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Continuous discussions devoted to the problem of potentially optimal conditions for the development of researchers may be considered as one of the fundamental phenomena of the academic reality both in the past as well in the present. This kind of rejection remains therefore a vital part of the multidimensional considerations about the nature of science, its mission, ideals, aims of academia, and finally about scientific excellence. All these categories have been thoroughly reformulated over the centuries. Consequently, the ideas about the academic arrangements, including the role and duties of young scholars, need to be understood as results of long-lasting and complex processes. However, some general principles emerge as quite solid across centuries. One of them claims that with ongoing studies, a young scholar should prove ability to pose scienti%cally significant questions and search for valuable answers. In this context, both the institution of the magisterium and the doctorate were created and evolved.

This article examines a new phase in democracy promotion in Central and Eastern European countries that recently have faced the process of shrinking civic space and democratic backsliding. In our case study, we analyse systematically the voices and strategies of Polish NGOs involved in democracy promotion at home and abroad as a response to these new challenges. Our empirical findings suggest that advocacy NGOs devoted to democratic quality and sustainability can continue their mission and promote or defend democracy, albeit with new incentives, strategies and goals that also depend on the existing political opportunity structures. The threat of shrinking civic space, paradoxically, has mobilized NGOs in Poland to strengthen their mission and resources, and seek wider support in society. This was possible due to new response strategies in three major areas of their operation: access, funding and networking. Understanding these actions has immediate policy implications, as it can help actors who are seeking to support democracy figure out how to play a more supportive role.

This article explicates the intertwined economic and political goals behind the imposition of countersanctions through an analysis of their premises and outcomes for Russia’s domestic economy. The evidence supports the argument that retaliation was designed to benefit the Russian domestic food industry, reorient trade relations, and bolster domestic public support for this sector while politically penalizing sanctioning countries. An important contribution of this article is to demonstrate how sanctions imposed on nondemocratic target countries, which play an important role in international affairs, is like a tit-for-tat game, which may have additional effects and also unintended political, economic, and social consequences not yet observed.

This article analyses activists’ attitudes towards using social media for civic actions in authoritarian and democratising countries. Specifically, it examines whether civic activists in Belarus an...

Wspieranie demokracji, czyli szczególny rodzaj pomocy zagranicznej mający na celu promowanie idei i postaw demokratycznych, było dotychczas domeną demokracji zachodnich. Dlatego badania w dziedzinie wspierania demokracji zazwyczaj koncentrowały się na programach prowadzonych przez międzynarodowe organizacje, bądź rządowe i pozarządowe organizacje, fundacje ze Stanów Zjednoczonych, jak również z Europy Zachodniej. Jednakże niedawno do grona darczyńców dołączyły również młode demokracje z Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej takie jak Polska, Czechy, Słowacja bądź Węgry, które same tak niedawno były odbiorcami tego typu pomocy. Biorąc jako studium przypadku działania Polski na Ukrainie i Białorusi niniejszy artykuł analizuje działania polskich organizacji pozarządowych na rzecz wspierania demokracji w krajach partnerskich w latach 1990–2015. Celem badań było zbadanie przyczyn zaangażowania się polskich organizacji pozarządowych we wspieranie demokracji, metod promowania idei i postaw demokratycznych oraz charakteru współpracy ze społecznością obywatelską z krajów partnerskich.

Celem przedstawionych badań jest analiza procesu decyzyjnego w UE w odniesieniu do nakładania i rozszerzania sankcji wobec Rosji oraz ocena przyczyny trwałości decyzji i porozumienia między państwami członkowskimi UE, pomimo odmiennego stanowiska. W szczególności artykuł analizuje proces decyzyjny, dynamikę oraz zmiany zachodzące w ramach grup roboczych Rady, takich jak COEST (Grupa Robocza ds. Europy Wschodniej i Azji Środkowej) dla Ukrainy, Białorusi oraz Rosji. Badania pokazują, że czynniki geopolityczne oraz ekonomiczne mają bardzo duże znaczenie w tworzeniu dynamiki, jaka zachodziła w grupach doradczych Rady Europejskiej, niemniej jednak pomimo tych różnic jednomyślność jest w dużej mierze wynikiem działań Francji i Niemiec. The aim of the presented research is to analyze the decision-making process in the EU with regard to imposing and extending sanctions against Russia and to assess the cause of the sustainability of decisions and agreements between EU Member States despite their different position towards sanctions. In particular, the article analyzes the decision-making process, dynamics and changes taking place within the Council’s working groups, such as COEST (Working Group on Eastern Europe and Central Asia) for Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Research shows that geopolitical and economic factors are very important in creating dynamics that takes place in advisory groups of the European Council; nevertheless, despite these differences, unanimity is observed that is largely the result of the actions of France and Germany.

