rss_2.0Sciendo RSS Feed for Polish Political Science Reviewhttps://sciendo.com/journal/PPSRhttps://www.sciendo.comhttps://sciendo-parsed.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/6473429831838d21ed059e3e/cover-image.jpghttps://sciendo.com/journal/PPSR140216https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-0007<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organisation founded in 1999. It has proved to be successful in improving the economic growth of its member states; it also supports the security of individual member states and the stability of the entire region. The stabilisation capabilities of the Community have been tested through the accession of South Sudan in 2016. The experience of the past six years indicates that the decision to admit South Sudan into the community should be assessed positively, especially in terms of the peacebuilding process in this state. On the 8th April 2022, the Democratic Republic of Congo was admitted to the EAC. Anchoring in a regional block that has been proving its stability for over a dozen years can reduce poverty and spur development in the DRC, both in terms of its economic and political dimensions. This, in turn, in a favourable political environment, can in the future translate into good governance and the building of civil society. For the East African Community, however, the accession of the Democratic Republic of Congo poses a major challenge. The DRC brings a number of unresolved political problems, raising questions about whether the potential gains will outweigh the threat to the stability of the region and the maintenance of the current pace of integration processes. The aim of the article is to try to answer questions about the causes and potential consequences of the decision to carry out this surprising accession process. The analysis presented, a brief case study, attempts to explain that the political rationale behind this decision is not justified by geographical and historical considerations.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-00072023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-0004<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Development of cycling infrastructure is becoming a global trend in urban policies. High congestion, mitigating smog and CO2 reduction have led to the re-birth of cycling as a significant mode of urban mobility. The article aims to present the response of medium-sized Polish cities (ranging from 100.000 to 200.000 residents) to these challenges, which are among the most important problems to solve within the next decades. The study analyses the cycling policy of Polish cities, showing the dynamic increase in kilometres of cycle paths constructed (often built alongside street renovation projects), as well as the boom in bike-sharing programmes. Shortcomings such as the lack of consistency in realisation and varied implementation in different cities and culturally ingrained preference for cars, related to historical experiences of post-communist cities, are also outlined. The Polish approach is the cautious policy of carrots without sticks, in which solutions facilitating bicycle travel are not followed up by deterrents against using cars. As a result, there are no political conflicts and opposition regarding this issue, but the numbers of cyclists (although increasing) is still lower than in the world’s leading bicycle cities.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-00042023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper offers a reexamination of Aristotle’s <italic>Politics</italic> 4, chapter 12–13—the so-called account of polity or the mixed regime. Aristotle suggests that the forthcoming discussion delves into either the optimal governing system in general or the most prevalent form of governance across various cities. However, upon closer examination of <italic>Politics</italic> 4.12–13, a distinct perspective emerges. Working off the account of the <italic>meso</italic> (the middle) of <italic>Politics</italic> 4.11, in 12–13 we are not offered an account of the best practical regime, that is of a specific regime form. Instead, Aristotle presents an account on how regimes can achieve moderation and harmony—that is stability. So instead of an account of a specific regime type, we get an account of what moderates and stabilizes regimes generally.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-00012023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-0002<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Early socialism from the second half of 19th century Romania is experiencing a systematic comeback among historians and social scientists. The works of Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea, the founding father of Romanian Marxism, occupy a central place in this newfound attention towards the origins and struggles of socialism in Romania. This paper addresses Gherea’s interpretation of anarchism on par with his doctrine of ‘legal socialism’. Its purpose is to prove how anarchism acts as a more than tactical catalyzer for legal socialism, placing the latter not necessarily on a new ideological perspective, but further on the terrain of Romanian political status-quo of late 19th and early 20th century Romania. Although more principled than tactical, Gherea’s repudiation of anarchism in progressively unsubstantial Marxist terms has also led to tactical shortcomings. This was the case of the first Romanian socialist party, which was dissolved and absorbed after only six years of existence within the ascending liberal party.