The importance of the budget act from the perspective of financial  and constitutional law

The presented publication is an attempt to determine, from the perspective of the financial and constitutional law at the same time, the basic place and role that the budget act has in the political system of the Republic of Poland. The budget act is one of the most important programme documents of the state, on the basis of which the government manages the financial economy in a large measure. The Cabinet of the Republic of Poland, together with its ministers, is politically responsible for drawing up the budget bill, submitting it to the Sejm promptly and – after the budget year commences – executing the regulations after passing the bill, and finally reporting on how the regulations were executed. Difficulties and doubts that arise when concerning the budget procedure and carrying out the duty of the Cabinet to submit the budget bill in a given time limit are due to the fact that this deadline coincides with the parliamentary election, which could cause a possible change in the line-up in politics and, consequently, in the government. The existing legislature does not entirely eliminate (however, through the so-called emergency procedures, it does considerably minimise the risk of) a situation when, although the budget year commences, neither the state budget nor its normatively acceptable substitute is passed. It seems advisable to implement constitutional and statutory regulations that would be the solution to the lack of the normative fundamentals to carry out the financial policy of the state and eliminate the situation of the so-called budget void.

Functioning of the constitutional system of III Republic of Poland  during the period of cohabitation (2007–2010)

The aim of this article was to indicate how far the constellation of political forces in 2007–2010 was affecting the constitutional mechanism of power. At that time we had to be dealing with the second cohabitation under the rule of the constitution of 1997. By contrary to the former experiences, this cohabitation was running out very intensively, especially as for conflicts in government–president relationships. That was a period of merciless political fight and far going disputes over many ticklish issues. It all has proved that by the time of cohabitation polish president is able to participate effectively in ruling the country. In the first part of the article the author focuses on phenomenon of cohabitation in France. There are remarks referring to the legal and political conditions of this mechanism as well. On the other hand these deliberations show us the differences between Polish and French model of cohabitation. The most important part of this article contains the analysis of political praxis in 2007–2010. The author researches so called „fields of cohabitation”, which were a source of real conflicts between both organs of executive power.

Institution of the Cabinet Advice in the polish political system

In the article there is presented the issue of the Cabinet Advice, understood as one of forms of cooperation between the executive authorities. In the beginning there was showed the evolution of the Cabinet Advice in the Polish constitution regulations having begun since the charter of the Constitution from 1947. There was explained that even before this Constitution, in Polish political practice, meetings of the President and the government also happened, because of the need of cooperation between them. The Cabinet Advice was subjected to a detailed analysis in the contemporary Polish political regulation. On the basis of made arrangements there was taken an attempt of evaluation the functioning of the Cabinet Advice from a perspective of less than fourteen years of the validity of Polish Constitution from 2nd April 1997.

Prime Minister in contemporary political systems

Accepting the separation of powers as a basis for existence of contemporary countries caused the distinction of the executive power. This article, devoted to the executive, presents in detail the model solutions of that power (monocratic; dualistic together with its branches; departmental and directorial). Most of the article is devoted to the position of the Prime Minister in contemporary political model.