Wyniki wyszukiwania - Biblioteka Nauki

1

Etyczne i polityczno-prawne dylematy samorządu terytorialnego w Polsce

100%

Kasiński M.

Annales. Etyka w Życiu Gospodarczym

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2009

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tom 12

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nr 2

EN

The reform of Polish self-government in the 90's has led to the restoration of local democracy. However, the self-governmental institutions soon fell into crisis, having nearly lost the social trust required for the realisation of their mission. The principal cause behind this phenomenon was the atrophy of moral, political and legal responsibility of the local authorities towards the communities that have elected them. There is a twofold source of weaknesses and dangers for Polish self-government: the erroneous way of introducing changes in the system of government, and the forthcoming sociopolitical phenomena that hampered or even made it impossible to achieve some of the goals of the reform. We support the radical revision of legal regulation to remove these weaknesses. The basis for such a change will be the principle of subsidiarity as a governing rule for the entire system of public authority. This will ensure that the communities of inhabitants are seen as primary subjects of self-governmental power, and their power is rooted in citizens' rights to self-government. It is also necessary to ensure a truly pluralistic character of territorial power. Thus the citizens and their associations will have an influence on the election and functioning of the selfgovernmental bodies. The Author warns against the risk of emergence of a class of local and regional 'mandarins' in Polish public life – a class of practically ineradicable and systematically deficient leadership, likely to emerge should the mechanisms of democratic responsibility fail to be restored into the governmental bodies. The article ends with suggestions of particular legal changes aiming at the correct formation of Polish self-governmental institutions in both morally and socially rightful sense.

2

REFORMY MIĘDZYNARODOWEGO SYSTEMU WALUTOWEGO WOBEC ZMIAN W UKŁADZIE SIŁ GOSPODARCZYCH

87%

Twarowska K.

Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Oeconomica

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2014

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tom 1

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nr 299

PL

This work presents the reasons of economic problems resulting from the international monetary system misalignment to the structural changes in the world economy. These problems were emphasized by the economic crisis that began in 2008. This crisis has caused a debate on the structure and functioning of the international monetary and financial system. IMF undertook during this period many activities that have brought a stabilizing effect on the financial system. IMF supported the global responses to the financial crisis mainly through increased supervision and consultation in policy and financial support to its members. Many imbalances that characterize the modern monetary system, testify the reforms in its functioning are necessary. The author points out the potential scenarios of changes in governance regime and indicates the most likely one.

EN

W pracy przedstawiono przyczyny problemów gospodarczych wynikających z niedostosowania międzynarodowego systemu monetarnego zmian strukturalnych w gospodarce światowej. Problemy te zostały uwypuklone przez kryzys gospodarczy, który rozpoczął się w 2008 r. Kryzys ten wywołał szeroką debatę dotyczącą struktury i funkcjonowania międzynarodowego systemu walutowego i finansowego. MFW podejmował w tym okresie wiele działań, które miały wpływać stabilizująco na system finansowy, wspomagał globalną reakcję na kryzys finansowy głównie poprzez wzmożony nadzór i konsultacje w dziedzinie polityki oraz udzielanie wsparcia finansowego swoim członkom. Liczne nierównowagi, którymi charakteryzuje się współczesny system walutowy są przesłankami wprowadzenia reform w jego funkcjonowaniu. W opracowaniu przedstawione zostały potencjalne scenariusze zmian ładu walutowego oraz wskazane najbardziej prawdopodobne.

3

Nove trendy vo vyucovani nabozenskej vychovy na Slovensku

80%

Maria Nagranova M.

Scientific Bulletin of Chełm - Section of Pedagogy

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2012

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nr 1

37-41

EN

The article introduces reform changes in the concept of education in the school subject – Catholic religion/ religion in Slovakia. It clarifies the subject curriculum and refers to the cross-curricular and to holistic student’s education focusing on improving his skills.

4

Education Reform – cui bono?

80%

Czerepaniak-Walczak M.

The New Educational Review

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2019

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tom 55

185-194

EN

In the text, types of reforms to formal education are introduced, and against this background, an answer is sought to the question of who they serve, who is interested in this multi-layered effort, who is or can be a beneficiary and who is a loser in this process. The central part of the text is a presentation of types of the reform. Then, the effects of reforming education are indicated. The conclusion underlines the importance of research in the process of reform, in the action, as a professional practice of integrating cognition and change.

