28/08/2023 last update: 28.08.2023 20:31

Volume 20, Number 1

World of Ideas and Politics

Volume 20/2021, Number 1

Studies and analyses

Grzegorz Zackiewicz
Uniwersytet w Białymstoku
Estonian political parties in the struggle for power in the second decade of the 21st century

Summary: The article analyzes the evolution of Estonia’s party system in the context of the struggle for power in the second decade of the 21st century (the starting point here is Estonia’s entry into the eurozone). Until 2016, the political scene in the Republic of Estonia was dominated by the Estonian Reform Party. At that time, this liberal, pro-market and pro-Western party was forming successive government coalitions. The main opposition force was the Estonian Center Party, a populist party that was particularly popular with the country’s large Russian minority. In the fall of 2016, significant changes took place on the political scene of the Republic. The liberals lost the support of the coalition partners who had reached an agreement with the previously opposition Estonian Center Party. Although the Estonian Reform Party remained the strongest party in the country, it found itself in opposition. Another characteristic trend was the rise in popularity of the eurosceptic Conservative People’s Party of Estonia in the second half of the decade. The 2019 elections were won by the opposition liberal Estonian Reform Party, but failed to build a majority coalition. The Estonian Center Party remained in power, signing a surprising and by many criticized agreement with the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia. However, this coalition turned out to be short-lived. The return of the liberals to power in January 2021 confirmed their unchangingly strong political position for years. Importantly, it took place during the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Keywords: Estonian political parties, the second decade of the 21st century, struggle for power, Estonian Reform Party, Estonian Centre Party, Conservative People’s Party of Estonia

Piotr Wiśniewski
Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika
Not only immigrants, the programs and activities of the Nordic right-wing populists

Summary: In the second decade of the 21st century, populism is a very popular issue both in political science and in everyday media discourse. It is associated with crises: economic and liberal democracies, which has led to an increase in the importance of anti-liberal and nationalist forces in the world. Also in Scandinavian countries we are dealing with such a phenomenon, although it should be emphasized that it did not arise there only in the 21st century. This article aims to present some of the postulates and actions of the largest Scandinavian right-wing populist parties and to define what political ideology they are closest to. As anti-immigration rhetoric is the main part of their program, the content of the article emphasizes other aspects that also affect the activities and popularity of these groups. These are economic, moral and environmental issues, as well as the attitude towards international organizations. For the purposes of this article, political programs as well as statements and activities of the more prominent representatives of the party in question were analyzed.
Keywords: populism, Scandinavia, political parties, right wing, conservatism, nationalism

Marcin Wałdoch
Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego
Immigration policy and immigrants in public discourse in 2019 local election in New Zealand: comparative analysis of four biggest cities situation

Summary: The paper is an attempt to scrutinize discourse of immigration and immigrants in the light of Critical Discourse Analysis during local election in New Zealand. Four biggest cities were analyzed. The hypothesis of this research was assumption that in the local election in New Zealand in 2019 immigration issue was displaced from public discourse of all analyzed political actors, despite the fact that immigration was one of the main topic of public debate and one of the most important factors that in the past influenced political behavior in New Zealand. This hypothesis was confirmed. Two auxiliary hypothesis were stated. All the research was conducted in the critical theory perspective and to the research of issue voting. Number of political phenomenon occurred, such as: political correctness, political anathema and instrumentalization of immigration issue.
Keywords: immigration politics, elections, local elections, electoral campaign, New Zealand, local government, comparative analysis, issue voting, Critical Discourse Analysis

Łukasz Jureńczyk
Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego
The United States investment and development assistance policy towards Kenya in the second decade of the 21st century

Summary: The subject of the paper is the US investment and development assistance policy for Kenya in the second decade of the 21st century. The first section of the paper discusses the investments of American enterprises in Kenya, as well as the programs of the governments of Kenya and the US, which are to improve investment conditions in this country. The second section discusses the development support provided by the US government agencies for Kenya and its residents. The main research questions are whether the level of US investment and development support was significant, and what are the prospects for cooperation in these areas in the future? The main thesis of the paper assumes that in the past decade investment and development cooperation between the US and Kenya was at a relatively high level, but its possibilities are much greater. In the coming years, Kenya might increase its position as one of the most important US economic partners in Africa, including in investment and development assistance.
Keywords: The United States – Kenya relations, investment policy, development support policy, economic development, social development

Piotr Walewicz
Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego
Reconteptualizing the state as an inherently environmental entity in political science

Summary: The article is a critical presentation of Christian Parenti’s concept of the state as an inherently environmental entity. Even though it is not a revolutionary concept, it seems to enable a holistic reconceptualization of the state in political sciences confronted with the ecological crisis. It allows for a reinterpretation of classical, common definitions used in political science and other related sciences – definitions which should foremost consider the entirety of mutual, nuanced relations between humanity and nonhuman nature.
Keywords: state, political theory, environment, political ecology, world-ecology

Roksana Kujawa
Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego
The Bologna Process and higher education policy

Summary: The goal of this publication is to discuss the Bologna Process in the field of higher education policy, the origins, traditions and harmonization of academia from a european perspective, representing the totality of actions taken by the main countries of the Bologna Declaration. Moreover, it indicates possible opportunities of development and emerging threats to the realization of strategic goals. The article is to show the necessity of many solutions in the current model of higher education and allows to clarify the doubts of the system’s prosperity, pointing out the validity of the idea of lifelong learning, which allows to effectively face the emerging challenges of competitiveness and ever-changing technologies, providing society with equal opportunities and increasing the existence quality.
Keywords: harmonization, European Higher Education Area, Bologna Process, knowledge-based economy, university education