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-00022023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-0005<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The goal of this study was to test the result presented by Stolee and Caton (2018) that former President of the United States Donald Trump primarily addressed his devoted electorate via Twitter. In the empirical setup, we referred to the theoretical concepts of a politician’s base and of an ‘echo chamber’ and the theories of populist leaders’ communication. The regression techniques were applied to determine the relationship between the popularity, measured as the number of “favorites” and “retweets”, and the frequency of words representing 16 topics. The topics connected to Trump’s self-praise, critique of opponents, the issue of immigration, and dealings with rival countries increased the popularity of the tweets. Surprisingly, tweets including the topics connected to crucial issues for the American public did not attract much interest. These results are in line with the theory of Stolee and Caton and may indicate that followers were not interested in the substantive content of the President’s posts. The results also confirm our hypothesis that while Trump’s message had a populist character, he primarily addressed his devoted electorate, not the wider audience.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-00052023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-0006<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The paper will explore the significance of the role cities play in transnational institutional bypass of nation-States. The authors provide examples of cities playing the role of a transnational institutional bypass of nation-States and indicate the circumstances that may compel cities to act as such a bypass and fulfil the nation-State functions. The aim of the paper is to show that cities may successfully bypass nation-States in specific circumstances, including some cases of nation-States being unwilling to act in order to achieve a greater good that is in the interests of people living in a given nation-State or, even on a broader scale, in the interests of mankind. To best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to introduce the concept of an institutional bypass to cities and to construe conditions applicable in such a case.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-00062023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-0003<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This, mainly conceptual, paper concerns the democratic backsliding process, focusing on specific and understudied actors whose actions (or non-actions) unintentionally contribute to the undertakings of autocrats or “would-be autocrats,” instead of concentrating on often analysed incumbents. The authors propose in this regard a concept of “unintentional backsliders,” including its definition, typology, and model of mapping actors who, due to recklessness or negligence, unintentionally support democratic backsliding. The spectrum of such backsliders has been additionally outlined in the case of Poland, the fastest de-democratising country recently — in order to demonstrate that the proposed conceptual framework can be translated into a political reality and has a potential to be applied in empirical studies.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-00032023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-0008<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper is the analysis of the repeated participation of the 1990 and 1994 elections candidates in the following 1998–2014 elections. The interest in the long-standing candidates is dictated by the need to better understand which type of political background and political strategy gravitate more to the commencement of a political career at the very beginning of democracy building in Ukraine. The paper hypothesizes that in 1990 having a Communist Nomenklatura background was the determining factor, whereas in 1994, unaffiliated candidates who originated from the „party of power” were the main contenders. The hypotheses are tested using the data on the background and electoral results of the candidates, who started in the 1990 and 1994 electoral campaigns (8,898 candidates in the EAST PaC database). In this study both successful and failed candidates are studied because they all acquire experience of political professional activity. It was found out that the Communist party officials and managers of the state enterprises, who had won in 1990, competed in the following electoral campaigns less often, while unaffiliated directors more often. The affiliation with the left-wing parties in 1994 predicts higher odds that a candidate will repeat his/her attempts to get a seat.¹</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-00082023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-0011ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-00112023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-0010ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-00102023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-0009<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Dominiak (2022) takes the position that, according to the libertarian philosophy, there should be no such thing as unjust enrichment. If there is, the beneficiary should be legally obligated to jettison his gains in favor of the benefactor. The present paper takes issue with that stance; it maintains that while there is indeed, of course, unjust enrichment, and in many cases the beneficiary must indeed give up his benefits, there are also counter examples in which this is not indicated.