Democratic backsliding in Central and Eastern European countries is on the rise. Independent judiciaries, other institutions of liberal democracy, as well as civil liberties and media freedom are being undermined, coupled with the human rights and dignity of certain groups being curtailed or even violated. In these difficult political and legal circumstances, non-state actors, such as interest groups, face many challenges. The goal of this research is to explore how interest groups in Poland perceive their position, what tactics they use in order to influence public policies and decision-makers, and whether they search for networking strategies in order to strengthen their position vis-à-vis the government. By placing our research in the Polish context, we fill the gap in the current literature on the situation of interest groups that face democratic backsliding. We base our analyses on new survey data collected from Polish interest groups in 2017–2018, conducted within the Comparative Interest Group Survey. 1. National Science Centre in Poland - grant Harmonia (2018/30/M/HS5/00437) and 2. National Science Centre in Poland - grant Fuga (2014/12/S/HS5/00006).

In response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine in 2014, the EU introduced sanctions on Moscow. Despite increasing polarisation among member states after imposition, the sanctions package was consistently renewed. How can sanctions persistence be explained? While scholarly accounts highlight German leadership, commitment to norms, and policymakers’ engagement, the EU’s ability to uphold the sanctions in the face of uneven support among member states remains puzzling. With the help of a two-level game framework, according to which actors make decisions based on the interplay between the domestic and international levels, we argue that the interaction between the Council and domestic politics helped sustaining the consensus. To illustrate this dynamic, in an exploration of domestic factions in Spain and Poland, two member states displaying opposite attitudes towards Russia, we identify the presence of at least one actor whose preference deviates from the core, thereby facilitating consensus.

Both foreign aid and sanctions are foreign policy tools to promote democracy. Yet, it is unclear how far incentives and coercion enhance democratization. Since sanctions and aid are often employed at the same time, the goal of this study is to determine their joint effect on democratization in target/recipient countries. We argue that sending democracy aid through civil society organizations enhances the effectiveness of sanctions as a democracy promotion tool because the civil society is empowered to introduce democratic changes. Thus, in addition to the top-down pressure on the target government created by sanctions, there is a bottom-up pressure exerted by the civil society. Our empirical results show that democratic sanctions by the European Union and the United States are more likely to have a positive effect when aid flows bypass the government. Conversely, aid channeled through the public sector mitigates the generally positive effect of sanctions on democracy. In order to estimate these joint effects, we employ a new comprehensive dataset on economic sanctions: the EUSANCT Dataset which integrates and updates existing databases on sanctions for the period between 1989 and 2015, merged with disaggregated OECD aid data and V-Dem democracy scores. published

Civic education, i.e. activities aimed to teach citizens of recipient countries basic values, knowledge, and skills relating to democracy, has become a popular form of promoting democracy by NGOs from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. This paper examines whether democracy promotion programmes, such as civic education, implemented by NGOs from Central and Eastern European countries towards young people in former post-communist countries affect participants’ civic engagement and political participation. We test the impact of one of the civic education programmes on young people from Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation. The analysis of the programme and the results of the survey conducted among the civic education programme’s former participants from 2004 to 2014 contribute to a better understanding how youth participation can be built through mechanism of knowledge created by outside actors. The paper reveals some potential of programmes focused on educating young people in diffusing democratic ideas and behaviour in the region; however, it also shows the limitations of methodology used to evaluate the impact of democracy promotion efforts.