5

Otwarcie debaty na temat przyszłości finansów UE

80%

Szpringer Z. , Łacny J.

Zeszyty Prawnicze BAS

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2017

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nr 4(56)

63–78

EN

The assessed document launches the debate on the future of EU finances. It is the last (5th) document concerning the issues raised in the White Paper on the Future of Europe [COM(2017)2025]. The authors evaluate the prior document rather positively due to challenges presented in it by the Commission and the five scenarios concerning the future of the Union and the reform of EU policies. An analysis of these scenarios indicates that the scenario no. 3 “Some do more” and the scenario no. 5 “Doing much more together” do not seem realistic, because the scenario no. 3 would lead to weakening of the EU and increase of bureaucracy, while Member States are not yet for ready for the scenario no. 5. With regard to Poland, the scenarios no. 2 “Doing less together” and no. 4 “Radical redesign” could be beneficial, but the advantages of the scenario no. 1 “Carrying on” should also be noticed.

6

Strengthening defence research as part of higher military education for future security challenges

80%

Nikolic N.

Security and Defence Quarterly

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2018

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tom Vol. 21, No. 4

58--72

EN

This paper evaluates the potential for defence research to contribute to the long-term development of higher military education. Motivation for the paper emerged from recent organisational changes at the Ministry of Defence by which the Strategic Research Institute (SRI), joined the University of Defence (UoD). Both institutions, SRI and UoD, are obligated and dedicated towards respecting and implementing national strategies, laws and norms related to scientific research and education as well as towards fulfi llment of prescribed accreditation standards for academic education and scientific research. The main idea here is to evaluate a scientific research approach conducted by the SRI, through the lens of the guiding principles for development of academic studies which are declared in the national strategy for education development. A few of the questions we tried to answer were: how relevant are the research topics?; who needs research results?; how should the research process be conducted?; and what about the quality of research results? Development of scientific research connections, higher education and practical needs of the military organisation are very important for all three domains, particularly for future security challenges. Military research organisations, along with the higher education component, have to be capable of perceiving future security challenges, conducting scientific research and offering some proposals based on scientific methodology. However, in the selection of the research topics, they have to respect the views, needs and priorities of other organisational entities which are part of the military organisation.

7

Strengthening defence research as part of higher military education for future security challenges

80%

Nikolic N.

Security and Defence Quarterly

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2018

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tom 21

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nr 4

58-72

EN

This paper evaluates the potential for defence research to contribute to the long-term development of higher military education. Motivation for the paper emerged from recent organisational changes at the Ministry of Defence by which the Strategic Research Institute (SRI), joined the University of Defence (UoD). Both institutions, SRI and UoD, are obligated and dedicated towards respecting and implementing national strategies, laws and norms related to scientific research and education as well as towards fulfi llment of prescribed accreditation standards for academic education and scientific research. The main idea here is to evaluate a scientific research approach conducted by the SRI, through the lens of the guiding principles for development of academic studies which are declared in the national strategy for education development. A few of the questions we tried to answer were: how relevant are the research topics?; who needs research results?; how should the research process be conducted?; and what about the quality of research results? Development of scientific research connections, higher education and practical needs of the military organisation are very important for all three domains, particularly for future security challenges. Military research organisations, along with the higher education component, have to be capable of perceiving future security challenges, conducting scientific research and offering some proposals based on scientific methodology. However, in the selection of the research topics, they have to respect the views, needs and priorities of other organisational entities which are part of the military organisation.

8

Reforma źródeł przychodów jako warunek konieczny przebudowy obecnego modelu opodatkowania dochodów

80%

Kulicki J.

Zeszyty Prawnicze BAS

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2017

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nr 3(55)

9–31

EN

The article is devoted to the reform of the current income taxation model concerning natural and legal persons. It outlines the origin, structure and faults of the system having been in force for almost 30-years, referring to the results of the survey carried out by the Bureau of Research,aimed at protection of transparency and coherence of the Polish tax legislation. The last part of the article presents de lege ferenda postulates relating to the future reform. In the first place it should affect the current catalogue of revenue sources, what will enable the linkage between tax policy and socio-economic changes, the Poland has undergone over the past 25 years.

