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The article deals with the issue of planning social and spatial integration in the so--called contact areas, where different political and cultural units meet and interlace. Thestudy of such areas copes both with the persistent and immanent forms of territoriality inhuman beings and increasing quests for functional social, economic and spatial(re)integration. Both trends lead towards a multi-level and often contradictory relationshipbetween different territories and borders, which emerge from the simultaneouslydeveloping processes of social and spatial convergence and divergence. For this reason,both theory and practice of political geography are permanently challenged by shiftingpolicies of integration and/or separation, and social and spatial planning in Europeanmulticultural and border regions appears to be a difficult, almost Sisyphean task. Yet, itis central to the creation of more stable opportunities for both coexistence and development.This article provides a review of author’s considerations of political geographicaltransformations and issues related to European contact areas in the pre-modern, modernand post-modern period, with special emphasis on minorities and cross-border cooperation,suggesting to promote an integrative and multilevel approach that could somehowreplace the classic "national" policies in relation to border areas development andminority protection.
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The history of Europe and the world can be presented as a history of the relations between territory of states and language areas. Except for the earliest period of tribal states Europe and the world were characterised by independence of state and language – on the territory of a state several languages were spoken, the same languages were used in several states, on the same territory several languages were used in various functions. In later periods simplification of language situation took place – adjustment of language to state territory and adjustment of state territory to language, reduction of the number of languages in the public sphere. This process was the most intense in Europe in the period of modernity and nationalism (ca. 1800–1950, on a part of Europe’s territory also later, to present day). It was accompanied by political conflicts within individual states and between states dramatically changing the political map the continent. As a result, in Europe there is almost ideal situation where each state has its own language and each language has its own state. Outside Europe similar processes, although with a weaker pace, occur also in most countries of Asia where each country has its own main language. In Asia, contrary to Europe, there has not been adjustment of state territory to language areas. In postcolonial countries of America, Africa (outside Arab countries), Oceania and Asia (India, Singapore) the main language adjusted to state territory is a language of a former metropolis. In Arab countries the colonial heritage causes the very existence of these states and determines their boundaries but the Arab nationalism is strong enough to make Arabic the common language of these states.
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The paper presents the life and the creative deeds of the Polish geographer, Roman Umiastowski (1893–1982). During the inter-war period Umiastowski was a staff officer of the Polish army in the grade of a colonel. At the same time, he indulged very much in geography and authored numerous books and scientific articles. In the introductory part of the article the military deeds of Umiastoswki’s during the World War I and the struggle for the sovereignty of Poland (1918–1920) are outlined. Then, his achievements are presented as a scholar, a journalist and a lecturer of the higher military schools. Umiastowski wrote, in particular, at the beginning of the 1920s, two books. The first of those was entitled The territory of Poland in military terms, and the second – The military geography of the Polish Commonwealth and of the neighbouring countries. These books were definitely novel, not only in Polish literature, but also in the world literature, as devoted to the military geography. The two books are commented upon in the paper, along with their methodological prerequisites and the substantive qualities. The paper notes, as well, that Umiastowski authored also the reports concerning the political geography. Thus, in particular, he considered the Polish-Russian and the Polish- -German relations. After the German and then the Soviet aggressions against Poland in September 1939, Umiastowski landed in France, to thereafter reach the United Kingdom, where he still conducted the journalist activity. After the WWII, until his death, he remained emigrant, while collecting old maps and engravings, mainly those concerning the history of Poland in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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The article analyzes Polish borders, territory and geopolitical position during the 1st, 2ndand 3rd Republics, including communist period. It argues that the most coherentterritorially is Poland in the post-war borders. From a political-geographical perspectiveit assesses the contemporary western Polish border positively, and the eastern bordernegatively. It draws attention to the importance of the degree of integration of theinternational environment around Poland for its security and sovereignty, arguing that sofar it has been better for Poland to have more neighbors than less.
