The contemporary Russian Federation is undergoing a process of democratic regression and a return... more The contemporary Russian Federation is undergoing a process of democratic regression and a return to the socio-political authoritarianism, traditional to the Russian political system. The detachment of decision-making processes from the will of the citizens means that elites follow their own logic of action while remaining outside democratic control. Thus, all decisions are taken in the interests of the elites, most of whom come from the secret services and the military. The consolidation of the political regime, the regression of democracy in Russian conditions, promotes a return to great power thinking and thus encourages aggressive behaviour. In the article, the author points out that the aggression against Ukraine, undertaken in January 2022, was preceded by a long-term process of consolidation of the political system and elimination from its structure of any check and balance mechanisms allowing democratic control over political decision-making processes.
The term Pan-Turkism refers to an intellectual and political movement advocating the union of all... more The term Pan-Turkism refers to an intellectual and political movement advocating the union of all Turkic people. Pan-Turkism emerged among Tatars intellectuals in Tsarist Russia. In Tsarist Russia Pan-Turkism was in a part response to the development Pan-Slavism. At the beginning of twenty-first century Pan-Turkism became popular among the members of Committee of Union and Progress in the Ottoman Empire. After the Young Turks Revolution Pan-Turkism become a main political idea in the Ottoman state. The rise of a PAN-TURKISM as political movement is a phenomenon of the 19th and the 20th century. In this article author argues that the Pan-Turkism ideology still can be used by contemporary Turkey authority against Russia. Calling for a political unity and solidarity among Turkic groups can be a serious threat for Russian authority. The collapse of Soviet Union and the emergence of new Turkish states gave fresh hope many Pan-Turkists in Turkey, Caucasus and Central Asia. The annexation ...
Teoria elit Charlesa Wrighta Millsa w perspektywie współczesnych procesów regresu demokracji
Athenaeum Polskie Studia Politologiczne
The aim of the article is to present the works of Charles Wright Mills, primarily his trilogy tha... more The aim of the article is to present the works of Charles Wright Mills, primarily his trilogy that criticizes contemporary American society and elites: The New Men in Power, White Collar: The American Middle Classes, and The Power Elite. Although more than half a century has passed since the first publication of these works, the conclusions made by Mills seem to be still valid for us. In his works Mills described the negative aspects resulting from the development of modern society: mass society, disappearance of the public sphere, bureaucratization and concentration of corporate power in the hands of the “power elite”. All this means that Mills’ thought is still relevant. The article attempts to indicate the universal nature of Mills’ elite theory and use it to explain the causes of contemporary processes of democratic regression.
In the article, we present Polish Catholicism as an example of folk religion. As a result of a co... more In the article, we present Polish Catholicism as an example of folk religion. As a result of a complicated political history, the Catholic Church became not only the depositary of Christian faith and morality, but also the mainstay of Polish national identity, shaped during the partitions in opposition to Russian Orthodoxy and Prussian Protestantism. It was then that Polishness became a stereotypical synonym of Catholicism. The stereotype of a Pole—a Catholic was consolidated. In Poland, as a predominantly agricultural country, folk religiosity was shaped, appealing to the sphere of ideas and emotions of the rural population or of those of rural origin settled in urban centres. This form of piety was reinforced by Polish Romanticism with its folk preferences. Romanticism, although often inconsistent with Catholic dogmatics, took root in Catholic circles. Its legacy is the messianism present in the Polish collective consciousness, which is also dear to many Catholic thinkers and cler...
Russia driven out of Europe'' - the Consequences for the International Order on the Eve of the 21st Century
The anti-Occidental turn of Russian policy does not have to be permanent as the Russians still ha... more The anti-Occidental turn of Russian policy does not have to be permanent as the Russians still have a strong feeling of belonging toEuropean culture and civilization ; yet winning the Russian Federation’s ‘backing’ as a partner of the West will be difficult and significantly more costly than it would have been in the early 1990s, when Russia was ready to make considerable concessions, to undergo the process of modernization and democratization in return for being included in the ‘common European home.’ The consequence of current processes in the international environment is that Gorbatchev’s vision, which became the foundation for the pro-Western turn in Russian policy, has never been further away from its implementation
Rola i znaczenie tradycji w funkcjonowaniu wsp\uf3\u142czesnych instytucji politycznych w Rosji
S\u142owa kluczowe: socjologia polityczna; historia polityczna i gospodarcza Rosji \u2013 od 1991... more S\u142owa kluczowe: socjologia polityczna; historia polityczna i gospodarcza Rosji \u2013 od 1991 r.; to\u17csamo\u15b\u107 kulturowa i cywilizacyjna Rosji; system partyjny Rosji; warto\u15bci polityczne spo\u142ecze\u144stwa rosyjskiego \u2013 20-21 w
System partyjny Rosji: tradycja i wsp\uf3\u142czesno\u15b\u107
S\u142owa kluczowe: socjologia polityczna; historia polityczna i gospodarcza Rosji \u2013 19-21 w... more S\u142owa kluczowe: socjologia polityczna; historia polityczna i gospodarcza Rosji \u2013 19-21 w.; partie polityczne i system partyjny w Rosji \u2013 19-21 w.; transformacja ustrojowa w Rosji \u2013 od 1991 r.; to\u17csamo\u15b\u107 kulturowa i cywilizacyjna Rosj
Russia - in search of a model of a political regime : ''Western polyarchy'' or ''Asian democracy
One of the fields of interest of modern political science involves the process of transformation ... more One of the fields of interest of modern political science involves the process of transformation of political systems, understood as the transition from nondemocratic to democratic systems. One of the countries undergoing such a political transformation is the Russian Federation, which in the nineteen-nineties faced the need to reject the model of the socio-political system of the Soviet Union, and to adjust to the emerging global civilization dominated by the models originating in West European countries. The paper emphasizes that, on account of the difficulties related to the process of political transformation, at the beginning of the new millennium West European models began to be supplanted by the models of Asian countries enjoying impressive economic growth while maintaining paternalist and authoritarian mechanisms of power. The author of the paper stresses that the political system of the modern Russian Federation is a particular mix of European and Asian models. Its function...