9

Vives and Comenius – Reformers of European Education: Background and Parallels

80%

Mištinová A.

Acta Comeniana (International review of Comenius studies and early modern intellectual history)

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2007

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tom 20-21

153-165

EN

Vives and Comenius had a significant influence on European thought and education. They set off from very similar starting points and arrived at kindred teachings. Both tried to reform society and both saw the best way to do so in upbringing and education conceived so as to benefit and bring harmony to individuals as well as to humankind as a whole. Their writings – on philosophy, pedagogy, ethics and the ‘universal reform of human affairs’ – appeared in numerous editions and were translated into many languages. The fact that Comenius was familiar with the work of the Spanish Humanist philosopher is evident in the references and citations he makes – particularly in Physicae synopsis, Didactica magna and Methodus lingvarum novissima – to J. L. Vives’ De tradendis disciplinis and Introductio ad sapientiam. A lifelong endeavour to bring about reform is apparent in the work of both learned men. They shared an interest in fostering peace and analysing the causes that bring about violence and war so as to prevent them – all in close relation to ethical and religious questions. Ethical issues and moral education are omnipresent in their work. As regards pedagogical reform, Vives opened new horizons thanks to the psychological foundations of his educational methods and Comenius produced an integrated, highly detailed framework for upbringing and education. He worked out a unified and exhaustive system comprising the subject matter to be taught, the organisation of instruction, schools and teaching methods and procedures. Both reformers emphasised the comprehensive and complex nature of education, which was to be adapted to the age of the student and his or her level of competence. The thought and teachings of both scholars rely on an empirical-rational approach. Vives – a prominent anti-scholastic humanist – stresses the strength of reason and rationality in education, criticising scholastic instruction with its mindless memorising. Comenius does the same, ascribing great significance to joining the sensory experience of things and events with a knowledge of their underpinnings. Both agreed on the need for a direct knowledge of real things on the basis of a student‘s own experience in which reason relies on its perceptions of those things – thus, they both took a stand against verbalism and scholasticism. Truth and certainty in knowledge depend upon the testimony of the senses. Instruction should take the form of illustration and demonstration, not verbal transmission. Educating young people should not entail teaching them words, phrases or assertions, but opening up their comprehensive faculties toward understanding things. The principle of illustration is the basis of knowledge for Vives as it is for Comenius; it is a teaching method, an approach which ensures the comprehensibility and permanence of education. For both reformers, languages – including the mother tongue – are tools for learning about the world, in the service of the real (reales) disciplines which deal with things (res). Vives and Comenius shared foundations, principles and stances with regard to epistemological and educational considerations as well as how they conceive of the world, basic human values, ideas on upbringing and education and principally as regards their efforts to bring about reform.

10

Autothermal Reforming of Diesel Oil for PdCeCrFeCu/Al2O3-Catalyzed Hydrogen Production

80%

Lin L. , Zhang K. , Sun C. , Zhang Y.

Polish Journal of Chemical Technology

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2021

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tom Vol. 23, nr 2

12--19

EN

To make clear the feasibility and influence factors of diesel fuel autothermal reforming to hydrogen, PdCeCr-FeCu/Al2O3 catalyst was prepared by equivalent-volume impregnation method. Experimental facility based on an adiabatic tubular reactor with preheating section was designed and set up, the behaviors of diesel reforming to hydrogen with straight-run diesel as a raw material according to the analysis of the components were studied. Diesel oil reforming over a catalyst for hydrogen production was analyzed using an adiabatic tubular reactor with a preheating section that was designed and built in-house. The operating conditions were optimized. Under the suitable operating conditions, viz., catalyst bed inlet temperature of 700°C, diesel liquid space velocity of 0.24 h–1, water-carbon ratio of 20, and oxygen-carbon ratio of 0.6, the hydrogen yield reached 28.3 (mol/mol).

11

Formy samorządu korporacyjnego w Polsce – dwadzieścia lat doświadczeń państwa demokratycznego

80%

Kmieciak R.

