Polish Political Science Yearbook

20-38

Authors: Krystyna Gomółka

Since gaining independence, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan gradually opened their markets to foreign investors. Before Poland’s acces- sion to the European Union, the activities of Polish investors in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ta- jikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were based on bilateral treaties concluded by Poland with those countries. Later, except Turkmenistan, they were governed by the partnership and cooperation agreements between the European Communities and their Member States. Despite the ample investment opportunities and favourable conditions for access to the mar- ket, the activity of Polish companies in these markets has not produced a significant effect. Poland invested with more considerable success on the markets in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyz- stan. It made investment attempts in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, leaving out Turkmenistan. The reason why Poland has a weak position in these markets is the distance between the partners and inability of Polish companies to efficiently compete with large multinational companies which have been operating there for years. In the Kazakh market, good invest- ment prospects are available for waste management, petrochemical, mining and road con- struction companies. In Kyrgyzstan, there are cooperation possibilities in the area of modern agricultural and processing technologies and establishment of fruit and vegetable process- ing enterprises. In Tajikistan, enterprises can invest in petroleum and natural gas extraction and exploitation, the fuel market, processing of precious metals and construction of conven- tional and hydroelectric power plants. In Turkmenistan, Polish companies can compete for road, railway and housing construction contracts, whereas in Uzbekistan they can invest in businesses covered by government tax reductions.

54-66

Authors: Edyta Pietrzak

The article presents the entitled fields in the framework of their mutual influence. The notion of the public sphere is valuable for understanding the role that civil society plays in transitional justice processes. However transitional justice often reduces the idea of civil society to NGOs and ignores the social movements and civil engagement in the public realm that can be perceived as integral to the creation of new cases for understanding justice in transition. This fact results in the lack of perception of the civil society place in transitional justice processes. Thus the presented paper is based on hermeneutics, critical discourse analysis and dialogue between various theoretical approaches.

77-96

Authors: Michał Lubina

Burma/Myanmar seems to be a perfect ground for transitional justice with both long-failed transitions to democracy that seemed to succeed in 2015 finally and smouldering civil war taking place there since 1948 (since the 1990s limited to Borderlands). Unfortunately, the political realities in Burma/Myanmar make it unlikely, if not impossible, for tran- sitional justice to be applicable in Burma/Myanmar. The victorious in 2015 elections democratic opposition party, National League for Democracy (NLD) came to power thanks to the political deal with the former military government and is consequently being forced to cohabitate politically with the army that still holds critical political checks over the government. It made NLD’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi to conduct moderate domestic policy without trying to charge the generals for their former crimes. In this circumstances, transitional justice is unwanted by mainstream political actors (NLD, the army) and seen as threatening to peace by many in the Myanmar society. This approach firmly places Burma/Myanmar on one side of the ‘peace vs justice’ dilemma. It answers the “torturer problem”, one of the central problems of transitional justice – how to deal with members of the previous regime which violated human rights – in ‘old fashion’ way, by granting them full amnesty. As such Burma/Myanmar case also falsifies an optimistic claim that transitional justice is necessary for political reforms.

110-120

Authors: Robert Gawłowski

Co-production of public services is an increasingly popular tool in public management, although it is still a new phenomenon in Poland. Despite the attention researchers give to co-production, some significant gaps remain. In this article, author attempts to examine the legal possibility of implementing co-production by the Polish local government by local initiative and Solecki Fund. The article aims to examine how major Polish cities gathered in Union in Polish Metropolises used local initiatives. The next step in research is to find out how Solecki Fund is spread among rural areas according to statistical data. It is proved that only a handful of local governments in Poland are truly engaged in co-production. However, Solecki Fund can be shown as an excellent example of citizens’ engagement. It is presented a possible agenda on what can be done to make co-production more popular and used on a regular basis not only in metropolitan but also rural areas.

126-129

Authors: Michał Dahl

The paper reports the 9th Polish Conference on International Relations: 2017 – a Year of a Change organized by the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń on June 2, 2017. Its presents not only the scope and process of this years’ conference, but also briefly describes the idea of annual meet- ings of young Polish scholars interested in widely understood international relations. The conference report presents accompanying events of the conference, which gave its ninth edi- tion unique atmosphere. It also points out the way this years’ conference contributed to the unification of the community of students and Ph.D. students in Poland who are researching variety of subjects related to international relations.

137-138

Authors: Moon Yonglin

Book Review: Zhu Yongxin, New Education Experiment in China. New York: McGraw-Hill Education 2014 (pp. 324). ISBN 978-0-07-183817-7. Price: 106.00 USD.

145-146

Authors: Beata Zielonka

Book Review: Wojciech Opioła & Malwina Popiołek, Media społecznościowe. Nowe formy ekspresji politycznej. Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek 2014, (pp. 196). ISBN 978-83-8019-097-9.

151-155

Authors: Alicja Stańco-Wawrzyńska

Book Review: Derek Averre & Kataryna Wolczuk (Eds.), The Ukraine Conflict. Security, Identity and Politics in the Wider Europe. Abingdon-New York: Routledge 2018 (pp. 251). ISBN 978-1-138-04743-3. Price: £115.00.