Recognition that societies will not be able to build a future as long as they do not face the ‘demons of the past’ has become a kind of universal truth over the last decades of the 20th Century (Gibney et al., 2008, p. 1). This view, though challenging and ambiguous, is reflected in the globally present attempts to improve or rebuild relations within and between different communities at the domestic and international level. The question concerning, on the one hand, the essence and most essential elements and, on the other hand, the instruments and the limitations of rebuilding relations, as well as the political implications of those processes have become the broad area of interest and the discourse leading to significantly different ideas and solutions. The article aims at presenting different approaches referring to dealing with the conflicted and traumatized past both at the domestic and international level. Some selected instruments and methods which enable movement from a divided past towards a common future are discussed namely the strategy of engagement with the past versus the strategy of avoidance of the past. The special attention is paid to the notion of reconciliation understood as a process of rebuilding of relations through the multi-dimensional transformation of former adversaries after the period of violence and repression.

In the process of political transformation, initiated the events of the Round Table in 1989. Important place and importance is given to issues of self-government. Political science literature suggests in this regard to the fact that one of the pillars of political transformation in Poland was the transition from a monopoly of the central government to local government. Local government reform introduced by the Act of 1990 8. III. Introduced a new system of local government. Local government has become the authority of the local community and gave her the right to self-determination of its underlying decisions of political, economic and social. Breaking the monopoly of local government reform and the state Democratic Party has introduced local government model, derived from the local community and serving the public administrative functions under the permanent control of the representatives of the local community.

The transformations of the Bojkos’ Christmas Rites of the Ukrainian Carpathian mountains in the beginning of XXI century.

The thesis researches Christmas rites in Bojkivshchyna during Ukraine’s independence and is based upon analysis of scientific literature and a large amount of information sources. The author found out that motivation for many Christmas ceremonies was changed or lost; many rites cease to be actively used altogether. However it is proved that the basis of Christmas rites in Bojkivshchyna is retained better if compared to other Ukrainian regions. The paper describes and analyses reasons for changes and transformations of the traditional Bojkos’ winter rituals.

This text presents and discusses results of empirical research conducted during 3 school semesters (1.5 of school year) in a primary school in Poland. The research focused on the introduction of tablets (iPads) to didactic design and aimed at the observation of learning processes of the entire school community in connection with the appearance of a new educational actor. We used a qualitative research approach, mainly video-ethnography (60 hours of recorded material). This research approach resulted in the identification of maps of teaching and learning practices and their meanings in the changing school field.

  The objective of this article is to analyse the impact of the Spanish democratic transformation on its multilateral relations. It analyses the strategies of Spanish governments in the transformation era and the process of accession to NATO, the Council of Europe and the European Communities. Source analysis and criticism methods (applied mostly to Spanish- -language texts), as well as comparative analysis were employed for the needs of this article.
  Based on her research, the author concludes that changes to Spanish foreign policy were evolutionary in nature. Therefore, it took Spain several years to regain the full confidence of its partners. Before any breakthrough changes could occur in the multilateral dimension, Spain needed to normalise its bilateral relations.
  The democratic elections conducted on the 15th of June 1977 in Spain was the breakthrough without which no accession to any important international organisation could ever happen. As the event clinched the state’s democratisation, it paved the way for Spain to join soon the Council of Europe. The accession process for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was more complex. The Spanish political scene was divided in that matter. Spain’s accession to the European Communities was the longest process. It was subject not only to the state’s democratisation progress but also to economic issues.

This article describes the theoretical concept of constitutional change. The cases of constitutional changes and amendments since 1989 have been analyzed in the text. The historical approach is used as a background for the current Polish events conceptualization.
The theories formulated by Y. Raznai, R. Albert, B. Ackermann, S. Griffin, D. Landau are applied for purpose of the analysis. The authors consider the problems of: constitutional change, constitutional amendment and dismemberment, constitutional moment, as well as a kind of constitutionalism, which is connected to an abuse of power by the parliamentary majority (illiberal constitutionalism).
This paper analyses following issues: the conceptualization of constitutional amendment procedure and constitutional change in formal and informal ways as well as the constitutional moment. Moreover, the Polish academia opinions on the amendment and change are presented. Eventually, the identification of the recent Polish systemic events from a theoretical perspective and the summary of the research are provided.
The assessment of current events takes into account the historical background – the transformation started in 1989 and ended with the adoption of the 1997 Constitution. The conclusion is connected to identification of the constitutional moments which legitimize or not the transformation of the system.

Europeanization acted at all stages of society development in Slovakia, with varying degrees of intensity and in various forms, since the signing of the association agreement with the European Union. A significant impact was already in the stage of transition, when the consistent implementation of the Copenhagen criteria insist by the EC/EU help to return to the path of democratic development in Slovakia. However, it wasn’t just about the application of the generally accepted principles of parliamentary democracy, but also on the active impact of the EC/EU institutions within the existing opportunities provided by the signing of the Association Agreement. A qualitatively new stage began after completion of the Copenhagen criteria and the opening of negotiations, which was to implement acquis communautaire into the internal legal order of the country. At this stage, clearly dominated the process of Europeanization “top-down”, i.e. the adoption of standards, laws of the European Union, to make country compatible with other countries of the EU. After the entry of the Slovakia into the EU, a two-sided process of Europeanization: “up-down” and “bottom-up” has started.