Przegląd Zachodni

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2012

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nr 1(342)

43-68

EN

One of the biggest achievements of the process of the socio-political transformation in Poland is a vast decentralization of the sphere of public power. From the perspective of administrative law, decentralization is understood as a system in which there is a large number of independent centres equipped with public and legal competences and one main centre. Decentralization is therefore a procedure of transferring certain public functions so far restricted to the competence of the central government to groups of citizens organized as corporations. The object of the analysis presented in the article is corporative self-government grounded in the union of persons with obligatory membership. Corporative self-government which exemplifies decentralization is not a one-dimensional notion referring only to territorial relations. An essential role in the system of representing the interests of particular milieus falls to special self-government which is set apart by other criteria. According to this division, within the special self-government we further distinguish trade self-government and economic self-government. The article emphasizes the fact that the success of the Polish self-government reform will be complete only when there is a harmonious development of all the forms of corporative self-government irrespective of the character of bonds between their members. As legal entities, self-governments will then be in the service of democracy and will strengthen the civic society.

12

The Idea of Welfare State vs the Idea of Sustainable Development. The Case for United Kingdom

80%

Omelan G.

Studia Krytyczne/ Critical Studies

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2016

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nr 3

45-53

EN

Within the last decades Great Britain has developed a specific model of welfare state. The “from-cradle-to-grave” model is close to the hearts of Labour Party’s politicians and supporters, on the other hand Conservative Party’s governments have been trying to limit welfare state’s reach since 1979. Cameron’s cabinet introduced a significant reform of the system, depriving many Brits of their benefits and lowering the number of people eligible to claim one. It is advisable to consider if these policies go hand in hand with the idea of sustainable development in the socio-economic context.

13

ТЕНДЕНЦІЇ РЕФОРМУВАННЯ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ: АВСТРАЛІЙСЬКИЙ ДОСВІД

80%

Кобюк Ю.

Педагогічні науки: теорія, історія, інноваційні технології

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2016

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nr 1(55)

390-396

EN

The article analyzes the trends of higher education in Australia. The main factors that influenced the reforming of higher education are determined. The basic stages and directions of modernization are characterized. The basic changes that have been made in the educational system of the country after the reform are revealed. In order to ensure the competitiveness of higher education in the global education market, the country improved organization of the educational system. Today it is a country which occupies a leading position in the world ranking assessing the quality of education. The university education evolved from the formation of a binary system of education to introduce unified national system of higher education that marked improvement of the research universities. One of the major trends in the reform of higher education in Australia is the rate of export of educational services, contributing to the modernization of higher education institutions and higher education throughout the country. It is stressed that the main purpose of Australian higher education institutions is to increase the level of qualifications, support and updating of qualified professionals thanks to the close cooperation of educational institutions with a professional environment. This helps to assess the prospects in the field of education, to improve the performance and availability of services, promotes employment of graduates. Practical training is a vivid example of close cooperation of educational institutions with a professional environment. The analysis of the principles of the higher education reform in Australia allows noting that the subjects have always advocated education reform. Based on the analysis of the principles of higher education reform in Australia, we can talk about their result: high-quality higher education, the formation of a stable, decentralized system of higher education accessible to all citizens of the country on an equal basis. Careful analysis of important documents leads to the conclusion that all the activities of education sector management contributed to the development of higher education in Australia and the consolidation of its position in the global market.

14

Emancypacja w czasach ołowiu. Herbert Marcuse a kwestia przemocy

80%

Pluciński P.

Nowa Krytyka

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2011

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nr 26-27

357–364

EN

The article examines violence as a means of emancipatory action in the thought of Herbert Marcuse. Ambivalent character of the relation between radical social theory and radical action is presented as well as pragmatic justifications for potentially “purifying” function of violence.

15

The Code of the Administrative Procedures according to the Principle of the Power Separation and Balancing in the Central and Local Government Bodies in Albania

80%

Sadushi M. , Shatku S.

