An anti-establishment backlash that shook up the party system? The October 2015 Polish parliamentary election

The October 2015 Polish parliamentary election saw the stunning victory of the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party which became the first in post-communist Poland to secure an outright parliamentary majority, and equally comprehensive defeat of the incumbent centrist Civic Platform. In addition to the fact that the outgoing ruling party could no longer rely on invoking the ‘politics of fear’, the main factor accounting for this was widespread disillusionment with the country’s ruling elite. The election also saw the broad ‘post-transition’ socio-demographic and ideological divide and Law and Justice-Civic Platform duopoly continuing to dominate party competition. However, there were some indications of greater party system fluidity and question marks over who would emerge as the main representative of the anti-Law and Justice side of this divide

Sociological Vacuum and Democracy – Empirical Analyses

This article discusses a classical Stefan Nowak's hypothesis of sociological vacuum. The main objective is to test the hypothesis that sociological vacuum is dysfunctional for democracy; The author aims to answer the question whether a democratic system can function properly in a society experiencing sociological vacuum. Analyses show that sociological vacuum is not unique for Poland - societies under scrutiny differ significantly in terms of group identities and their variance. This variance, however, is not related to the quality of democracy; among successful democratic systems there are both countries of large and small sociological vacuum. This implies that democracy can function properly also in countries where group identities are weak. Thus the main conclusion of the article is that deficiencies and imperfections of democracy, also in Poland, are due to other than sociological vacuum causes.Tematem pracy jest klasyczna hipoteza Stefana Nowaka o próżni socjologicznej. Celem artykułu jest weryfikacja hipotezy o dysfunkcjonalności zjawiska próżni wobec demokracji; test empiryczny ma dać odpowiedź na pytanie, czy ustrój demokratyczny może właściwie funkcjonować w społeczeństwie dotkniętym próżnią socjologiczną. Przeprowadzone analizy przekonują, że próżnia socjologiczna nie jest zjawiskiem unikatowym, wyjątkowym dla Polski – badane społeczeństwa różnią się zasadniczo pod względem poziomu tożsamości grupowych i ich rozproszenia. To zróżnicowanie pozostaje jednak bez związku z jakością demokracji: wśród krajów cieszących się efektywnym ustrojem demokratycznym są zarówno takie, w których próżnia socjologiczne jest mała, jak i takie, w których jest ona duża. Skłania to do wniosku, że udana, efektywnie działająca wspólnota demokratyczna może też istnieć w społeczeństwie, w którym tożsamości grupowe są słabe. Głównym wnioskiem artykułu jest wobec tego twierdzenie, że ułomności i wady ustroju demokratycznego, także w Polsce, wynikają z innych niż istnienie próżni socjologicznej przyczyn

An approximate method for estimation of fluid motion in a lake containing islands

The physical phenomenon considered in the paper deals with flow in a lake, which contains one or several islands. The flow is generated by rivers, their inlets and outlets being distributed on the shoreline of the lake. The problem to be solved consists in determination of the velocity field - in the domain bounded by the shorelines of the lake and the islands. In fact, it is attempted to arrive solely at an estimation of the field. Consequently, a rather simple physical model of the phenomenon, as well as its simple mathematical description has been applied. In particular, plane, irrotational and steady flow of ideal liquid has been introduced, the inlets and outlets of the rivers being simulated by sources and sinks. Hence, the problem reduces to determination of a complex function, representing the complex velocity field, which satisfies the impermeability condition on all contours representing the shorelines, the field being generated by the singularities already mentioned. Unfortunately, the so formulated problem is "overconditioned" or "too stiff", what means that the impermeability condition on the outer contour cannot be satisfied. Nevertheless, we arrived at a simple method for circumventing this obstacle, the payoff consisting in some modification of this contour. We had this particular modification in mind, applying the word "approximate" in the title of the paper. The paper contains results - in the form of streamline patterns - for lakes containing from 1 to 3 islands. In the relevant figures the distances between the given and the modified exterior contours can be seen distinctly - allowing the reader to draw conclusions, whether the errors due to the modifications are admissible or not. Of course, it depends anyway on the point of view of the user of the results

This time it’s different? Effects of the Eurovision Debate on young citizens and its consequence for EU democracy:Evidence from a quasi-experiment in 24 countries

For the very first time in EU history, the 2014 EP elections provided citizens with the opportunity to influence the nomination of the Commission President by casting a vote for the main Europartiesâ âlead candidatesâ. By subjecting the position of the Commission President to an open political contest, many experts have formulated the expectation that heightened political competition would strengthen the weak electoral connection between EU citizens and EU legislators, which some consider a root cause for the EUâs lack of public support. In particular, this contest was on display in the so-called âEurovision Debateâ, a televised debate between the main contenders for the Commission President broadcasted live across Europe. Drawing on a quasi-experimental study conducted in 24 EU countries, we find that debate exposure led to increased cognitive and political involvement and EU support among young citizens. Unfortunately, the debate has only reached a very small audience