Studia Politicae Universitatis Silesiensis T. 31 (2020)

Wspomnienie o prof. UŚ, dr.hab. Zbigniewie Oniszczuku (1955-2020)

The article considers the Polish social context of the European Parliament elections in 2019. High approval for EU membership was taken into account by most political groups. However, parties critical of the EU (Law and Justice or Confederation) were also critical of aspects of European integration which some respondents view negatively (e.g. its influence on religiosity and family). The analysis demonstrates that the social context was taken into account in election strategies.

The article aims to introduce the issue of the critique of cultural gender roles from the feminist perspective. The author presents the changes in the cultural depiction of women over the centuries and the impact of women’s movements on changes in this depiction.

In September, 2019 it was four years since the passage of the Bill on Petitions of 11 July, 2014. This was therefore an appropriate time to examine the operation of the constitutional right of citizens to petition
their government.
The aim of this paper is to analyse the actions taken by 49 municipal governments in the Silesian Voivodship (including 19 cities with poviat rights) in response to citizens’ petitions. In the four years since the passage of the Bill on Petitions, 864 petitions have been filed with the authorities of these 49 municipal governments.
Analysis of the data leads to the conclusion that there has not been a single procedural response in these cases. The authorities in each municipality have pursued their own strategies in processing citizens’ petitions: some have acted in an exemplary fashion, providing models of pro-citizen governance, while others have done merely the minimum required by the law. There is also observed considerable difference in the examination of the petitions: in some municipalities responses have been issued in timely fashion, while in others the matter has been protracted, even up to the deadline provided in the Bill.

Karl Okonsky (Karol Okoński) undoubtedly belongs to the circle of the most amazing figures in the post-war history of Upper Silesia. As the editor-in-chief of „Volkswille“ he was regarded during the Plebiscite as the 
best pen fighting for German interests. He was active not only as a journalist but also as a politician. He spoke with passion on the Reichstag forum about the situation in Upper Silesia. He astonished his audience with his aversion to Polish interests, despite his Polish origin. He spoke particularly sharply about Wojciech Korfanty. He was persecuted by the Nazis during World War II. After the borders shift, despite his former German sympathies, he remained in his own home. Although he did not speak Polish enough, he could not only print in the Polish postwar press, but was even an active and recognised activist of the Polish United Workers’ Party, awarded with the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

The U.S. accession to the Second World War and indisputable victory initiated a new stage in the history of the United States. The country took a superpower position next to the USSR. The USA became the leading force of the democratic and capitalist world. During the Cold War, competing with the Soviet Union for influence in the global scale, the United States effectively spread its ideology, political system model, and value system. A number of determinants of an internal nature, both objective and subjective, influenced the shape of the foreign policy of the USA during the Cold War.

Studia Politicae Universitatis Silesiensis T. 31 (2020)

Studia Politicae Universitetis Silesiensis T. 31 (2020)