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This article presents the stages of development of transport relations connecting theBaltic Sea with the Adriatic Sea with particular emphasis on Polish lands. Reference ismade to both the evolution of transport systems and changes in the flow of goods indifferent periods of the development of Polish and changes in country borders, throughwhich passes the Trans-European Transport corridor No. VI.
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The article presents the results of research related to the legal and political determinantsof the development of the rural settlement in Middle Ages and Modern Period in the prepartitionŁęczyca and Sieradz voivodeships. In the light of historical sources inconfrontation with historiography one can indicate the general features shaping the ruralsettlement in the context of the discussed category of factors. The article analyzes theimpact of fortified settlements administration, development of large estates and thereception of German law during the Middle Ages, as well as the processes ofrefeudalization and expansion of manorial economy, divisions of property and newforms of rental settlement related with Dutch and Frederician colonization in the ModernPeriod.
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Many political changes during the last centuries caused that East Europe is inhabited bymany minorities. Early 90s brought many geopolitical changes in Europe, especially asa result of the collapse of Soviet Union independence were achieved Baltic Republics.These little countries with a small population have very high ethnic diversity. Nowadaysthe national minorities are quite important part of different societies but they have alsodifferent functional possibilities. In different countries they have different legal statuswhich influence on their situations.In the article, the author presents number and distribution of main centers of the Polishminority in the Republic of Latvia in the light of the results of 2011census. The studyalso shows the main activities of social organizations and the Polish minority schools inLatvia. In the research used the sociological method of in-depth interviews with theleaders of Polish organizations, which main aim was to find out the opinion of the mostactive and the most competent group of activists.
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In discussions on democratic legitimacy, Christiano’s position is often characterized as a monistic position, i.e. a strong and persuasive version of fair deliberative proceduralism. Democracy is thus seen as a realization of public equality in collective decision-making. The presented case for democracy is non-instrumental, and the quality of outcomes produced by a democratic decision-making process does not constitute or in any way influence the legitimacy – generating features of that decision-making process. I argue that the quality of political decisions produced by a democratic decision-making process should play an important (though not decisive) role in Christiano’s argument. Consequently, I claim that his case for democracy should be (at least somewhat) instrumental. I consider four cases from Christiano’s The Constitution of Equality that show how outcomes of democratic procedures are very important to Christiano. Furthermore, I argue that these outcomes are so important that, when deciding between two or more fair decision-making procedures, one that produces the best outcomes should be considered legitimate.
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This paper examines the principle of public equality which, according to the view Thomas Christiano defends in his book The Constitution of Equality: Democratic Authority and Its Limits, is of central importance for social justice and democracy. Christiano also holds that the authority of democracy, and its limits, are grounded in this principle. Christiano’s democratic theory can be, broadly speaking, divided in two parts. The first part deals with the derivation and justification of the principle of public equality. The second part argues why and how the authority of democracy, and its limits, are based on this principle. This article will deal only with the first part of Christiano’s theory. While I believe that the second part is crucially important for Christiano’s democratic theory, I think that before examining the role of the principle of public equality, it is necessary to examine its nature. For that reason, this paper deals primarily with the nature of the principle of public equality as the requirement of social justice and the basis for the justification of democracy.
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The paper is dedicated to replies to Christiano’s criticism of Rawlsian public reason. Although Christiano’s criticism is successful in relation to one possible interpretation of the public reason view, a better and more fructuous interpretation of the public reason view is at the disposition of the Rawlsian project. This view of public reason is deliberately an idealization. It shows how public justification would function in a well-ordered society where citizens are committed to liberal values. The shared reasons relevant for public justification are represented by the ideal of society as a fair system of cooperation between free and equal citizens, as well as by the three features of the liberal conceptions of justice (basic rights and liberties, their priority, and the means to use them). In virtue of this view of public reason, it avoids Christiano’s objection of the utopianism of shared reasons, and it replies to the inequality argument, as well as to the generality and vagueness objection, and the inconsistency argument. The advantages of the proposal in the view of public reason, in comparison to Christiano’s proceduralist democratic proposal, are shown in the reply to the inequality argument.