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2023-00092023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-0014<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Building upon findings from a strategically selected case study of a pioneering Swedish municipality, Jönköping, a participant in a Horizon2020 project on co-creating public service innovations in Europe (CoSIE), this paper illustrates how local municipalities may take a systemic approach to creating the necessary conditions for sustainable co-creation and assesses whether this illustrates an ongoing paradigmatic shift in service management and culture. The strategic change management efforts in adapting a public sector organisation to a co-creation culture, are assessed against a normative theoretical framework for such a transformative change (Finansdepartementet 2018; Torfing et al, 2016;). The study employs the concept of co-creation to highlight the paradigmatic shift in the approach to citizens as service end users from passive clients to active citizens with resources and capabilities to exert an impact on service design, delivery, and value creation. Th e article offers new insights into how a robust organisation may be moving towards a new public administration paradigm that accommodates co-creation, and especially how a new approach to management based on trust may be strategically implemented as a key factor in facilitating systemic change (Torfing et al, 2016). Against the background of a significant shortage of studies exploring how conditions for such a transformative change are created at different system levels, the article examines a longitudinal real-time study and illustrates new management approaches, strategies, and tools used. The study also contributes a normative framework to explore a shift to more trust-based steering and a more nuanced explanation of an ongoing managerial shift towards a ‘co-creation’ paradigm. It argues that achieving trust-based steering has major potential to facilitate a co-creation culture but that a paradigmatic shift towards such a culture requires congruence in discourses and actions on different system levels and a major transformation of approaches, roles, and relationship dynamics between senior and first-line management.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-00142021-12-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-0013<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The paper illustrates an empirical research project concerning the co-creation process in Reggio Emilia’s public services and their efforts to reduce childhood obesity. The research is based on a participative evaluation research methodology. The project has been implemented within the framework of the CoSIE project, funded by the Horizon 2020 Research Program — Innovation Action. It has been led by the Local Health Unit (LHU) of Reggio Emilia, a mid-size town in north-eastern Italy, and Cup2000/Lepida, a public/private corporation delivering ICT for health service in the Emilia-Romagna Region.</p> <p>The empirical research has been conducted by the University of Bologna, using a mixed method multi-dimensional strategy and combining the <italic>Action-Research</italic> tradition with the approach of the <italic>Theory of Change</italic>.</p> <p>The theoretical framework reflects on the co-creation process, distinguishing between its different phases. In particular, it defines the co-production and the co-design phase, operationalising them with the concepts of System Integration and Social Integration. This linkage allows the analysis of the involvement of institutional stakeholders and final users in the co-creation process.</p> <p>Many factors including the actors’ identity, the participation modalities and the impact of each stakeholder on the service, contribute to the model of co-creation in “the shadow of institutions”, characterised by a low level of Social Integration and a high level of System Integration.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-00132021-12-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-0009<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The concept of co-creation of public services, which is the essence of this thematic issue of Polish Political Science Review, is part of the current debate on the modernization of the delivery system in the European Union upon Europeanization and globalization. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of the factors that assist the co-creation in public service delivery and its capabilities on the both conceptual and practical level. The article works towards presenting the perspective in public governance by examining key aspects which make the ecosystem of the co-creation of public services. In addition, it is intended as an introduction to this thematic issue, and it is a basis for a better understanding of topics discussed in individual articles by authors representing the European research community and non-governmental organizations. The authors present, in detail, considerations on both approach-oriented perspectives and empirical findings, which refer to various socio-cultural, political and economic contexts in different regions of the European Union.</p> <p>To achieve the research aim, following research questions were developed: What concepts and approaches reflect the idea of co-creation of public services in the European Union? Do they impact the institutional practice? Thus, the first part of the article discusses the key concepts and approaches with the aim to provide guidance and a joint understanding, and then introduces the main notions which make up the ecosystem of the co-creation of public services in the European Union understood as a method (citizens’ participation), a process (social innovation) and a system (public governance). The last part of the article is a reflection on challenges and limitations as well as stimulants that determine its practicing in changing settings and contexts.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-00092021-12-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-0012<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Storytelling is a powerful instrument for system change. Telling stories of lived experience, listening to them, and sharing them contributes to a culture of trust based on dignity, mutual respect and shared values. In this paper we draw attention to public service innovation and co-creation with the people the service is meant for. In the past years, public service innovation was result-and output driven, targeting technological and managerial innovation. Stories of service users revealed the unintended negative consequences of such innovation policies and opened new perspectives for conversations of change based on shared values leading to innovations based on human development and dignity.