Regional Formation and Development Studies

The main objective of this study is to show the willingness of citizens to act through the prism of opportunities offered by participation at the local level. Citizens’ activity in public life is the core of democracy. Their engagement may assume various forms, among which the most common form is participation in elections. When it comes to direct democracy, participation in referendums is most widespread. However, an element of democracy, which is cognitively equally important as the above ones, results from citizens’ engagement in institutional activity through membership in political parties, trade unions, non-governmental organisations or local associations. It is also worth mentioning the participation expressed through signing of petitions, taking part in demonstrations or involvement in local initiatives. Having considered all the above data, one can state that it is clearly visible who undertakes political participation in Poland more often, and for whom this is a less frequent activity. This analysis with its conclusions seems to be a crucial suggestion for people who would like to take effective steps in order to increase citizens’ engagement in politics.

The subject of this study is to present the process of implementing the concept of e-citizen in Poland in the perspective of industry 4.0. In the global world, a significant part of public administration, including local government administration, aims to increase activity using Information and Communication Technology. This process allows introducing more efficient functioning of public administration, especially in the scope of providing services to the citizen. Changes in the functioning of public administration are forced by changes in ICT, in particular by those resulting from the current implementation of the concept of industry 4.0. The result of the research was a description not only the legal bases or development policies of public e-administration, but first and foremost to indicate its practical implementation effects. As part of the practical effects, the study will present examples of the effects of e-administration implementation in the Otwock County. In particular, the attention will be paid to the implementation of elements of computerization of administration by the local authorities, and how it affects local sustainable development.

Based on sixteen Polish provinces the author discusses, explores, evaluates and diagnoses the regional disparities in development of Poland’s provinces. First, four fields are studied, such as: demographic potential, social development, economic development and technical infrastructure. Next, the author compares sixteen Polish provinces in relation to the level of synthetic measure of socioeconomic development. Research covers the years 2006, 2010 and 2015 and has been conducted using statistical material provided by the Central Statistical Office. The research tools used in the article include literature studies, descriptive analysis and selected methods of multivariate comparative analysis. Multivariate comparative analysis has proved that Mazovia Province is a leader in terms of demographic potential and economic development, while Silesia Province takes the first position in both social development and technical infrastructure. The highest levels of synthetic measure of socioeconomic development have been observed in Mazovia Province and Silesia Province. In addition, the author presents theoretical aspects of socioeconomic development and discusses the relevance of regional policy.

The article examines the role of the last Jagiellonian monarchs, Sigismund I (1506-1548) and his son Sigismund II Augustus (1548-1572), in promoting and securing religious peace in the multi-confessional society of the 16th-century Rzeczpospolita. The author argues that the Jagiellonian dynasty, which ascended to the Polish throne in 1386 and ruled until 1572, contributed significantly to the rise of religious pluralism in Poland and Lithuania, and paved the way for a mechanism of tolerance which made it possible for religious groups to live together and to respect their religious diversity. The author analyses the anti-heretical laws passed by Sigismund I in the 1520s, and Sigismund II in the 1550s, which were intended to suppress the dissemination of Reformation ideas. In these documents, both monarchs declared their loyalty to the Roman Church, and threatened followers of the Reformation with severe penalties. All these documents give an insight into the religious policy of the Polish kings. Anti-heretical legislation was just one part of a more complex and sophisticated policy of the Jagiellonian kings, which aimed at preserving the religious status quo in the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Rzeczpospolita.

Local and exotic flint use and distribution are considered as markers of group mobility. The Arch Backed Pieces and the Mazovian societies organised logistics expeditions in various directions, south-north, west-east, using natural routes as river valleys, but also crossing mountains. Their motives seem to be different and not only connected with economic necessity and subsistence strategy. Group mobility, observed rarely on distances more than tens of hundreds of kilometres, was probably a seasonal event, but sometimes may be a reflection of a permanent exodus.