Academicus. International Scientific Journal

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2017

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nr 16

133-140

EN

Different authors at different times have given an unequal definition to the term of public administration compared to what it is used today. The author Georges Vestel has defined the public administration as “the set of activities aimed at maintaining the public peace and meeting other needs of the general interest. This definition corresponds to the etymology of the term administration - “administration” which means “to serve”. But Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his work, Social Charter, defined the public administration under the government term. He stated that: “I call a government or a supreme administration the legitimate exercise of the executive power. Some authors use “administrative” and “executive” terms in an alternate way, with the same meaning. Other authors make a clear distinction between terms. They define the state administration as “an activity which is carried out for the concrete fulfilment of the functions of the state and the duties of the organs of the state administration”. So these authors distinguish the state administration from the executive activity which the executive bodies perform. The paper aims to suggest a set of strategies and improvements by starting from a theoretical background of the definition of power balance and separation in public administration and governing bodies and its evolutionary definition over time, and by reflecting those findings as a set of suggestions, by considering the actual Albanian Code of Administrative procedures, strategies and practices.

16

The Labor Market in Romania – Between Structural Reform and Current Adjustment

80%

Pociovălişteanu D.-M.

Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy

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2011

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tom 6

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nr 3

EN

The economic and political changes generated by the reforms after 1990 have had consequences on the labour resources. In such context, there have been several structural and functional changes on various segments of the labor market. However, the instability at the level of this market can be also seen as a result of the impact of the global crisis on Romania’s economy. The negative demographic tendencies had direct consequences on the labor market, such as the lowering of the percentage of employed population following the small birth rate, high general and infant mortality rate, the deterioration of the population’s biological potential of, the decreased life expectancy rate, ageing population, especially in the rural environment, a high rural-urban migration as a result of the necessity for survival, as well as the intensification of the qualified workforce migration from our country. The purpose of this paper is to highlight some policy measure to counter the disfunctions existing on the labor market in our country.

17

Organization of police activities

80%

Kochańczyk R.

Internal Security

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2019

|

tom Special Issue

123-131

EN

Police tasks have not changed for years and mainly consist in ensuring order and security for citizens. However, the police function as an organization in a certain legal order, it is subject to certain rules that determine its effective operation. Since 1989, that is from the political and social transformation in the functioning of the Polish Police has started in our country, two periods could be distinguished in which it was forced to make organizational changes. The first such moment came with the political transformation when Poland was entering the path of the democratic system. It was not an easy period because the mere change in legislation was not enough. It is worth mentioning that young Polish democracy was struggling with many negative factors, mainly inherited from the previous political system, e.g. the state of the economy, and inflation. From the perspective of the police 30 years of operation, based on statistical data, it can be concluded that the period directly related to political transformation was conducive to negative social phenomena such as crime, social pathologies or the lack of appropriate legal regulations in the new economic conditions. In 1990, the Polish Police leadership faced a lot of work to be done to ensure that the newly formed formation was not identified with the previous system as well as the role it played in the communist system. The second such event forcing a change in the organization of the police activities was January 1, 1999, when the administrative reform of the country entered into force. A difficult task was set up before the formation. After less than 9 years of functioning in the new reality, the then management was faced with adapting the organization to the situation related to, among other things, the new administrative division, transfer of many tasks and competences previously reserved for the central level to the level of local governments, or intensification of efforts to build civic self-governance at all levels of government. The following article presents issues related to police tasks, powers of the Police Commander-in-Chief, and police structures operating in the period in question

18

An unfinished project or the dispute over the reform of higher education continued

80%

Cyrul W. , Stelmach J.

Krytyka Prawa. Niezależne studia nad prawem

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2018

|

tom 10

|

nr 2

83-95

EN

This text is a contribution to the discussion on the reform of higher education in Poland. By referring to selected examples, it shows that the planned changes are based on several fundamental myths resulting from the inefficiency of earlier attempts to heal the university system. At the same time, it aims to show why it is necessary to abandon the belief that higher education can be reformed quickly, with little financial outlays, and that the results of the implemented changes can be instant. The text offers also a criticism of the view assuming that the expected changes can be arrived at only through a reform of the law, and that it is possible to transplant solutions functioning in other countries directly to Poland. The presented considerations oppose the position according to which there exist some ideal models of education and research, whose implementation can make it possible to “breed” an ideal scholar. Arguing that education and academic success will always be an outcome of many variables, a critical analysis of selected solutions included in the law on science and higher education has been offered as well.

19

Szkoła na miarę czasów… tylko których? – o reformie szkolnictwa z 2017 roku

71%

Błaszczyk K.

