In 2012 and 2013, in Poland, did not take place any national election. It was excellent perspective to lead comparison research. The subject of this article is presidentialization of electoral preferences. This process depends on situation, when style of parliamentary campaign has become similarly like presidential election and people focus on parties leaders competition. Usually presidentialisation increased without any changes of election rules. The Author focuses on two aspects: determinantes of decisions in potential parliamentary elections and opinion connected with organizing television debates during campaigns. In the article were compared preferences among electoral five main Polish parties. Results of the polls were compared with effects previous surveys (in 2012), which included two the same questions about presidentialisation. First question (about presidentialisation) apply to determinates of decision in potential parliamentary election. In every parties electoral more respondents choose 'party option' than 'leader variant'. The most questioned, who show party leader, find among Law and Justice (PiS) electoral (26,2 per cent). It could be predicted, because Jarosław Kaczyński (PiS president) is main party symbol and predominant person inside the organization. As surprise can be treated preferences of Civil Platform (PO) electoral. Here value of this ratings reveal 18,3 per cent. In comparison to previous survey (in 2012) it signifies decline about 2,4 per cent. Donald Tusk (the prime minister and PO leader) is the most important component of this party and his attitude was main factor of the winning of two last parliamentary elections (2007 and 2011). Second question apply to organization television debates in every elections. Among electoral every parties find more followers than oppositionists this solution. However in comparison this results to previous polls we can conclude about decrease amount of supporter this postulate. In reality, debatesbecame important element of campaign if politicians understand a role of this issues. But presently political parties and public opinion are not interested in this issue.

Meeting the needs of the voters is the primary responsibility of politicians. Political activity organize social life through the interaction of political institutions, which are the foundation of the democratic process of electing representatives mandated by society and legitimized in the elections. Well- conceived mission of serving the public is the foundation of a well-functioning relationship politician-voter. It is a way to meet the expectations that allows voters to build everyday life and faith in the future. It is worth to know the extent in which politicians meet the expectations of their constituents.

The intra-party conflicts tend to be more common on Polish political scene in last few years. This kind of political competition was not avoided by the ruling party - Civic Platform. The conflict between Prime Minister Donald Tusk and former Minister of Justice Jarosław Gowin has escalated during the internal election in Civic Platform. Despite the Gowin's failure in party chairman election, he reached a substantial support among party members and electorate. After that, Gowin decided to leave Civic Platform and established his own political formation - Poland Together (PolskaRazem). Presented article is aimed at examining the perception of party leadership of Donald Tusk and the political potential of Jarosław Gowin. According to the research and this year's European Parliament election the author tried to answer the question whether Gowin's party can achieve the relevant position in Polish party system.

The surveys conducted in the autumn of 2013 show that most of those surveyed pay no attention to election advertisements aired on the radio. The greatest percentage of persons not interested in radio election advertisements are followers of the Left Democratic Alliance (Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, SLD) - 74.4%. An equally large percentage of people who are not interested in radio election advertising was reported among those polled who declared they would not vote if the election for the Sejm was held next Sunday - 74%. Followers of the Your Movement [Twój Ruch] coalition and supporters of other parties than those named above also pay little atten- tion to radio election advertising - in both categories this percentage is 68.4% each. Out of the Civic Platform [Platforma Obywatelska, PO] supporters as many as 67.3 % of those surveyed are not interested in radio election advertisements, while among the Law and Justice [Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS] followers the percentage of those not interested in election advertisements on the radio is 65.8%. The lowest percentage (although also exceeding 60%) of people not paying attention to radio election advertisements was reported among supporters of the Polish People's Party [Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe, PSL] - 64%. Taking into account the results of surveys concerning ideological views, the highest percentage of persons not interested in radio election advertisements are those surveyed who define their views as left-wing - 76.7%. A slightly smaller percentage of persons not interested in radio election advertisements was reported among those surveyed who defined their views as centrist - 71.6%, while the percentage of those surveyed defining their views as right-wing and not interested in this type of advertising was 65.8%. Out of those who find it difficult to define their views the percentage of people not interested in radio election advertisements is 67.3%. The survey results also show that election advertisements aired on the radio do not have any effect on the voting decisions of the majority of those surveyed. This form of political communication has the smallest influence on the Democratic Left Alliance supporters - as many as 80 % of those polled and declaring themselves as followers of this party believe that radio election advertising has no effect on their voting decisions. The percentage of persons who believe that election advertisements on the radio do not influence their voting decisions is also high in the case of the other categories of those surveyed. In the case of the supporters of other parties than those mentioned, this percentage is 79.8%; for those who would not vote if the election was held on the nearest Sunday - 78,7%, while for the PO, PSL, PiS and Your Movement supporters: 77.8%, 72.1%, 71.4% and 73.6% respectively. In the case of the survey results regarding ideological views, the highest percentage of those surveyed who believe that radio election advertisements do not have any impact on their voting decisions was reported among persons who define their views as centrist - 82.2%, and not much lower among those defining their views as left-wing - 81.7%. The smallest percentage of those who believe that radio election advertisements do not influence their voting decisions was reported among the persons defining their views as right-wing - 74.6% and among those who find it difficult to define their views - 72.2%.

Without any doubt since 1989 one may observe increasing women's role in Polish political life. One of proofs for it is higher number of women registered as candidates before parliamentary elections, as well as higher percentage of women in Polish Sejm. In spite of this, Polish women are still less active in the political life than men, which results from existence of several barriers hindering their participation and involvement in politics. The main aim of this article is to analyze the opinion of Poles on the activity of women in political life and on the introduction of additional mechanisms having the potential to increase women's participation in political bodies.

