Celem podjętej analizy było stwierdzenie, czy i w jaki sposób ustawowe regulacje doty-czące równego statusu kobiet i mężczyzn, zawarte w Kodeksie wyborczym, uchwalonym przez parlament 5 stycznia 2011 r., wspierają udział kobiet w sferze publicznej na poziomie lokalnym. Zbadano, jak kształtowała się reprezentacja kandydujących i wybranych do or-ganów stanowiących samorządu terytorialnego w okręgu nr 9, w zależności od obowią-zującego sytemu wyborczego (proporcjonalnego i większościowego). Analiza dotyczyła obecności kandydatów-mężczyzn i kandydatów-kobiet na listach wyborczych oraz licz-by uzyskanych przez obie płci mandatów na poziomie gmin, powiatów i województwa. Na jej podstawie dowiedziono, że wyrównywaniu szans wyraźnie sprzyja system pro-porcjonalny, ale tylko na etapie partycypacji kobiet na listach wyborczych. Porównując odsetki uzyskanych mandatów zauważono, że więcej miejsc w organach stanowiących kobiety zajęły tam, gdzie obowiązuje reguła większościowa, tj. w radach gmin (za wyłą-czeniem miast na prawach powiatu).
EN
The aim of the analysis that was conducted was to state whether and to what degree legal regulations on equal status of men and women, included in the electoral code and passed by the Sejm on 5 January 2011, support women in their participation in the public sphere on a local level. We did research into how the representation of candidates and the elect-ed to the organs of the local self-government in a constituency no. 9 was formed, which depended on the current electoral system (proportional and majority electoral system). The analysis concerned the presence of men and women candidates on the electoral list and the number of mandates won by both genders on the level of districts, counties and provinces. On its basis, it was proved that the proportional electoral system clearly sup-ports equal opportunities but only at the stage of women’s participation on electoral lists. Comparing the percentage of mandates won, we noticed that women occupied more po-sitions in organs where the majority electoral system is applied, that is, in district coun-cils (excluding town and cities with county rights).
On 19 January 1947, an election to Sejm Ustawodawczy (Constitutent Assembly) of the Polish Republic took place, during which Polska Partia Socjalistyczna (PPS – Polish Socialist Party) formed the most numerous parliamentarian club, counting 116 deputies. Despite its being subordinated to Polska Partia Robotnicza (PPR – Polish Worker Party), the Socialist party tried to pursue ideals and values typical of the Polish socialist movement, emphasizing political, economic and social pluralism as well as civic rights and liberties. This was for instance evidenced by the socialist’ involvement in the drafting of Mała Konstytucja (Small Constitution), whereby they constantly stressed the importance of postulates such as the rule of law, decentralization of power and expansion of the cooperative movement as well as their work during the preparation of a draft of „Deklaracja praw i wolności obywatelskich” (Declaration of Civic Rights and Liberties). The proposed legal-institutional arrangements were to be based on harmonious collaboration of particular organs of authority: Senate and Sejm, President, State Council, Council of Ministers and Supreme Chamber of Audit (Najwyższa Izba Kontroli). The socialists considered worthy of popular support the strenghtening of the role of the Parliament, introducing the principle of election of members to the State Council, having a strong Cabinet, extending opportunities for the development of selfgovernment as well as increasing the autonomy of the judiciary. Those proposals were strictly related – within the PPS conception of parliamentarian democracy – to the necessity of triggering social-economic transformation in the country, achieving an increase in the level of its wealth and in the level of intellectual development of society. In other words, in the framework of popular democracy, the socialists aimed at social justice. However, during that Sejm term, their vision was gradually erased from the communist programmme and its political practice. The year of 1948 became a threshold opening a period of changes in the shaping of the model of political and economic regime in the country and the methods by means of which socialism was to be built. Events such as the ultimate suppression of so called rightist-nationalist leaning and the unification of PPR and PPS led to a rejection of the socialist conceptions, evaluated as incongruent with PZPR models.
The right to education for persons with disabilities results from the constitutional principle of universal and equal access to education, however, it frequently encounters difficulties in implementation. This issue is particularly important not only from the point of view of Polish law but also due to international guarantees of universal access to education and activities aimed at the elimination of all forms of discrimination. They were included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on Human Rights. European standards in this respect are set, first of all, by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, EU regulations and directives, as well as by the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Moreover, the issue of the universal and equal right to education was also raised in the documents of the Council of Europe: the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Social Charter, judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, and decisions of the European Committee of Social Rights.
PL
Realizacja prawa do edukacji przez osoby z niepełnosprawnościami, choć wynika z konstytucyjnej zasady powszechnego i równego dostępu do wykształcenia, w praktyce niejednokrotnie napotyka na trudności w realizacji. To zagadnienie szczególnie istotne nie tylko z punktu widzenia prawa polskiego, ale również z uwagi na międzynarodowe gwarancje powszechnego dostępu do kształcenia oraz działania zmierzające do eliminacji wszelkich przejawów dyskryminacji. Zostały one zawarte w Powszechnej Deklaracji Praw Człowieka, Międzynarodowym Pakcie Praw Ekonomicznych, Socjalnych i Kulturalnych oraz Konwencji o Prawach Człowieka. Europejskie standardy w tym zakresie ustanawiają przede wszystkim Karta Praw Podstawowych Unii Europejskiej, rozporządzenia i dyrektywy unijne, a także orzecznictwo Trybunału Sprawiedliwości Unii Europejskiej. Ponadto kwestię powszechnego i równego prawa do wykształcenia podjęto również w dokumentach Rady Europy: Europejskiej konwencji praw człowieka i Europejskiej karcie społecznej, orzeczeniach Europejskiego Trybunału Praw Człowieka oraz decyzjach Europejskiego Komitetu Praw Społecznych.