The article is devoted to some aspects of the impact on the Russian language picture of the world of Polish borrowings as a result of contact between the Russian and Polish peoples.

Origin of Satan (modification of ancient traditions)

The article considers the problem of correlation of concepts “God” and “Satan” in religion. The solution to the problem the author sees in the traditions of Zoroastrianism that had a profound impact on the monotheistic religions.

The model transformations of Polish public administration after 1989 were the result of the necessary and inevitable consequence of events related to erosion and the collapse of the „real socialism” system. Its internal decomposition, as a result of social reality inadequacy, created a situation in which it was possible to undertake deep systemic reforms in Poland. Democratization of the government system in Poland was an extremely complex process generating numerous problems and showing the scale of adversity in all spheres of social life. All political and structural changes in Poland after 1989 were also possible due to propitious external, international conditions. Especially the collapse of the USSR brought certain possibilities for Poland and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe to regain full sovereignty, which was later expressed in membership in NATO, the Council of Europe, and then European Union accession. As a result of the systemic and political transformation process, the administration has become an extremely important cell in the democratic legal order and the entity responsible for the implementation of a significant part of public tasks at the local, supra-local and regional levels.

Adaptation of generations in post-Soviet countries to most radical social changes

The article inquiries into the influence of age on the adaptation to changes among post-Soviet societies. The analysis of secondary data from survey research conducted in representative research samples in post-soviet republics was used in the research. Survey data from Russia (N=992), Belarus (N=1034), Moldova (N=970) and Ukraine (N=1000) was analyzed. The results show that the age facilitates positive adaptation. Younger generations had a higher level of happiness, evaluated their financial situation, their standing in the social hierarchy and prospects for the future better. The highest level of satisfaction with democracy was noted in Belarus and Russia. Lower marks were given by the citizens of Moldova, whereas the biggest disappointment was noticed in Ukraine. The Russians and the Belarusians followed by the Moldovans were located on high positions on the continuum of adaptation to social changes, but the Ukrainians managed to adapt to the system to the lowest degree.

Th is study aims to determine whether the decision of the V Lustration Department of the Court of Appeal in Warsaw issued in 2000, that Lech Wałęsa was not a secret collaborate of the former Security Service of the Polish People’s Republic (PPR), was a correct one. Marek Aft yka’s “briefi ng memo” and Proceedings of Regional Court in Gdańsk I Civil Department in 2010 in a case brought by Lech Wałęsa against Krzysztof Wyszkowski were researched in this article.
It is stated that individual decisions of judges in 2000 were wrong in this case, which was confi rmed on February 16, 2016 by fi nding the personal and working fi les of the secret collaborate codename “Bolek”. Analysis of the sources demonstrated that Wałęsa he did not consider the cooperation with the prosecution and security institutions, as well as with the state of real socialism as something wrong. At the same time, former Polish president, as a well-trained agent, will never admit to the cooperation.

The article is devoted to the state regulation of the processes of modeling of the development of the coal industry of Ukraine in the context of structural transformations of the national economy. An important task of modern science of public administration is to provide systematic methods of substantiation of public administration decisions to determine the vector of development of society as a whole and individual sectors of the national economy, which actualizes the formation of a model of justification of coal industry development strategy. It is proved that the effectiveness of the organizational mechanism of state regulation is ensured through a transparent system of control over changes in the technical and economic parameters of the coal industry of Ukraine. The author proposes the formation of an appropriate tool for programming effective change within a certain cyclical nature of the industry. Systematized information on strategies relevant to planning of the development of the coal industry and the mining sector as a whole. Analytically interpreted information of the optimal plan by the method of dynamic programming using recurrent Bellman equations is presented. The optimal plan of tactical actions at formation of strategy of development of the coal industry in a cycle of a mining and industrial complex is defined. The comparison of the optimal plan with possible alternative actions of the management staffof the coal industry is carried out. The perspective plan of tactical actions through priority use of projects of the maximum profitability at formation of strategy of development of the coal industry in a cycle of a mining and industrial complex is presented. The plan of tactical actions through priority support of projects of preservation of a current condition at formation of strategy of development of the coal industry in a cycle of a mining and industrial complex is presented. The optimal plan of tactical actions in forming the strategy of coal industry development in the cycle of mining complex with good initial state of resource potential, with probable highest level of initial state of resource potential, with unsatisfactory initial state of resource potential is presented. It is proved that the current critical state of the resource base of coal mining provokes the emergence of natural irrational behavior in Ukraine, when the crisis focuses only on economic benefits without proper management of resource potential, which emphasizes the importance of public administration in resource management in crisis development programs of the coal industry. The developed methodology provides the best solution to the two-criteria problem of public administration of the coal industry: the implementation of public administration functions, including economic, and providing conditions for sustainable efficient resource use.

