In the first half of 2001 the US Department of State, following a request from the National Security Archive (a US non-governmental organisation), declassified documents relating to the Round Table negotiations, the presidential elections, the crisis over choice of a prime minister and the creation of government (coalition) in Poland in 1989. Those documents, highly confidential until their release, allow us to look at the most important events in the transformation in Poland from a different perspective, which has not yet been extensively analysed. In essence, they indicate the role of external factors which have influenced the political situation of Poland – the transformation and actual decomposition of communism. They include cables detailing the US embassy’s participation in, and its analysis of the events during Poland’s ‘revolution’.

The fast-growing Latino community in the United States became one of the most influential voting groups of this decade. The article shows how President Obama used the endorsement of Hispanic celebrities through viral videos and fundraisers to win among this community, while acknowledging and comparing this case to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016, during which he could not count on the celebrities of Latin descent. The article tries to answer the question whether Hollywood can or cannot influence the ethnic voting groups and why this way of canvassing is only possible for the Democratic Party.

Głównym celem tego artykułu jest wyjaśnienie, na czym polega specyfika instytucji wymogu uzyskania terytorialnego rozłożenia głosów w wyborach prezydenckich, istniejącego w: Nigerii od 1979 r., Kenii od 1992 r. i Indonezji od 2001 r., oraz określenie panujących w tych państwach warunków politycznych, które przyczyniły się do jej wprowadzenia i trwania. W końcowej części artykułu, dzięki porównaniu wszystkich trzech kazusów, wskazane zostaną szczegółowe różnice występujące obecnie między nimi. W artykule zostaną również zaprezentowane wnioski dotyczące dotychczasowych doświadczeń związanych z funkcjonowaniem przedmiotowej instytucji. Pozwolą one wstępnie ocenić, czy uprawnione jest stwierdzenie, że jej zastosowanie wpływa na obniżenie znaczenia konfliktowych zachowań w relacjach między grupami etnicznymi i na budowanie międzyetnicznej akomodacji w wymienionych państwach.

The paper deals with specific links between presidential and parliamentary elections in contemporary France. The main goal is to demonstrate that the timing of the two types of political events is a significant factor preserving the configuration of a pro-presidential majority fact as one of the possible variants of French semi-presidentialism. This raises the question of the role of both elections as instruments for controlling the process of setting up a space of political rivalry that could be perceived as optimal from the viewpoint of ruling camps. The author analyses possibilities to provide the convergence of presidential and parliamentary elections under the conditions of a seven-year presidential term as well as after its shortening to five years in 2000. Hence, of particular importance is the impact of some mechanisms used in this field on the institutional logic of the French political system. Specific application of constitutional tools and some normative changes introduced in previous years cause the extent of the aforementioned control to be now much greater than in the first decades of the Fifth Republic. Looking at the convergence of both types of elections from the perspective of the evolution of the existing political system, the author argues that it is legitimate to divide the whole period of the Fifth Republic into three sub-periods: 1. the absence of electoral convergence (1958–1981); 2. partial electoral convergence (1981– –2002); full electoral convergence (since 2002). Due to the acceptance of the pro-presidential paradigm, the latter formula is now definitely preferred and supported by legal regulations, which affects the flexibility of French semi-presidentialism (significantly reduced, but not fully eliminated, probability of cohabitation).

PROJECTS OF REFORMS OF THE AMERICAN ELECTORAL SYSTEM AT THE FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL LEVEL

The decentralized structure of the U.S. electoral system makes it impossible to speak about a single electoral system which operates in the United States covering about 16.000 elections that are held over a four-year period. States, responsible for holding elections at the state and local level, are trying to reform this system. A significant role in promoting and implementing these reforms is played by non-governmental organizations such as FairVote: The Center for Voting and Democracy, The League of Women Voters, and Common Cause. The purpose of this article is to present the proposed reforms of the U.S. electoral system at the federal, state and local level. The aim is to show the debate which takes place on the American political scene, on the issue of organizing more representative elections.

The article concerns the Polish regulation and practice concerning postal voting. After presenting some background information on postal voting in Poland, such as the circumstances of its introduction in 2011 and changes it has undergone since then, the author focuses on the latest amendments related to postal voting in the presidential election that were ordered for 10 May 2020. The issue has recently become extremely topical as the ruling party wanted to use postal voting for a large scale as a remedy for problems with holding the traditional election due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That idea was followed by the adoption of a specific law which, however, has aroused many controversies and great doubts about its constitutionality, mainly related to the way it was proceeded.

This paper aims at empirically testing the usefulness of Galtung’s model of peace and war journalism in the analysis of the coverage of the 2020 US presidential election by Polish television news programs. The work also aims to investigate whether similar mechanisms can be used in the coverage of elections as in the coverage of wars. We explore through what perspective – peace or war journalism – the election was covered and what specific mechanisms of these models were used. We also discuss whether the war journalism or peace journalism coverage perspective of the event was influenced by polarization and the political affiliation of the Polish media and how these factors influenced the way the US presidential candidates were presented.