The aim of the above-mentioned analysis was a statement whether and how legal acts concerning gender equality, written in Electoral code (adopted by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland on 5th January 2011), support women in the political sphere. In the first part of the article the origins of the introduction of quota solutions in Poland are outlined and their full text is presented. The next part of the article shows the influence of the adopted regulations on the results of the 2011 elections to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland and the European Parliament. The summary presents the most important conclusions. The article also proves the thesis that the quota system led to a significant growth in the number of women standing as a candidate in elections. However, it failed to have such an impact on the number of women elected to representative bodies. It led to the conclusion that despite the legal validation of electoral quotas, there are many factors which can increase women’s political subjectivity, e.g. a place given on electoral register or their electoral constituency. This situation explains the purpose of the supplementing of the quota mecha-nism by a zipping system, which means the alternate order of women and men can-didates on electoral list and makes it difficult to fill compulsory quotas with a signif-icant number of women in an electoral constituency in which a given party has in-sufficient support.
Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, called “reborn” by its supporters, and “licensed” or “false” by its antagonists, was created on 10th–11th September 1944, during a socialists’ conference held in Lublin (so-called 15th Congress of the PSP). The power elite in the party was made up of 57 people in total. It was a circle dominated by well educated men, mostly young and middle-aged, most of whom had been bound up with the party since the 1920s and 30s. On average, every second one of them was in the occupied country between 1939 and 1945, and only every eighth in the Soviet Union. Despite this, one should not underestimate the influence of the so-called “natives” in the PSP elite, since they were functioning within two, ideologically different, streants of Polish socialism. That was why they found it relatively easy to sever links with their socialist past and made their way into the ranks of the newly created Communist authorities.
The paper discusses participatory budgeting as one of the institutions of direct democracy and a form of co-decision of residents in the process of spending public funds at the disposal of local government units. Its essence is the activation of citizens, building trust and cooperation between the authorities and the inhabitants, as well as the implementation of the principles of equality and social justice. The significance of the participatory budgeting as a new form of influence on the decisions of the local government apparatus is not so much about ensuring citizens participation in managing public finances as it is primarily about education and increasing public awareness in the area of democratization of local government. The participatory budgeting in Poland was considered in the view of models of democracy: direct, representative (conventional) and participatory.
PL
Celem artykułu jest prezentacja budżetu obywatelskiego, jako jednej z instytucji demokracji bezpośredniej i instrumentu współdecydowania mieszkańców w procesie wydatkowania środków publicznych, znajdujących się w dyspozycji jednostek samorządu terytorialnego. Jego istotą jest aktywizacja obywateli, budowanie zaufania i współpracy władz z mieszkańcami oraz realizacja zasad równości i sprawiedliwości społecznej. Znaczenie budżetu partycypacyjnego, jako nowej formy wpływu na decyzje aparatu samorządowego, polega bowiem nie tyle na zapewnieniu obywatelom udziału w dysponowaniu finansami publicznymi, co przede wszystkim na edukacji i zwiększaniu świadomości publicznej w obszarze demokratyzacji rządów na poziomie lokalnym. W zakresie omawianej problematyki przeprowadzono rozważania na temat modeli demokracji: bezpośredniej, przedstawicielskiej (konwencjonalnej) oraz partycypacyjnej (uczestniczącej), lokując na ich tle implementację budżetu partycypacyjnego w Polsce.
Celem przeprowadzonych badań było ustalenie, w jaki sposób polskie partie polityczne obecne w Sejmie VII kadencji, wybranym 9 października 2011 r., realizowały konstytucyjną zasadę równości obywateli. Analiza dotyczyła zarówno deklaratywnej sfery programowej, jak i obszaru praktyki politycznej. W pierwszej części dociekań skoncentrowano się na treści programów wyborczych poszczególnych ugrupowań, przedstawionych przed wyborami parlamentarnymi w 2011 r., w oparciu o które wskazano, w jakim stopniu oraz zakresie partie koncentrowały się na problematyce kobiecej. W drugiej części badań deklaracje ideowe zestawiono z faktycznymi działaniami poszczególnych ugrupowań. Przeprowadzono weryfikację list wyborczych ugrupowań, które wprowadziły swoich kandydatów do parlamentu pod kątem obecności na nich kobiet.
EN
The aim of this research was to define how Polish political parties in parliament seventh term of office (date of election: 9 th October 2011) realized constitutional principle of equality of citizens. The analysis was concerned not only on declarative programme sphere but also on the area of political practice. The first part of the study was focused on platforms of particular politic parties which were announced before elections to the parliament in 2011. On the basis of those party platforms, the research showed to what degree and area political parties was revolved around women’s issues. The second part of the study provided a comparison of ideological declaration and real activities of particular political parties. There was also a verification of electoral register groups, which candidates entered the parliament taking into consideration the presence of women.