The conciliatory potential of social media in the current political dispute. The case of Facebook

This text is a continuation of the analysis of the attitudes of politically engaged users of the Facebook, conducted between 13.12.2020 and 25.01.2021 on a sample of 220 respondents. The first statistical conclusions and the full description of the methodology were published in the issue 1/2021 of Przegląd Politologiczny (Pawlak, 2021). In this text, I focused on the interpretation of the open part of the questionnaire, in which the respondents expressed their own ideas and forecasts regarding the possibility of ending/mitigating the conflict. While the data from closed questions could be treated as coming from a group representative of politically engaged Facebook users in Poland (although this condition was more of an added value than the intention behind the research), the material containing answers to open-ended questions is no longer of this nature. This is due to the fact that 43.6% of the respondents left this section unanswered. The analysis presented here prompts reflection on the conciliatory potential of social media, which I consider to be an important platform for political debate in the 21st century.

Election preferences of the inhabitants of West Pomerania in local elections in the Third Republic of Poland

Western Pomerania was said to be called as a stronghold of the left, for the Democratic Left Alliance both in the 1990s and at the beginning of the 21st century achieved some of the best results in the country. Only after the parliamentary and presidential elections in 2005 and the local government elections in 2006, the electoral preferences changed towards the center of the political scene. The Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland turned out to be the change, Law and Justice to a lesser extent. The article presents a political analysis of the voting preferences of the inhabitants of West Pomerania in the local government elections with regard to the three mentioned parties. The aim of the research was to analyze the direction in which the electorate goes. It was checked whether the SLD was permanently eliminated and how strong the dominance of the PO was. Furthermore it was examined whether PiS is a real threat to the PO RP and whether the SLD has a chance to regain its lost position. It seems that regardless of the attempts made, the position of the SLD after the 2006 elections is stable and there are no indications that the Alliance could dominate the analyzed region again. However, in spite of the fact that since 2006 the PO enjoys high support, since 2014 PiS has been achieving better and better results, depriving the PO RP hegemon in its position in 2006–2014.

Regional elections of 2020 in the Irkutsk region: progress, results, and organization

The regular conduct of elections and the compliance of their procedure with the current legislation is a prerequisite for the functioning of a democratic political system. The occurrence of emergencies, such as military operations, pandemics, and the like, is a serious problem and challenge for the country’s leadership. The resulting social tension and instability, changes in the current electoral order and electoral procedures, pose a threat to the ruling regime and provide additional opportunities for the opposition. The article shows the activities of the leadership of Russia and the Irkutsk region in the context of a Covid pandemic during the regional elections of 2020. The legislation was changed and special measures were organized to ensure compliance with all epidemiological norms and to prevent a significant increase in the number of cases. A special feature of the elections in the Irkutsk region was the holding of early, really competitive elections for the governor, in which a Kremlin protege and a local representative of the Communist Party fought. In a really difficult situation, the elections were held calmly and without any special violations of the law and moral norms. Despite the fundamental nature of the struggle for the governor’s seat, the voter turnout was low and fundamentally lower than the plebiscite held in July of the same year to amend the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

Parliament–government–citizens. The place of the institution of direct democracy in the discussion on the shape of San Marino-European Union relations in the context of the referendum of 2013

The subject of the article is the issue of using the institutions of direct democracy in the process of shaping the directions of a very specific element of foreign policy – relations with the European Union, of which San Marino is not a member. While most of the referenda related to the European Union concern the accession of countries to this organization, the vote in 2013 was of a slightly different nature. Therefore, the author attempts to indicate how the use of the instruments of direct democracy by citizens, in a way in opposition to the institution of indirect democracy (parliament and its dependent government), can contribute to the decision-makers making political decisions desired by citizens, even in seemingly rather unusual (apart from the aforementioned accession referenda) for direct democracy, spheres as the directions of foreign policy.