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-00122021-12-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-0011<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper employs critical discourse analysis to examine how Warsaw citizens (residents) perceived and organized the narratives of their participation in the governance of urban regeneration between 2004 and 2016 and how this evolved over that period. The study reveals citizens’ discursive practices, such as the construction of positive and negative identities of the relevant social actors, the binary opposition between ‘us and them’, the development of new interpretations of urban regeneration, and finally, the gradual elaboration of a model of empowered citizenship. Drawing on the concept of democratic urban regeneration policymaking, the research suggests that in the case of Warsaw, one can speak of a shift from a citizen discourse of rebellious participation in non-deliberative governance towards one of more consensual and empowering participation in more deliberative governance.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-00112021-12-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-0010<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper makes a novel contribution by turning an ‘asset’ lens onto social and technical innovation in the context of the small-scale generation of renewable energy. The authors draw on learning from an international project that aimed to develop innovative technologies for the micro generation of energy using wastes and residues. Variations on innovation that cut across the social and technical are introduced. It is noted that although emanating from different traditions, a common theme is emphasis on a distributed knowledge base in which the roles of innovator, producer and consumer overlap or merge. This implies that the (social) innovation process is also one of co-creation. The authors borrow from international development studies the Sustainable Livelihood Analysis (SLA) framework, which is usually used for working with poor households to foreground strengths and resources rather than needs and deficits. To illustrate the utility of SLA for social innovation at local and community level, findings are presented from UK fieldwork on socio economic barriers and opportunities affecting the feasibility of new community energy generation and enterprise options. The importance and the fragility of human assets are highlighted.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-00102021-12-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>In his recent book, Capital and Ideology, French economist Thomas Piketty devotes the final chapter to the changing dimensions of political conflict in Western democracies. The goal of this article is to confront some of his findings with mainstream political science. Piketty’s arguments are confronted with the findings of scholars within political science. To begin the article, we establish two research questions in the introduction. We then delineate the gradual reversal of the educational cleavage and subsequent emergence of the multi-elite system according to Piketty. He demonstrates how the classist conflict prevailing in the 1950s and 60s morphed into the Brahmin Left versus the Merchant Right system, with the “Left” being supported by the more educated electorate and the “Right” being supported by the relative well-offs. In the following two sections, we deal with his arguments regarding the causes and the outcomes of this gradual shift. Firstly, he proposes two hypotheses regarding the metamorphosis of the Left: the social and nativist hypotheses. We argue that neither of the two hypotheses is actually a comprehensive explanation and we propose alternative that takes into account the changing structure of social classes. Secondly, with regards to the outcomes of the reversal of the educational cleavage, Piketty considers one of the consequences of this shift to be a social-nativist trap, a combination of pro-redistribution policies and cultural nativism. We have concluded that the social-nativism is not a trap per se as much as an inevitability resulting from the less advantaged class feeling abandoned in the multi-elite political conflict.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-00012021-08-13T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-0003<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The change of the law regarding the Institute of National Remembrance conducted by the right-wing government of Law and Justice in Poland probably led to the most serious diplomatic crisis in Polish-Israeli relations since their resumption in 1990. The whole situation has been widely described in the Polish and Israeli media. The role of this article is to analyse the content of two newspapers: Polish Gazeta Polska Codziennie and Israeli Israel Hayom, between 25 January and 31 March 2018. The two right-wing-leaning daily newspapers selected by the authors are perceived as not entirely objective due to open support for governments in their countries and as openly expressing their opinions, often in a controversial manner. It makes them a perfect case to compare the narrative about the diplomatic crisis between Poland and Israel.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-00032021-08-13T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-0008ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ppsr-2021-00082021-08-13T00:00:00.000+00:00en-us-1