Many commentators suggest that the Middle East political turbulence was foreseeable and it cannot be said it had been unexpected. However, the diplomatic and intelligence establishments in the United States and the European Union, which have the most crucial stakes in this region, seemed to have been so preoccupied with focusing on Al Qaeda, Hezbol-lah, Hammas, and the Taliban that in a narrow picture they seem to have lost sight of the revolutionary wave, which has altered the governments in Tunis and Cairo and shaved off some of the most hated and oppressive regimes with the sheer example of Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Qaddafi . The spectacular fall of such dictators as Mubarak, has led to the question, whether the “Arab Awakening” was a  transformation or a revolution. There are also questions concerning the idea of democratisation of the third world and corruption, which change the Arab governments into “bad apples”. According to the western view, democracy is a Janus-faced ideological god, pulling the strings of both politics and economics. One cannot exist without the other, therefore, when we reconsider the political aspect of the Arab uprising, we should not forget about the economy.

Each enlargement of the European Communities (EC) and later the European Union (EU) has had an indisputable in! uence on inner cohesion of the organization itself. The participants of the integration processes have included the countries deviating from the previous Member States by the level of the economic development, the structures of their economies, macroeconomic conditions, etc. This differentiation has taken its toll especially on the functioning and the expenses of common policies (mainly transfer ones) as well as the execution of the integration reinforcement plans such as the European Economic and Monetary Union. In this aspect the most serious consequences were caused by the admission of countries that were much weaker economically, especially Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal. These countries had to go through a long way of reforms in order to become rightful members of the organization and for their integration with the Communities to become a mutual success. A big part of the expenses connected with these reforms was financed by the common budget thanks to the structural funds and the Common Agricultural Policy.

THE KINGDOM OF SARDINIA AND TURIN: THE TRAVELOGUES OF MICHAŁ JERZY WANDALIN MNISZECH DATED 1767

The article includes an analysis of Michał Mniszech’s travel accounts from the year 1767 concerning the Kingdom of Sardinia and Turin: Observations sur les États du Roi de Sardaigne and Observations sur Turin. According to the concept of Mniszech’s European educational travels that had been worked out in cooperation with the Polish magnate’s mother, Catherine Zamoyska of Mniszech, and Elie Bertrand, in the process of foreign education, becoming familiar with issues related to the broadly defined political economy was the most important aspect. Benefits of an aesthetic nature, resulting from admiring monuments of art and architecture, were less significant. Therefore, Mniszech’s travel accounts put strong emphasis on the problems of demography, administration, finance and taxation, government forms, trade and industry. In this respect, Italy was no exception. Mniszech’s travel accounts on the Kingdom of Sardinia and Turin are characterized by an intended complementarity. Observations sur les États du Roi de Sardaigne is mainly focused on the aspect of political economy. Hence, the emphasis is on information about trade, finance, demography, and industry. Observations sur Turin, although repetitive, e.g. educational matters while describing the University of Turin, concerns mostly issues of an aesthetic nature pertaining to architecture (also sacred), arts, culture and science. Importantly, in both accounts, Mniszech lists their potential sources: in reference to the first account, it was an outstanding piece of work in the field of political economy by Zanon, while in reference to the second account - a literary work of a well-known art historian, Cochin, and a literary historian, Richard, both distinguished experts on Italy and its spiritual and material culture. When focused on demographic issues, Mniszech draws special attention to his relationship to the clergy, which was very high in number ‒ not only in the described Kingdom of Sardinia and Turin but also in the whole of Italy, and was an obvious obstacle in the process of populating.

The interdependence between the economy and politics is particularly visible during economic crises. The subject of research is the impact of the economic crisis in Spain after 2008 on its political system. And the main aim is to answer the question: what factor had the most important impact on the functioning of the state’s political system. Authors assume that it was the amendment of the Art. 135 of the state constitution. The theoretical framework of the study is the output on the relationship between the economy and politics. The empirical research was based on the analysis of changes in the economic situation in Spain after 2008, and on the analysis of the evolution of the Spanish political system. Obtained results may be useful in the context of the impact of changes in the economic situation caused by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.