Trade cooperation in light of the forces that are currently re-shaping international business

In this research work, Author focus on the analysis trade cooperation in light of the forces that are currently re-shaping international business. Accordance to the foreign trade policy theory further trade liberalisation and improved framework policies would increase trade and promote growth. It must be emphasized that openess to trade is associated with higher incomes and growth and there are the need for new approaches to trade cooperation. What indicates the importance and innovativeness of the research is the presentation of the new models of the foreign trade policy and trade interests. First of all it must underline that in the new theoretical terms in the demand for trade policy very important is factor specificity. The low specificity of factors means that factor returns are equalized throughout a region’s economy. On the other hand some factors are stuck in their present uses; therefore, factor returns are not equalized throughout a region’s economy, but are industry specific. The main objective of the research task is to give a comprehensive analysis of current trends in foreign trade theory and policy and in particulary the models of foreign trade policy, trade interests indicated by export orientation and import sensitivity, foreign trade policy in different types of authoritarian regimes, protectionistic pressures in different political system, the level of protectionistic pressures, the variation in the foreign trade policy among states, the liberalisation of China foreign trade policy and their effects, the tendencies to international trade liberalisation and the problem of environmental protection, and the tendencies to bilateralism in the foreign trade policy. It should be stressed that free trade in itself is not responsible for economic growth, but more significant are the determining macroeconomic stability and increasing investment.

Hamburg–Saint Petersburg, Sanit Petersburg–Nice: Scenarios for the stability of twinning under stress

Against the background of the global COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing geopolitical tensions between the Russian Federation and the West, this chapter engages with the dynamics of European-Russia city diplomacy in times of crisis. By means of two representative case studies of existing twinning cities, namely Hamburg–Saint Petersburg on the one hand, and Nice–Saint Petersburg on the other, this chapter explores the evolution of twinning relations during the politically sensitive times. While paying attention to the legal bases and the historic evolution of selected cases of city cooperation, the authors identify major tendencies as well as opportunities in the field of city twinning and engage with the so-called digital turn in city diplomacy which has manifested itself since the start of the global health crisis in early 2020.

The reasons of the implementation of the concept of smart villages in the European Union

The aim of this article is to identify the main challenges facing the rural areas in the European Union (EU) and to investigate whether implementation of the concept of smart villages makes it possible to face these challenges. These challenges are: depopulation, aging of the society, climate change, growing demand for food, environmental degradation, peripheralization or low income of rural populations, pandemic COVID-19. The first part describes the situation in rural areas, using statistical data from the reports of the European Commission and Eurostat. Then the roots of the concept of smart villages in the European Union were presented. Its six components have been identified: smart society, smart economy, smart agriculture, smart management, smart environment and smart associability. In the last part, it was checked whether the implementation of the concept of smart villages responds to the main challenges faced by rural areas.

A Micro-Political Analysis of Local Governance in Nigeria: The Case of Irepodun Local Government Authority

The study examined local government autonomy and local government service delivery in Nigeria. the study discovered that, Nigerian local government needs to be autonomous in the discharge of its statutory responsibility, if ongoing agitation for local government autonomy from different quarters in Nigeria is given an approval, this will strengthen local government’s service delivery. The study discovered that some states in Nigeria oppose local government autonomy due to political and economic considerations. The study further revealed that Irepodun local government (the micro-case study) in Nigeria is not totally autonomous. Although, local governance is transparent and accountable in Irepodun Local Government, especially in the identification, formulation and execution of its projects, Irepodun local government authority has a huge financial challenge in carrying out service delivery. The study therefore recommends that; the state joint local government account should be abolished from the Nigerian constitution to enable allocation of funds directly to the local governments from Federation account. they should also put a stop to the persistence deduction from the monthly allocation of local governments. Again, states should henceforth be made to remit regularly the constitutional 10% of their internally generated revenue to the local government authorities. Irepodun local government and other local government authorities in Nigeria emplace more efforts on sustainable wealth creation rather than depending solely on the grants from the federal and state governments.

H. Kupś, M. Szatkowski, M. Dahl (red.), 70 lat Chińskiej Republiki Ludowej w ujęciu interdyscyplinarnym, Wydawnictwo Akademickie Dialog, Warszawa 2021, ss. 309.

Book reviews

The impacts of cognitive biases and heuristics on Covid-19 preventive behaviors

The covid-19 pandemic disease became part of the study of many scientific disciplines recently since its impact area is large and it threatened millions of lives. One of the important disciplines is public policy since the characteristics may easily influence the spread of covid-19. It is assumed that an individual’s irrational tendencies can increase this spread since they are highly correlated with the most important actions of prevention of the spread such as isolation, wearing a mask, and washing hands. Moreover, public policies can be effective in such a pandemic period if they take into consideration of individual’s irrational tendencies. Hence, in this study the psychological background of why individuals do not follow the regulations that can decrease the spread of covid-19 will be presented: cognitive biases and heuristics.