Artykuł dotyczy postaw Polaków wobec demokracji – jej normatywnych wizji i ocen funkcjonowania. Czterolecie 2015–2019 to szczególny okres polskiej demokracji, przez kompetentnych obserwatorów krytycznie traktowany z różnych powodów. Z tego względu praca ma charakter głównie eksploracyjny. Postawiono trzy pytania badawcze: (1) czy determinanty normatywnych wizji demokracji i ocen jej funkcjonowania zmieniły się w omawianym okresie; (2) Jak różne „klasy” demokratów współwystępują z podziałami politycznymi i zróżnicowaniem społecznym; (3) Jaki jest zakres akceptacji autorytarnych wizji demokracji w świadomości Polaków. Wyniki wskazują z jednej strony na identyczny stosunek do ideału demokracji i ogólną ocenę jej funkcjonowania w latach 2015–2019, a zarazem na znaczne różnice w jej determinantach. Miejscami są one oczekiwane i logiczne, bywają też zaskakujące. Obecny poziom satysfakcji z demokracji w znacznej mierze przypisać można właśnie postawom i ocenom, które albo nie odnoszą się do demokracji (‛fałszywa świadomość’), albo są wynikiem entuzjastycznego uniesienia związanego z identyfikacją polityczną badanych.

Artykuł rozpoczyna się od rekonstrukcji dyskursu o kryzysie demokracji i reakcji wywoływanych przez ten rodzaj narracji. Następnie omówiono ideę protestu miejskiego, wskazując na dwoiste oblicze obywateli miasta i ambiwalentne reakcje miast na zjawisko dekapilaryzacji władzy. Aby ukazać złożoność i różnorodność opisywanego zagadnienia, autor przywołuje przykłady miejskiego populizmu i reakcji na to zjawisko (między innymi w miastach Polski, Kanady, Włoch, Holandii, Niemiec). Autor w tekście wskazuje, że odpowiedź miast na populizm i kryzys demokracji wzmacnia lub osłabia tendencje autorytarne, zarówno w przypadku działań instytucjonalnych (związanych z tworzeniem i realizacją lokalnej polityki), jak i pozainstytucjonalnych (związanych ze sferą aktywizmu mieszkańców).

The article presents a particular mechanism of political decision making in contemporary democratic systems. It is called here ‘ad hoc democracy’. This notion refers to the phenomenon of making political decisions (that are general and abstract) on the basis of premises that are individual and situational. After defining ad hoc democracy, the author reconstructs a typical scenario of the phenomenon, demonstrates selected examples of ad hoc democracy and discusses its main consequences. The analysis of ad hoc democracy construction process follows. The main cause of ad hoc democracy is defined as the interference of internally inconsistent logic of actions taken by three types of actors in political sphere: media, society (treated as an audience) and political decision-makers. In the last part of the article it is hypothesized that the systems experiencing rapid social changes and democratization processes are particularly prone to the emergence of ad hoc democracy. The hypothesis is justifi ed and substantiated by referring to an example of Poland during the systemic transformation process.

The author supports the claim that attempts to formulate a universal definition of the term “populism” are not worthwhile, because the sense of the term is usually determined by a specific social context. Understanding the utopian nature of populism provides a better understanding of the utopian nature of democracy and allows for a humble departure from dreams of a perfect social order, because, as has been shown in numerous survey studies, the contemporary shift of social mood, attitudes, and opinions toward some version of populism is a relatively simple consequence of the deficiencies of democracy in its neoliberal version.

O znaczeniu prawdy, roli fikcji i skutkach życia w kulturze nadmiaru oraz o kryzysie demokracji mówi prof. dr hab. Stanisław Filipowicz, wiceprezes Polskiej Akademii Nauk.

Realised since the 1980’s, the project of the “city rebuilding” presupposes an environmental turn in city reform programmes and policies. & e purpose of this article is to demonstrate, how the agenda of the Country’s City Politics is being inspired by, and assimilates, the ideas of “being together” that have been worked out by city (social) movements. The society has come to be perceived as a source of “innovation”, or as possessing a certain, so far neglected, potential of development. In the governmental agendas, the ideals and claims of the social movements are operationalised” in such a way, as to identify society as a new resource of economic growth. The assimilation of the claims and ideals of the city movements into the governmental agendas becomes part of a new political rationality.

The Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Technical Sciences (Bull.Pol. Ac.: Tech.) is published bimonthly by the Division IV Engineering Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, since the beginning of the existence of the PAS in 1952. The journal is peer‐reviewed and is published both in printed and electronic form. It is established for the publication of original high quality papers from multidisciplinary Engineering sciences with the following topics preferred: Artificial and Computational Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Civil Engineering, Control, Informatics and Robotics, Electronics, Telecommunication and Optoelectronics, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Material Science and Nanotechnology, Power Systems and Power Electronics.

Journal Metrics: JCR Impact Factor 2018: 1.361, 5 Year Impact Factor: 1.323, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) 2017: 0.319, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) 2017: 1.005, CiteScore 2017: 1.27, The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education 2017: 25 points.

Abbreviations/Acronym: Journal citation: Bull. Pol. Ac.: Tech., ISO: Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci.-Tech. Sci., JCR Abbrev: B POL ACAD SCI-TECH Acronym in the Editorial System: BPASTS.

This article presents a profile of the satirical weekly Szopka (A Puppet Show) published in Warsaw between 1922 and 1925 under the auspices of the National Democracy (ND). Committed to a nationalist ideology, Szopka published cartoons and satirical texts lampooning the alleged enemies of Poland and the Poles. Its favoured technique was to caricature and ridicule its targets, both individuals and institutions. Among them were Józef Piłsudski, his policies and his political associates, the Bolsheviks, the Germans and the Jews. To propagate their nationalist worldview the editors made use of a broad range of persuasion techniques.

Urban social movements present themselves as an answer to de3 ciencies of local politics. In this way, they situate themselves in agreement with popular diagnoses of crisis of democracy, and propose their own model of involvement in politics. However, is this model a chance for renewal of democracy, or is it just another version of politics understood as an enlightened management? Does it have the potential for broadening the political, or does it stop halfway? Presented article is an attempt in rethinking those questions. First part compares different political languages, in which critiques of contemporary democracy are formulated. Subsequently, Jacques Rancière’s conception is presented, as emphasising egalitarian and emancipatory dimensions of democracy. Examples of rhetorics and actions of urban social movements are considered in this double context of different political languages and radical character of democracy. The problem of ‘deficient political articulation’, which makes urban social movements unable to fully keep the promises they make, is stressed.

The goal of this paper is to discuss changes implemented in Danish early childhood education influenced by neoliberal ideology, and views concerning the new requirements for teachers (pedagogues) at private and self-owned kindergartens. The paper describes the historical tradition of Danish kindergartens based on children’s free play and democracy, allowing children to develop social skills and cognition through exploration and discovery, and giving practitioners a great deal of autonomy. The new trend in Danish early childhood education is towards detailed planning of work and accountability-based-assessment, which contradicts the traditional philosophy. It pushes teachers to create programs that develop children’s readiness for school and to implement teaching methods based on educational standards mandated by the government. The results of this research project, based on interviews conducted with teachers and educational experts, demonstrates the educators’ criticism of this new approach and their attempts to save democracy as a central value in education

The paper discusses political philosophy of Bogusław Wolniewicz. The leading idea of his general philosophy was rationalism of a specific type that he called ‘tychistic’ (meaning ‘based on fate’), or ‘transcendental’ (meaning ‘transgressing the limits of nature by reliance on human reason’). This self-description presents Wolniewicz as an author respecting his Christian background, though personally he did not espouse the complete body of precepts postulated by the Church. As a nonconfessional catholic he spoke in favor of Christian civilization which he identified with Western culture. This led him to the reject of liberalism, libertarianism and leftist ideologies. He wanted to be perceived as a democrat who supported civil and republican democracy based on the virtue of patriotism. He emphasized the essentiality of the possession of its own political state by each independent nation, and the most important circle of loyalty was for him a national community. Thus he undertook to defend a conception of cautious xenophobia that was expurgated of hate but dedicated to the defense of a national territory.