The position of the president of the Czech Republic after the introduction of direct presidential elections

In 2011, direct presidential elections were introduced in the Czech Republic. The Author examines how this changed the position of the President of the Republic. The prevailing opinion among constitutionalists is that direct elections are an element of creating a strong position of the president in a democratic system, and the president elected in this way should have broad powers and play an important role in the political system of the country. Analyzing the provisions of the constitution and the political activity of the presidents of the Czech Republic, the Author concludes that, contrary to this thesis, the Czech legislator decided to balance the strong legitimacy of direct elections with a limited catalog of competences. This happened because the change in the way the president was elected was a political project, and not the result of a substantive debate on the constitutional order.

The article analyses political opposition toward the date of presidential elections and conducting them in the correspondence form on May 10, 2020, in Poland. The study is embedded in the theories of quasi-militant democracy and the emergence of social movements. The method used in the study is the qualitative analysis of media messages of the main news websites in Poland. Mainly in terms of the activity and arguments of citizens against the elections in the form of correspondence. The presidential elections revealed the imperious relationship between the government and citizens in Poland’s becoming quasimilitant democracy. The emphasis was on the elements regarding the organisation of elections on May 10 that could impact a social movement’s emergence. The most significant role in stopping the May 10 elections was played by institutional opposition in the form of local self-governments’ civil disobedience and the Senate’s action, which efficiently blocked the party’s initiative. The article accounts for how election matters determined the social mobilisation and activity of the new social movement. This paper’s main finding is that institutional opposition may prevail over the social one in the pandemic.

The spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Poland and, consequently, the introduction of the epidemic on March 20, 2020, influenced the decision not to hold the election of the President of the Republic of Poland scheduled for May 10, 2020. Therefore, in the face of objective difficulties in the organization of elections, a new voting deadline was set on June 28, 2020. Due to the prevailing global pandemic, the elections for the President of the Republic of Poland, ordered in 2020 with the possibility of postal voting, were conducted and prepared in exceptional circumstances. With this in mind, this article presents a number of various problems, and even limitations, of the electoral rights granted to each voter, which have become a consequence of the legal solutions introduced without in-depth analysis, often in a hurry. 1

In recent years, Armenia and Georgia have carried out constitutional reforms bringing about a radical change in their respective political systems with a shift to a parliamentary model of government. To permanently democratize both countries, the role of presidents in political systems was weakened and their election was introduced indirectly. The paper discusses the main elements of presidential electoral law in both countries with their main similarities and differences. In Armenia, the president is elected by the parliament, while in Georgia by a special electoral body. The following paper argues that the constitutional reforms in both countries are intended to prevent crises of power caused by an excessive concentration of power in the hands of presidents, although the reforms do not provide a guarantee of genuine democratisation and authoritarstability of governments. The possible outcomes of the reforms can be different: in Armenia – the increase of the dependence of the president on the main political parties, in Georgia – strengthening his independence.

The function of public debates is crucial these days. Experts believe that presidential debates may decide the final election results. All that matters is what each candidate will say and the way in which they will present themselves. Public debate is a tool for creating common knowledge, thus knowledge about the knowledge of others. Performed in accordance with understandable and accessible rules, it is the foundation for legitimizing actions taken in presidential elections. The method of organizing the debate has therefore fundamental value for public management. Shaping the conditions and simplifying the interaction processes between participants of the public debate is the idea of public management. Observations on public discourse are usually disciplinary in nature, as they relate to phenomena occurring in the field of politics, sociology and media communication2. The aim of the paper is therefore to define and assess what conditions for the presidential debate in 2020 have been met and what issues and whether they were rightly raised in it. The following hypothesis was adopted for the paper: „The public debate in the 2020 presidential elections in Poland did not concern important issues for Poles, but focused only on secondary, rather unimportant aspects”. The paper formulated the following research questions: what is the essence and scope of a public debate?, what issues were touched upon during the 2020 presidential debate in Poland?, how does the presidential debate translate into society’s evaluation of a presidential candidate? Secondary sources were used in order to achieve the expressed aim of the paper, The literature on the subject, including issues related to the analysis of public discourse, scientific publications, research reports and websites can be classified as secondary sources. The methods that will be used for research in the paper will be: a method of examining documents and descriptive methods. The technique of examining documents is based on examining the already existing source materials and usually takes place in the field of formalized groups. Typically, such research is carried out in organizations or enterprises, where the foundation of operation are legal acts, regulations defining the profile and method of activity, and official documents. Such a technique finds wide application in various fields due to its versatile nature. In fact, every available document can be the subject of research and, at least in a specific part, present a given situation. The paper consists of three parts. The first allows getting acquainted with the topic of public discourse in theoretical terms. In addition, the basic elements of public discourse between representatives of the political elite are also presented here. The second part describes the public debate before the first round of presidential elections in 2020 in Poland. The main issues discussed during the debate and the candidates’ statements were described, with particular emphasis on the responses of Andrzej Duda and Rafał Trzaskowski. Efforts were also made to present elements and issues that were missing from the public debate. The third part is a complementary part and is a short description of the public debate before the second round of the 2020 presidential elections in Poland. The ending summarizes the whole work, which is a summary of conclusions that have been drawn from own research and theoretical considerations included in the theoretical division of the work.