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In his The Constitution of Equality: Democratic Authority and its Limits Christiano defends an idea that democracy has authority because it realizes public equality. According to Christiano, for realization of public equality there is no need for any restriction on the content of reasons we offer each other to justify laws and policies. In this paper I try to show that there are good reasons to think that boundaries of public reason can more deeply realize public equality in plural society and I also try to defend this view from some criticisms given by Christiano in his book.
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Thomas Christiano claims that one of the fundamental challenges democracy is faced with is the appropriate division of epistemic labor between citizens and experts. In this article I try to present and analyze Christiano’s solution from the perspective of social epistemology while utilizing the concepts and tools provided by this discipline. Despite fundamentally agreeing with his position, I attempt to propose a certain addition which might enrich this solution with additional epistemic and political responsibility. In the first part, I briefly elaborate on the relevance of social epistemology in discussions regarding the epistemic justification of deliberative democracy. In the second part, I contextualize Christiano’s view within discourses regarding social epistemology and identify his approach as reliability democracy due to his belief that truth-sensitive decision-making processes are ensured through the usage of reliable mechanisms (which allow for expertise to generate the epistemically best decisions possible). In the third part I attempt to provide arguments that support further elaboration of Christiano’s proposals in the direction of ensuring additional epistemic and democratic quality of decisions.
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The article explores Thomas Christiano’s account of the moral division of labor in democracy. Christiano’s incorporation of experts serves the purpose of alleviating the epistemic burdens of ordinary citizens in the decision-making process and decreasing the amount of work they would otherwise be required to take on in a modern democracy. The gist of my contribution to the debate is assessing whether Christiano’s account successfully tackles the issues brought about by cognitive biases that people suffer from in communicating their values in decision-making. I argue that Christiano’s notion of experts needs to be extended to choice architects, who possess the knowledge on methods for influencing choice. I also claim that choice architecture is a social fact that an informed deliberative democratic theory needs to deal with.
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I am deeply honored by the papers in this symposium. The authors have all devoted an enormous amount of energy and care to thinking about many of the ideas I have written about over the last twenty or so years. I am extremely grateful and humbled by their attention to my work. I have also found every paper to be deeply illuminating; in some cases, I have found myself rethinking my positions; in other cases, I see areas which demand more attention than I have given up to now; in yet other cases I have acquired a deeper appreciation for the challenges that my views and arguments face. In each case, I learned a great deal both from the papers and the discussions about earlier drafts of these papers that took place at a conference on Equality and Citizenship at the University of Rijeka on July 1 and 2, 2014.
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This article considers the work of Thomas Piketty on inequality, with special emphasis on the reception of his ideas in the social sciences. First, a quantitative analysis of the works that cite Piketty’s most important publications examines the reception of Piketty in academic debates. Next, the critiques of Piketty from economics and sociology, two often opposed disciplines that have devoted the most attention to discussing Piketty, are considered. This article supplements existing critiques with additional suggestions that are relevant to both the scientific analysis of inequality and the process of imaging various reforms that could cope with the problem of inequality.
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The author, on the basis of archive materials, press and literature reconstruct the life and political activity of politician Party Ante Paradžik. During the Croatian Spring Paradžik was elected president of the Union of Croatian students who gathered representatives of all Croatian university centers. As one of the leaders of the student movement of 1971, he was sentenced to three years in prison, which he fully served. With the establishment of the multiparty system in Croatia, Paradžik was a reformer and vice president of the Croatian Party of Right, and the main political goal of the party was an independent state of Croatia. The outbreak of the aggression against Croatia, Paradžik together with Dobroslav Paraga organized volunteer party militiamen called Croatian Defence Forces. He was also vice president of the Croatian Democratic Club of Central Europe and the Secretary General of the Croatian Association of Political Prisoners. He was killed in 1991 under unclear circumstances by members of the Croatian police.
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