Agnieszka Pazderska
Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego
Internet activity of young adults – the empirical research report

Summary: The article presents the results of empirical research on the Internet activity of young adults. New communication and information technologies affect almost every aspect of life. Young adults have had contact with cyberspace from an early age, which means, unlike the older generation, the Internet is their natural living environment. The main purpose of the analysis of the collected empirical material was to indicate the level of online activity of the respondents. This article is an attempt to examine the relationship between the respondents’ activity in the virtual space and their socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, level of education, place of residence), the amount of time spent on the Internet, interest in politics, political views and participation in parliamentary elections. The research hypothesis is the assumption that young adults were characterized by low levels of Internet activity. The results of the study support the hypothesis and show that the respondents were characterized by low level of Internet activity. Moreover, there was a correlation between the time spent on the Internet, interest in politics, political views and participation in parliamentary elections. The surveyed group declaring that they use the Internet for more than 4 hours a day, able to define their own political views, participating in elections, and indicating that their interest in politics is high or very high was characterized by a higher level of online activity.
Keywords: Internet activity, Internet, new media, young adults, empirical research

Remigiusz Ławniczak
Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, Delegatura w Bydgoszczy
Residents of Bydgoszcz facing the entry of the Red Army into the city in January 1945

Summary: The article presents the attitudes and reactions of polish residents of Bydgoszcz to the entry of the Red Army into the city in 1945. Some inhabitants were aware of the approaching front. The entry of the Soviet army was expected, as it meant, above all, the end of the cruel, over five-year long German occupation. Therefore, the conquest of Bydgoszcz was welcomed by the people; the reason for great enthusiasm was the appearance of Polish military units. The fights lasted several days, and the inhabitants also joined the hostilities. At that time, anarchy and chaos reigned in the streets; the population and soldiers looted shops, warehouses, etc. A serious problem for the inhabitants of Bydgoszcz was the activity of the Red Army soldiers, who committed common robberies and rapes. Their social perception was definitely negative. Already during the battle for the city, state property was secured and rebuilt. Contrary to the claims of propaganda from the times of People’s Poland, the communist ideology did not play any role in this respect. The discussed issue has not been the subject of a broader study so far. The research was based primarily on eyewitness accounts, used printed (literature and press) and unpublished memories, radio broadcasts and resources of oral history.
Keywords: Bydgoszcz, 1945, Red Army, public moods, German occupation of Poland

Anna Grabowska Siwiec
Indepentend researcher
Establishment and use of operational groups of Department II of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the People’s Republic of Poland, with particular emphasis on the Operational Group „ODRA”

Summary: The security of the People’s Democracy consisted in stopping the NATO countries’ intelligence from influencing the internal situation of individual countries. Countering the enemy’s intelligence activity was carried out by civilian counterintelligence – Department II of the Interior Ministry. One element of counter- intelligence cooperation was the posting of Operational Groups to the partner country in order to expand the possibility of combating foreign intelligence activities against its own citizens in cooperation with the partner country. The research problem of the article is to define the scope of cooperation of the counterintelligence services of the Eastern Bloc countries in combating the intelligence of capitalist states and ideological diversion using operational groups. The aim of the article is to present the Operational Groups as an instrument of the counterintelligence services of socialist states to combat the hostile activities of capitalist states. The specific questions concern the purpose and legitimacy of the establishment of operational groups by Department II of the Interior Ministry, with particular regard to the consequences of the establishment, the course of work and the grounds for the termination of the operational group in Bulgaria codenamed „ODRA”. In pursuing the objective of the work, a research hypothesis was laid out according to which the functioning of the Operational Groups was an important instrument for deepening cooperation between countries of popular democracy aimed at combating the intelligence activities of capitalist countries. The research was carried out by analysing the content of archival documents collected in the Archives of the Institute of National Remembrance and on the basis of open sources (available scientific articles). In addition, a direct source analysis method, a comparative method and a progressive method were used.
Keywords: intelligence services, counterintelligence, Operational Group, People’s Democratic Countries, security

Robert Rosa
Akademia Sztuki Wojennej
Metaphor in the analysis and evaluation of a complex security environment

Summary: The paper presents research on the possibilities resulting from the use of metaphor in the process of identifying, analyzing and assessing selected categories of the complex security environment and determining the directions of development of the problem situation. The results of the research were obtained using a questionnaire in the frame of the experiment. Participants were students of War Studies University who underwent a process of education in the field of alternative methods of analyzing and assessing the environment and designing activities with the use of the armed forces. The research process included an experiment in which the results of the work of teams conducting environmental assessments were compared. The scope of the metaphor’s application was presented among the many tools of project teams’ work. The results of the research suggest that building a metaphor in the process of analyzing and assessing the security environment facilitates the determination of directions for the development of a problem situation. This effect is achieved by identifying objectives and end states of the actors in a given problem situation. The results of the research can be applied in those areas of practical activity that relate to the design of assumptions for the operation of specific forces and means. The adopted process of environmental analysis and assessment is aimed at obtaining a holistic picture of reality. This is a response to the need for a general understanding of the problem situation, identification of objectives of the entities to this situation and the specificity of the entities involved in a given problem situation.
Keywords: metaphor, environment, safety, design, objectives, complexity