The literature on conflict management offers two explanations of why the effectiveness of third parties to settle militarized disputes differs. The structural research tradition focuses on conflict characteristics, while the individualist approaches highlight the background, skills and power of a mediator, as well as the mediation strategy. This article reconciles these two approaches, and examines especially the effectiveness of mediation strategies. Accounting for the selection of mediation and the success of mediation attempts, we use the CWM 1945–2004 dataset. The analysis demonstrates that mediators who were able to pursue a determined strategy face a higher chance of success. Literatura przedmiotu dotycząca działań mających na celu zapobieganie konfliktom oferuje dwa wyjaśnienia dlaczego ocena wpływu stron trzecich w zakresie zarządzania kryzysowego i rozwiązywania konfliktów poprzez mediacje tak bardzo różni się. Pierwsze wyjaśnienie uzależnia pozytywny wynik mediacji w wojnach domowych od specyficznych cech konfliktu, natomiast drugie wyjaśnienie od umiejętności i doświadczenia mediatora oraz od strategii mediacji zastosowanych w procesie rozwiązywania konfliktu pomiędzy stronami. Celem badań jest ustalenie jakie czynniki w przedstawionych podejściach mają decydujący wpływ na to, że niektóre wysiłki mediatorów kończą się sukcesem a niektóre nie. Badania zostały przeprowadzone na próbie 581 mediacji w wojnach domowych w latach 1945–2004 i potwierdziły nasze założenia dotyczące strategii mediacji. Analiza pokazuje, że mediatorzy, którzy przejmują inicjatywę i sugerują rozwiązania (directive mediation strategies), odnoszą większy sukces w rozwiązaniu konfliktu niż mediatorzy którzy stosują mediacje facylitatywne.

Violence against civilians is portrayed as an antecedent of civil war, a cause, or both. Civil war creates opportune environments for planning and carrying out these acts that in turn can have detrimental effects on peace processes. Since not all civil war factions will see peace as beneficial, some actors may use violence to undermine the peace talks. The rebels may use indiscriminate violence to demonstrate their ability to exact costs on the government thus forcing the latter to negotiate. This article focuses upon acts of violence committed by rebel groups during mediated peace process. The central hypothesis is that violence against civilians increases the probability of mediation that in turn increases the prospects for violence. Using all civil war episodes from 1970 to 2008 as observations results from bivariate probit analysis endogenizing the choice of mediation bear out this theoretical argument.

This paper explores the link between human rights and disaster risk reduction. We revisit the notion of a human rights-based approach in the context of natural disasters, analyzing how this concept may contribute to greater accountability and empowerment of those involved in disaster risk reduction. To better understand the processes of empowering rights holders and holding duty bearers into account we adopt legal analytical lenses. By doing so we review four country case studies and their main regulations on disaster risk reduction, taking into account the extent to which they adopt a human rights-based approach. We argue that countries whose legal frameworks allow for community engagement point towards greater community empowerment. Similarly, countries whose legal provisions make possible for holding States accountable for their underperformance in disaster situations suggest greater levels of accountability. We also consider key international human rights instruments binding the four case studies in order to analyze whether and to what extent international human rights obligations may support advocacy and accountability in disaster risk reduction. Based on the analysis of these case studies we consider that empowerment and accountability processes in drr can reinforce each other, and that human rights may contribute to progress in these areas.

Democracy promoters around the world cling to the hope that assistance given to civil society organizations decreases the risk of civil war and will lead to democracy in post-conflict societies. A particularly promising segment of civil society in peacebuilding is women. Inspired by Welzel and Inglehart's “human empowerment: path to democracy” this study places democracy assistance to women in a broader mechanism which forms a theoretical foundation of this study. The case of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the author's insights from the fieldwork demonstrate that in order to assess the impact of democracy assistance on women's political empowerment the comprehensive women's political empowerment mechanism should be employed. The statistical examination, however, reveals that women's political activism is largely the function of legal empowerment and a country's political and socio-economic characteristics. The study also shows the limitations of current impact evaluation methodologies, and suggests better eva...

The methodology adopted consists in the review of the pertinent literature published both in English and in Portuguese. Although it was not possible to conduct a fi eld study, from the analysis of the literature we identifi ed a certain pattern of issues in relation to the novel housing program adopted in Brazil, which thus informed our assessment and conclusion.

SUMMARY Although considerable resources and attention have been allocated to recent ‘good governance’ public management reform in low income and fragile states, there is little evidence as to what degree this agenda has been implemented nor as to whether it has led to improved services and outcomes for populations. To address this lacuna, we conduct a review of the large but almost entirely qualitative literature on good governance reform in the 49 countries classed as low income by the United Nations. We find only a small number of documents that link good governance public sector reform agendas with implementation. Fewer still assess outcome. We conduct an empirical analysis of the relationship between reform agenda (using data from the literature review), implementation, service delivery and outcomes, as measured by performance on Millennium Development Goals indicators. We report that there is little, if any, empirical evidence that reform enhances service delivery. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Polish government funds NGO democracy-assistance programs in Belarus and Ukraine, recognizing that it is in Poland's interest that its neighbors should develop in positive directions, that Poland has a moral obligation to help others as it was helped, and that Poland's own successful post-communist transition lends authority and expertise to its efforts in support of democratization and development.

