures; the political career of Harold Nicolson and his understanding of democratic politics; the novels of A.J. Cronin, especially The Citadel, and what they tell us about the definition of democracy in the interwar years. The book also investigates the evolution of the British party political system until the present day and attempts to suggest why it has become so apparently unstable. There are also two chapters on sport as representative of the British social system as a whole as well as the ways in which the British influenced the sporting systems of other countries. The book has a marked comparative theme, including one chapter which compares British and Australian political cultures and which shows British democracy in a somewhat different light from the one usually shone on it. The concluding chapter brings together the overall argument.


2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-152
Author(s):  
Sabine Hake

Abstract In the social imaginaries that sustained Nazi ideology from the 1920s through the 1930s, Arbeitertum, translated here as “workerdom,” played a key role in integrating socialist positions into the discourse of the Volksgemeinschaft. Workerdom proved essential for translating the class-based identifications associated with the proletariat into the race-based categories that redefined the people, and hence the workers, in line with antisemitic thought. The writings of the prolific but largely forgotten August Winnig (1878–1956) can be used to reconstruct how workerdom came to provide an emotional blueprint, an identificatory model, and a compensatory fantasy in the reimagining of class, folk, and nation. The influential Vom Proletariat zum Arbeitertum (1930), as well as select autobiographical and fictional works by Winnig, are used to uncover these continuities through the political emotions, dispositions, and identifications that can properly be called populist. In the larger context of worker’s literature, conservative revolution, and völkisch thought, the Nazi discourse of workerdom not only confirms the close connection between political emotion and populist (un)reason but also opens up new ways to understand the continued attractions of populism as a particular kind of politics of emotion based on the dream of the people.


Author(s):  
Henrik P. Bang

Habermas is widely criticized for adumbrating an essentialist, deliberative, and consensual approach to democracy that neglects the significance and importance of contingency, conflict, and emotions in the struggle for hegemony and collective identification. However, his conception of system and lifeworld raise the claim that no society could exist without providing for a minimal degree of political cooperation between professional actors in the political system and spontaneously acting laypeople in the social lifeworld. Contingency, conflict, and emotions are obviously at play in this political conception of how to ground system and lifeworld in mutual relations of power, knowledge, trust, and respect. The goal is not to reach a stable consensus or succumb to conflict and chaos but to avoid that system becomes uncoupled from lifeworld, thus undermining the reciprocal connection between political authorities and laypeople required to make and implement authoritative decisions which are ‘for', ‘of', ‘with', and ‘by' ‘the people'.


2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Vauleon

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to focus on Rousseau's three major works: the epistolary novel Julia. Or, The New Eloisa, one of the eighteenth century's best sellers, the political essay The Social Contract, and the pedagogical treatise Emile: or On Education. It seeks to explore the innovative management theories Rousseau develops as he embarks in the simultaneous composition of these three major works, particularly as he conceptualizes his ideal society and envisions a brand new political system, one that would take into account the natural state of humankind in order to socialize them more efficiently. Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores Rousseau's solution to these obstacles, and examines his understanding of censorship, as well as the surreptitious control of people's values, tastes, and aspirations. His vision of humanity is very similar to that of “a machine to be put together by skillful devices”, assuming “that the materials of which it is composed are colorless and lifeless”. Findings – The conclusions reached in this paper hinge upon, in significant part, Rousseau's approach to management science, and the individual's subjection to authority, as well as the overarching necessity for any form of power to be imperceptible. Originality/value – The paper shows that in Rousseau's mind, people are mere pawns on the political chessboard, “to be arranged by the fancy of the legislator.”


1979 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian L. D. Forbes

In recent times the historiography of the Wilhelmine Reich has clearly reflected the influence of Eckart Kehr and of later historians who have adopted and developed his work. The Rankean dogma of the Primat der Aussenpolitik (primacy of foreign policy) has been replaced by a new slogan, Primat der Innenpolitik (primacy of domestic policy). The resultant interpretive scheme is by now quite familiar. The social structure of the Bismarckean Reich, it is said, was shaken to its foundations by the impact of industrialization. A growing class of industrialists sought to break the power of the feudal agrarian class, and a rapidly developing proletariat threatened to upset the status quo. The internecine struggle between industrialists and agrarians was dangerous for both and for the state, since the final beneficiary might be the proletariat. Consequently agrarians and industrialists closed their ranks against the common social democrat enemy and sought to tame the proletariat, which had grown restive under the impact of the depression, by means of a Weltpolitik which would obviate the effects of the depression, heal the economy, and vindicate the political system responsible for such impressive achievements. Hans-Ulrich Wehler and others call this diversionary strategy against the proletarian threat social imperialism; and this, it is said, is the domestic policy primarily responsible for Wilhelmine imperialism.


Subject Outlook for the post-transition political system. Significance The August 7 constitutional referendum will be conducted under tightened controls on political organisation, making a 'yes' vote more likely. Although the Democratic Party criticises the draft for its attempt to return Thailand to a semi-authoritarian state, efforts by deposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's 'red-shirt' supporters to organise protests offer the only real opposition to the junta's plan. This struggle foreshadows the political system that is likely to emerge after the next parliamentary elections. Impacts Regulatory risk to investors post-transition would be limited: the military, the Democrats and the PTP are pro-business. China will not alter the status quo in its Thai relations, but will need to invest in building ties with the next monarch. Washington will tolerate most eventualities, except a violent crackdown against the military's opponents.


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