The article concerns the dilemmas of building Polish constitutional identity after 1989. The hypothesis assumes that after the initial twenty years of consolidation and Europeanization of constitutional democracy, there was an attempt at undermining the adopted political order. The policy of the ruling camp after 2015 is a striking proof of this crisis.

Socio-political Reforms in Uzbekistan during the Presidency of Shavkat Mirziyoyev

The paper aims to present various aspects of the reform process initiated and implemented by Shavkhat Mirziyoyev, the president of the Republic of Uzbekistan, since 2016. The main subjects of consideration are vectors of political change in the spheres of institutions of political power, economy and foreign policy in the broader context of the legacy of the first president Islam Karimov’s reign and the heritage of the Soviet period. The fundamental reforms have embraced democratization of political system, fight against corruption, extension of civil rights and abandoning of isolationism in international relations, and are sometimes decribed as the „Uzbek Thaw”. However they seem to be very meaningful, one will be able to evaluate their significance for the statehood of the independent Uzbekistan only from the perspective of future decades.

Adaptation of the Polish Defense Industry to Changes in Defense Doctrines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

The aim of the article is to analyze the adaptation of the Polish defense industry to changes in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s defense doctrines. On March 12, 2020, it was 21 years of Poland’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The membership in the Alliance has undoubtedly contributed to the transformation of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland and infrastructure investments in the country’s defense base. However, it should be stated that the possibilities related to the offset liabilities have not been used fully.

The political transformation in Poland, initiated in the first half of 1989, was the beginning of deep, systemic changes in all mechanisms of collective life and public authority. The transformations were characterized as complex and multifaceted, which generated new conflicts and socially perceptible costs. However, such deep changes were necessary because they opened the way for Poland and Polish society towards European standards of organization and activity of all entities of public life. The most important principles on the basis of which the new constitutional model of the state was built were deconcentrating the authority mechanism and decentralizing its powers. This meant that the administration alsobecame a very important area of transformational changes. In this regard, a special role was played by actions aimed at reconstructinglocal government which was to become an integral part of the new public authority system and to carry out a significant part of public tasks.

Covid-19 is considered as an important factor that impacts largely on the security and development. Covid-19 has caused the shiftin the definition of the national security and significance of new emerging non-traditional security issues, for instance the health security, and human security. Accordingly, Covid-19 has had devastating effects on the poor and human development, due to the economic recession and diversion of resources to focus on coping with the virus, stressing the accomplishment of sustainable development goals. It is anticipated that the entanglement of security and development issues gives rise to more complex challenges to ensure the stability and progress of sustainable economic development. This context has raised a question of how countries, especially lower middle-income countries like Vietnam, could cope with arising challenges and opportunities in the new context. This research concludes that Vietnam, as a perfect case study, has strongly supported global and regional cooperation to reset development agenda to focus on quick economic recovery towards resilient, green inclusive, and sustainable development. Internally, Vietnam was successful in controlling the pandemic, and become one of few countries that achieved positive GDP growth in the region in 2020. The key to overcome these challenges remains with the Communist Party of Vietnam’s strong political leadership to control Covid-19, and to take advantages of development trends such as globalization, shifting of supply chain, digital economy, and green recovery and green growth.

The motif of transformation in Julio Cortazar’s short story Axolotl

This paper aims to briefly tackle the issue of the alter ego and the metamorphosis in Latin American literature. For this reason, we shall take the story by Julio Cortázar entitled Axolotl as a reference point and evaluate the various interpretations of the myth and transformation in Cortázar’s work. Since we are not the very expression and measure of our thoughts (e.g. Julio Cortázar), our other self is always among us. The various existential relationships that we establish daily to confirm that we live our lives fulfilled by certainty and conviction, and that – staying in a permanent conflict with the world engulfed in an antagonistic relationship between the real and the unreal – they are a potent metaphor through which Cortázar evoques Thomas Mann or Franz Kafka, among others. Thus, the axolotl shall not be the only reason to analyze the story. We shall also see how this metaphor is rendered in literature.

This text should be perceived as an review article in which the content of the monograph Social Inequalities in Access to Education… by Richard Borowicz allows for the presentation of his heritage which is leftfor the next generation of sociologists and educators. The text therefore exposes the approach to the profession of sociologist which was characteristic of Ryszard Borowicz, his scientific workshop and inspirations that we may draw from in relation to how to analyze the surrounding reality, how to communicate what we have determined, how to make methodological choices and, within them, choose the methods. At the same time, the text presents the continuity of the research into sociology of education in Poland, preserved also thanks to the research by the Author of the book discussed here. What is worth emphasizing is the diagnosis and assessment of the Polish transformation at the beginning of the twenty-first century in the context of young people’s educational fates (and their determinants), which is dominant in the monograph. The essence of Ryszard Borowicz’s research interests is the study on school selections. Therefore, the text contains an attempt at analyzing the findings in the book Social Inequality… relating to the mechanisms of selection in the educational system, including the analysis of the relevance of specific content, links with the findings by other researchers, and most of all, with the Author himself – his beliefs, motivations, and attitudes, which distinguished him in the scientific community.