The aim of this paper is twofold: to highlight the need of combining economic and political perspectives in analyzing sanctions outcomes, and to list and elaborate on challenges connected with uniting these two standpoints and creating cohesive and valid measurement methods. We not only credit this fusion as useful, but necessary to evaluate sanctions’ efficiency and effectiveness. We display these challenges in sanctions’ assessment and measurement by systematizing what we already know about the sanction effectiveness in political science and economics literature and by demonstrating strengths and weaknesses of some already published effectiveness evaluations. The paper is the part of the larger research project that we recently embarked upon with aim to analyze the onset, economic impact and effectiveness of sanctions imposed by the European Union Cel tego artykułu jest dwojaki. Pierwszy, to podkreślenie konieczności połączenia perspektywy ekonomicznej i politycznej w ocenie skutków sankcji. Drugi, to diagnoza i analiza wyzwań związanych z połączeniem tych perspektyw w taki sposób, aby stworzyć spójny oraz rzetelny merytorycznie i metodycznie sposób pomiaru tego zjawiska. Połączenie perspektywy ekonomicznej i politologicznej uznajemy nie tyle za pożyteczne, co niezbędne do prawidłowej oceny efektywności i skuteczności sankcji. Wyzwania związane z integrowaniem perspektyw i wypracowaniem narzędzi pomiaru prezentujemy przez pryzmat krytycznej analizy dotychczasowych badań dotyczących oceny skuteczności i efektywności sankcji, ukazując każdorazowo mocne i słabe strony zastosowanego podejścia. Artykuł jest częścią większego projektu dotyczącego przesłanek, ekonomicznego wpływu i skuteczności sankcji nakładanych przez Unię Europejską.

The paper gives a brief analysis of the ICRC Code of Conduct for Disaster Relief and propose improvements same and possible changes.

Mediation is one of the few mechanisms the international community can deploy that will affect civil wars. This article introduces the dataset on mediation in civil wars – termed the Civil War Mediation (CWM) dataset. This is the first dataset to focus solely on civil war mediation. These data contribute to the present state of quantitative research on mediation in three important respects: the data are collected for the period of 1946–2004, are organized by mediation cases and by civil war episode, and provide detailed information about mediation incidences. The article first presents a few variables included in the dataset that are motivated by theoretical arguments from the literature. After a presentation of summary statistics, attention is turned to using the CWM data to explore the determinants of mediation. Mediation is shown to be a function of war type (territorial and internationalized wars are more likely to be mediated), war duration (the longer the war the higher the probability of mediation), supply-side factors (the number of democracies in the world and the global polity average), and stratum (subsequent wars are less likely to be mediated). Battle-related deaths also seem to increase the chances of mediation, though the relationship is only weakly significant. The article concludes with suggestions for future research that can benefit from the dataset.

When the Enlargement took place on 1 May 2004, The Common Trade Policy with all trade policy instrument were automatically applied to imports into the enlarged European Union. As a result, current EU trade defence law and measures are automatically in force in Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Following this the new Member States no longer apply their own, national trade defence action, they also cannot use trade defence instruments against each other. It means, furthermore, that all trade defence measures that EU-15 had against imports from any of the new Member States disappeared automatically after 1 May 2004. Equally, measures among the new Member States also disappear. Undoubtedly, the EU Eastern Enlargement created new conditions in which found themselves 8 countries from Central and Eastern Europe that became EU new members as well as Russia that stayed outside the Community. The aim of this paper, therefore was to analyse the potential effect of adopting the EU trade laws and measures applicable to Russian imports by Poland - country that always had the strongest trade ties with Russia from all post –Soviet bloc. Despite the comparative analysis of customs duty rates applied to Russian products and as well as selection of trade defence measures against Russia's export before and after Poland's accession to the EU in chapter third, the paper also describes the EU Common Trade Policy and what the adoption of this policy means for member states and non-members. Moreover, a short outline of mutual Russia - Poland trade relations is included in order to present subject in more comprehensive way and make reader familiar with the back ground of research.