Polonistyka. Innowacje

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2020

|

nr 12

93-108

EN

The subject of this article is an analysis of the 2017 education reform and assessing whether this reform addresses the needs of the modern student. The problems of the education sector are discussed in the report from the last edition of the PISA survey and the results of own research. The quoted data presents the student’s perspective on the functioning of schools and on the enrollment in the core curriculum for the Polish language. The article also contains a summary of characteristic elements of the previous education reforms (with particular emphasis on the Jędrzejewicz reform). This review Allowi to assess the level of innovation of recent changes and the validity of duplicating previous solutions. The analysis of the current core curriculum is the starting point for determining the current direction of educational policy. Thanks to this, it is possible to estimate how much the reformers’ proposals are able to stop the problems of the modern school and to what extent they can become a source of further difficulties.

PL

Artykuł poświęcony jest analizie reformy szkolnictwa z 2017 roku pod kątem jej przystawalności do potrzeb współczesnego ucznia. W celu nakreślenia trudności, z jakimi zmaga się sektor edukacji, wykorzystano raport z ostatniej edycji badania PISA oraz wyniki własnej próby badawczej. Przytoczone dane prezentują spojrzenie uczniów na funkcjonowanie ich szkół oraz podstawę programową z języka polskiego. Tekst zawiera również zestawienie charakterystycznych elementów poprzednich reform (przede wszystkim reformy Jędrzejewiczowskiej). Przegląd ten umożliwia ocenę poziomu nowatorstwa ostatnich zmian oraz zasadności powielania wcześniejszych rozwiązań, a analiza obecnej podstawy programowej staje się punktem wyjścia do nakreślenia bieżącego kierunku polityki oświatowej. To w dalszej kolejności pozwala oszacować, jak bardzo propozycje reformatorów są w stanie zahamować aktualne problemy, w jakim stopniu zaś mogą stać się źródłem kolejnych.

20

Przyszłość samorządu po 25 latach

71%

Dziekoński O.

Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny

|

2015

|

tom 77

|

nr 3

17-22

EN

In 2015 we celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first free local elections to self-governing bodies. Those elections activated local citizens initiatives and greatly contributed to the transformation in our social awareness, leading to real change in Poland’s political regime. The underlying rationale of free local elections, however, was the package of laws adopted on 8 March 1990 which created real self-government, enabled the elections to commune and municipality councils of 27 May 1990 and introduced a new dynamic to the process of the decentralisation of the state. Changes are always the result of dreams and our ability to realise them. It is possible to make them if there exist organisational structures and institutions which allow such changes to be made. The need for political transformation had long been felt and deliberated on by those involved in spatial development or and for whom the state monopoly status quo was unacceptable. To quote the late and much missed Professor Jerzy Regulski, the implementation of self-governance was departure from the monopoly of central government, which in turn meant an actual change in the political regime. The reform of 1990 broke up five monopolies of an authoritarian state which had existed in Poland since the end of the World War II: the political monopoly of one party, of centralised power, of uniform state ownership, of public finances and the state budget, and of the uniform public administration of the state. However, it must always be remembered that the possibility of realising dreams of a change in the nature of the state was shaped in the first triumphant stage of the Solidarity period in 1989, and later became a stable basis for the future in the resolution of the First National Congress of Solidarity Delegates and in the ‘Samorządna Rzeczpospolita’ (A Self-governing Republic) document. The success of the real change of 1990 was rooted in the long term determination and persistence of those whose personal experiences were involved in the quest for rationality in land management. Both Professor Jerzy Regulski and Professor Michał Kulesza drew their inspiration to change the political regime from the need to ensure that society worked in a way that would allow the local needs and initiatives be articulated, and inhabitants having the ability to take concrete decisions about the surrounding environment. In this way, the existing possibility of active involvement in local initiatives, incapable of being realised in the former political system, would become a reality and the citizens would be able to make collective decisions about their local area. This would also give a chance to oppose formally the investment logic resulting from the central planning of those times. The analytic work aimed at the transformation of the political regime that Professor Regulski started in the 1970s during his employment at the University of Lodz were subsequently continued at the Economic Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences and led to the formation of a group of individuals for whom self-governance became a core value of the new regime and a way of looking at the modern state. The change that took place in 1990 was the beginning of the building of a de-centralised, modern state, the status of which was subsequently confirmed when Poland adopted the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the European Charter of Local Self-Government. Self-government is never an institution whose constitution is ever finished. This was shown during the reform carried out by Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek’s government, which continued the break-up of the monopoly of power and implemented subsidiarity principles at the regional level enabling them to exercise powers locally, in newly created districts (powiat), as well as in the later legislative changes pertaining to the regulations governing the election of mayors (wójt or burmistrz) or the work of the Komisja Wspólna Rządu i Samorządu (Joint Committee of the Government and Self-Government). Today, after 25 years of our experience with self-government, we are much more aware of the changes needed in the self-governing system. They include the strengthening of actual independence of self-government achieved through the ensured free choice of the manner in which self-government bodies will carry out their tasks, guaranteed revenues and the possibility given to commune and municipality authorities of exercising real influence on their size, improved cooperation between communes and municipalities (gmina) and districts (powiat), and, fore and foremost, by ensuring all citizens a chance of co-decision on matters which directly affect them. Changes in the regime of self-governance are a consequence of its assessment by external, independent experts but are also motivated by the natural dynamics of the changes resulting from the very essence of self-governance and its institutions, communes and municipalities (gmina), districts (powiat) and regions (voivodships). In 2010 associations of self-governing units realised the need for change and amendments to the law on self-governance. Thus, they formulated a number of proposals which were included in a document called ‘Requests to the President of the Republic of Poland to commence work on the white book of territorial self-government in the year of the 20th anniversary.’ This document initiated work on a draft law which in 2013 became the subject of a legislative initiative put forward by President Bronisław Komorowski. The purpose of the new law on the collaboration of self-governing bodies in local and regional development is to strengthen the role of the citizen as well as the community in the work of self-government in Poland. The effort that Professors Jerzy Regulski and Michał Kulesza in their capacity as Advisors to President Komorowski put into the legislative work remains invaluable. It is believed that the involvement of individual citizens constitutes the strength of self-government and is a guarantee of its role at the service and in the interest of communities, individual inhabitants and businesses. Hence the need for enhanced collaboration and the partnership of different bodies of self-government and the increased involvement of citizens. There is draft law that contains regulations supporting these activities. Under the draft law, a local referendum is seen as an important tool to ensure the participation of citizens in decision-making processes, including those concerning local development plans. Local referenda should constitute a mechanism used to solve local issues of material importance to residents. Their result should be binding regardless of the turnout. Self-governance helps to create and strengthen the natural inclination of individuals to act together in areas where because of their social, business or cultural ties, a local community spirit develops. In today’s world of global challenges and competition, we are looking for a space for the individual which provides a feeling of security. Another important value of self-governance is the possibility of creating affiliations with a community as well as individual entrepreneurship, social activity and a regard for the collective memory of the symbols of a place. The ability to participate in community life is inseparable from the functioning of democracy at a local level, with the consultation process, election of public officers, or participation in referenda. Self-governance is a special value which gives each of us a chance to exercise a real influence on local matters. It therefore occupies a very special place where politics has a personal dimension. The variety of self-governance means at the same time a variety of development policies since there are different communities, with different emotions, different experiences or ability to participate in democratic management. This variety is a special asset in the process of the stabilisation of the state as a whole. The diversity of opinions and experiences, appointments to public office of citizens not affiliated to or necessarily recommended by any party creates the solid foundations of a democratic state. This feeling of freedom within self-governing communities must be continued and promoted. The authors of many of the texts published in this issue of Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny devoted to self-governance are, at the same time, authors of the transformation of Polish law and Poland’s administration in the last 25 years. Contributions submitted by, among others, Prof. dr hab. Irena Lipowicz, Prof. Jerzy Stępień, Prof. dr hab. Jerzy Buzek, Prof. dr hab. Leon Kieres or Prof. dr hab. Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz are the best proof of the capital importance that self-governance plays in a democratic state. I thank Professor Teresa Rabska and the editorial staff of Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny for their active involvement in questions of self-government from the very beginning. This issue is entirely devoted to a range of legal, economic and sociological aspects of new challenges facing self-government and its regime. Once again I thank them for such active involvement and participation in the jubilee celebrations of Self-Government and this special issue of the journal. We need self-governance not only to feel that we can influence decisions being made about local issues but also to be continually able to renew our confidence in institutions at a local level, and through their collaboration at the national level.