Local democracy and local government are popular terms and they are playing as the most important... more Local democracy and local government are popular terms and they are playing as the most important dimensions in the viability of any modern democracy. Alexis Tocqueville, who wrote a major book about democracy, considered local government as the mainstay of local democracy. He also saw local democracy as a school of political education and a safety valve of democracy for the entire nation. Most of the European countries have attempted to incorporate these concepts into their political and development process. In article author analyses the role of local government in Russian political system. Objective of the article is to identify and characterize the main stages of development of local self-government in Russia.
Spo\u142eczno-kulturowy kontekst aktywno\u15bci mi\u119dzynarodowej Federacji
S\u142owa kluczowe: socjologia polityczna; to\u17csamo\u15b\u107 kulturowa i cywilizacyjna Rosji;... more S\u142owa kluczowe: socjologia polityczna; to\u17csamo\u15b\u107 kulturowa i cywilizacyjna Rosji; polityka zagraniczna Rosji \u2013 20-21 w.; teoria globalizacji a teoria stosunk\uf3w mi\u119dzynarodowych; Rosja a \u15bwiat Zachodu i Wschod
Contemporary world is changing at an incredibly fast pace. IT revolution and globalization proces... more Contemporary world is changing at an incredibly fast pace. IT revolution and globalization processes have led to a deep transformation of our social life and the change of relations between human activity and space in which this activity takes place. Growing correlation on a global scale, mutual conditioning of what is global (external) and what is local (internal), high mobility of people, capital, ideas flowing freely on a global scale affect the increasing permeability of borders, which to a lesser extent perform their functions. Political geography, which as a scientific discipline focusing on the spatial aspects of human activity, must find an answer to the question how to analyze spatial systems in their relation to power in the world where majority of processes assumes global character, spatial distances in their current meaning lose their importance, and human activity is often separated and independent from a specific location in space. In the submitted article the author a...
The theories of Henri Lefebvre on the Production of Space have influenced our understanding of th... more The theories of Henri Lefebvre on the Production of Space have influenced our understanding of the ontology of space. The processes of constructing and “appropriating” space are important elements of man’s political activity. Space is not neutral: its alleged objectivity is treated in a voluntary manner, depending on political demand. The importance given to geographical space and the supposed “laws” governing history are instruments of political indoctrination or propaganda justification of the pursued policy pursued. Space is political and ideological. Borders, political maps and states are the products of human political activity; they are “socially produced”. In contemporary political geography, the theme of “the production of space” is very popular. The main goal of the article is to analyse the currently important research category – “geographical imaginations”. This category is mainly used to understand our perception of space and the roots of political conflicts.
Chiny na rozdrożu – wyzwania i problemy nowych władz ChRL
China on the crossroads: challenges and problems of the new PRC government Since opening up to fo... more China on the crossroads: challenges and problems of the new PRC government Since opening up to foreign trade and investment and implementing free market reform in 1979, China has become one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, with real annual gross domestic products growth averaging nearly 10% through 2013. In recent years, China has emerged as a major global economic and trade power and its predicted to become the world’s largest economy. The global economy crisis tha began in 2008 greatly affected China’s economy, GDP growth downturned and millions of Chinese workers lost their jobs. Economic model that worked so well during the early years of China’s development now needs to be changed. It’s one of the main challenges for the new Chinese leaders. China’s once-in-decade transition to a new generation of leaders took place at the 18th Party Congress in November 2012. At the 18th Party Congress the fifth generation of leaders came to power. In this article Author argues that ...
Mitteleuropa vs panslawizm. Polityczne wizje organizacji przestrzeni środkowo-europejskiej
Creating of social order based od myth shared by all the members of community. Those collective m... more Creating of social order based od myth shared by all the members of community. Those collective myths and imaginations are used for to build the social order and to mobilize people for cooperation in society. Political elites uses collective myth and emotions with them relate in order to mobilize people for achievement of political purpose. The purpose of the article is to analyse how political elites create and use collective myth to legitimize their political activity. In the example of Russian panslavism and German Mitteleuropa the author examines the role of “geopolitical imagination” in political competition and legitimizing claims in a particular territory.
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Papers by Jakub Potulski