The emergence of new party should be an answer for voters' demand on new political initiatives. Since the beginning of the 21th century we have been faced with lack of representativeness of political parties. In addition, there is weak party identification among Polish electorate. The empirical research presented in this article proves that the portion of electorate expecting an emergence of new party is increased. However, the Polish voters don't believe that potential new parties can reach the relevant position in party system. The results of Palikot Movement (currently: Your Move) in parliamentary election 2011 and the Congress of the New Right in this year's European Parliament election shows that appropriate political program can bring about a success of new political formation.

The article concerns the attitudes of parties and their voters towards democracy and support for a "strong-arm government". The research included the five largest Polish civil parties Platforma Obywatelska RP (Civic Platform RP), Prawo I Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice), Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej (Democratic Left Alliance), Twój Ruch (Your Movement), and Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe (Polish People's Party). The results confirmed that, on the one hand, voters acknowledge democracy as the best political system for Poland; however, on the other hand, a substantial part of them longs for strong authorities. Supporting democracy, they advocate a "strong-arm government". Among left-wing voters, there is three times more proponents of such governments than persons acknowledging another political system as better than democratic one. In the case of political scene centre voters, the number of "strong-arm government" proponents amounts to over four times the number of democracy critics. Nearly half of the right-wing voters supported the "strong-arm government", and every fifth of them did not acknowledge democracy as the best political system. Proponents of democracy dominate in electorates of all parties. Groups in which their advantage over opponents is clearly the smallest include: PiS-voters, persons who declared the will to vote for another formation, and persons who did not want to participate in the elections. Among the PiS-voters, nearly three times more supported "strong-arm government" than opposed it. Among the voters of PO, SLD, and Your Movement, there were more opponents of a "strong-arm government" than its proponents. One may assume that a formation critical towards democracy and favorable towards reinforcement of authority of a strong, charismatic leader could gain among the right-wing voters. It may partially explain why did the KongresNowejPrawicy (Congress of the New Right) receive substantial support in the elections to the European Parliament. KNP criticizes the modern democracy and its leader favorably talked about activities of politicians who apply the methods of a "strong-arm government". On the left side of the political scene there are no premises for the emergence of a political force based on similar views and having greater support.

This article presents the perception of environmental issue by Polish society - attaching importance to these issues and the assessment of political activities in solving environmental problems. The first part of the article describes environmentalism and the green parties which gained relevant position in Western European party system in the 70s of the twentieth century. Then the activities of the Greens in Poland and other Central European countries are described that took place after the collapse of the communist system in 1989. The article also illustrates the results of research on social perception of the environmental issues. The vast majority of Poles consider these issues important and claim that politicians should increase their activities in this area. Nevertheless, this doesn't affect the position of the Greens in the Polish party system. This is due to the history after World War II when Central Europe was in the Soviet sphere of influence and the weakness of the green parties that have never been able to present their offer efficiently to public opinion.

Contemporary theory of democracy places great emphasison direct forms of citizens' participation in political life. Direct democracy is the core of the functioning of democratic systems. It is a general rule in making deci- sions, even those controversial or connected to public affairs, taking place in the common vote. What kinds of institutions of direct democracy are practiced, it mainly depends on historical, cultural and economical conditions. The aim of the research is an attempt to specify the level of support forcitizens' participation in new forms of direct democracy such as participatory budgets, as well as the purpose of the research is the diagnosis for citizens' abilities to participate in the possible institutions of direct democracy that function in the local government. To summarize conducted research, it can be concluded that citizens declare the irsupport for the possibility of co-deciding on municipality budgets and possibility ofstrengthening the irparticipation through the available institutions of direct democracy in local governments, such as the referendum or locals' consults. This support is generally independent from sympathizing with the different political parties or ideological view points.

The subject of discussion in this article is the issue of the referendum repealing the executive authorities in the municipality. In recent years the number of referenda repealing mayors and presidents of cities has significantly increased. Nonetheless, the low effectiveness of theses referendums caused by low voter turnout results surprising. It seems as if the repealing referendums turned from the strongest direct democracy institution into a tool that the potential candidates for mayor use for eliminating from the electoral list people that fulfill these functions for many consecutive years. The lack of effectiveness of the repealing referendums seems to attest to the fact that local communities are rarely willing to participate in such activities. This article contains the results of the surveys on public attitudes towards repealing referendums, as well as the measurement of attitudes towards non-participation in the repealing referendum in order to invalidate them.

The main purpose of this article is to present the role of public opinion polls and political consulting on Polish political scene. The article contains results of surveys made in most Polish regions in 2013 and 2014 years. Firstly, there is described theory of public opinion poll before elections and after them based on the literature of public opinion polls.. In this part reader either can find some information about how the public opinion polls are perceived from Polish citizens' perspective. Secondly, there is presented the role of political consul- ting on Polish political scene. The conclusion confirms that Polish citizens have perceived considerable influence of public opinion polls and political consulting in Polish public policy.

The article presents voters opinion about two aspects of political cele- britization: celebritization of style and substance of politicians' communication and politization fo celebrities. 64% of respondents sees similarities between politicians' and celebrities' communication form and content while only 22% of respondents agree with the thesis of politization of celebrities.