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The paper represents an attempt to characterise the political awareness among the public in Poland in the period preceding the systemic transformation and to provide answers to the questions of whether and to what extent the impending changes and trends could have been predicted based on the results of research into the public awareness; also, which changes were accepted by the society and whether it was prepared for the subsequent transformation. Taking into consideration the economic and political situation existing at that time, i.e. the situation of a deep economic crisis and a bitter political conflict, the paper presents views, opinions and beliefs concerning the way of perceiving the parties to the conflict and the responsibility for the crisis, the existing political system and the desirable trends in its development as well as preferences related to the manner of reforming the economy. The conclusions that are suggested by the results of the research can be summarised by stating that the general trends in the changes (i.e. democracy, albeit not without some reservations, and the economy, and free market economy including a private sector) were quite prominent in the thinking of the society but the later developments turned out to be more radical than postulated by the society, especially in the economic sphere.

The author brings up a subject Polish state to broadly understood Western civilization based on values and ideas that at the turn of the years laid the foundations for a way of understanding who a modern European is. The article refers to the theory and concept of the most important classical thinkers dealing with issues of civilization and culture, such as: Samuel Huntington, Arnold Toynbee, Oswald Spengler, Feliks Koneczny and others. The author also tries to answer the question: What is the current West and what role does Poland play in it? The article will have a theoretical character and can serve as an introduction to much more detailed aspects falling within the broadly understood Western civilization.

The phenomenon of the formation of minority governments in post‑ communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe was treated as an emergency situation and non‑typical for the parliamentary and cabinet systems in this part of the continent. The aim of the article is to explain the institutional reasons for the formation of government offices without the support of the parliamentary majority in selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe in transition. The author assumes the thesis that one of the main reasons for this situation was the immaturity of the political system, and in particular the shape of the party system and the changing electoral system connected with it, as well as thelack of electoral experience of citizens of selected countries.

The article focuses on contemporary Communist Party of Poland — its goals and courses of action, and above all the way CPP refers to the past, how it treats legacy of the Communist Worker’s Party of Poland and Communist Party of Poland of interwar period, as well as how it addresses contemporary problems, reaching to the past seen as source of political inspira tions.The aim of the author of this paper is to describe how historical connection between CPP and former polish communist parties is created and how it affects courses of political action of contemporary CPP; to describe specific sense of “CPP’s mission”, as well as reactions of polish public opinion to the fact that there is a party which refers to communist ideology, programme and past. On such a basis it is adequate and possible to characterize in theoretical manner the marginal party. The analysis is based on theoretical criteria concerning small, niche and marginal parties. From this theoretical perspective it is possible to identify and explain characteristic, substantial features of contemporary Communist Party of Poland as a marginal party, and to evaluate political potential of this party within electoral and political competition. It is claimed, and this is the main thesis of this paper, that since the radicalism of CPP, it’s archaic programme, balancing on the brink of banning, as well as other political circumstances, Communist Party of Poland will remain just so called fringe party, which ideological and political message seem to be incomprehensible in the context of norms and dominating beliefs falling within political horizon of contemporary Poland.

This article presents changes in the electoral system applicable to the local government elections. Elaborating the specificity of local government elections in Poland, the paper focuses on several important aspects: the existence of three different electoral systems for different levels in the local government elections, the influence of political parties and national policy on election campaigns, the specificity of regions and the need to adapt party programs, the perception of the figures elected in local government elections, the role and importance of electoral committees of voters. The influence and importance of the national policy in local government campaigns were pointed out, the campaign and electoral results of local government elections in 2018 were discussed.

The object of this article is to analyze the democratic school’s organizational model. The example used to visualize this model is the oldest democratic school in the world — 100 years old Summerhill School in Great Britain. We will put the emphasis on the vision and values on which the school was built and how it influenced the approach to children. This article will also describe solutions for teaching organization, free time and self‑government. It will also assign democratic school model to corresponding level of organization development. It will be based on the idea of Spiral Dynamics Model by Clare W. Graves. This idea has not been used in Poland to analyze organizational model of school.

The automotive industry in Silesia province is becoming more important. It is influenced by many factors among which one of the most important are political activities of the self‑government authorities in Silesia province together with government administration. For example, the element of political activities was “The regional contract for the Katowice province” and Silesian Region Development Strategy. As the result of this activity, the Katowice Special Economic Zone was established, what was clearly affected and continues to affect the creation of new ones and the expansion of existing plants related to the automotive industry. For example, they are Fiat Auto Poland, Opel, Isuzu, Magneti Marelli. The development of this branch of industry is a great opportunity for a big technological leap and restructuring of the economy for Silesia province and for Poland.

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