Political Sciences

Research Topic Summary.

Democracy, as a political form of governance, faces many challenges in both old and new democracies. The quality of democratic processes is a subject of constant monitoring by political scientists. Recent political processes in many democratic countries pose serious challenges to multi-party systems, trust in the political systems themselves and assessments of their effectiveness. Dissatisfaction with nation-states and especially supranational organizations is growing, and the NATO and European Union is experiencing an identity and institutional crisis. Most often, citizens' dissatisfaction is caused by bureaucracy, inefficiency and/or corruption in the public sector. In addition, societies themselves are changing as they increasingly are influenced by mediatization processes, which in turn begin to affect political processes. On the other hand, in modern democracies, attempts are being made to implement new models of public governance that emphasize the participation of citizens and interest organizations, transparency, accountability and other ethical values, inter-institutional cooperation between government institutions and the impact of public policy on the development of the welfare state. Dissertation projects could include studies that explore political attitudes, values and behavior, political and social participation, political parties and political elites, political institutions, interest organizations, mediatization of politics and public life, new forms and models of political communication, actors, processes and instruments of public governance. They could be based on the analysis of data from international longitudinal social surveys. These studies allow comparative analyses both over time and across countries. Thus, results of these analyses could provide more complete understanding of societal and political trends. Another source of data could be the so-called “big data”, which are the product of communication of citizens and politicians in various public spaces, especially, on the Internet and social media. Politics is increasingly moving to social media, therefore, the behavior of the political community and the attitudes expressed in the social media are an important part of the understanding of modern political processes. At least one defended dissertation is expected.

Research Topic Summary.

Contemporary public governance operates in conditions of increasing complexity, interdependence, and uncertainty, where decisions are made within multi-actor networks involving diverse stakeholders. In such environments, responsibility becomes not only a formal requirement but also a practical dilemma, as public actors must reconcile collective and fragmented responsibilities with the need for rapid responses to crises. Internationally, growing attention is given to resilience as a key principle of governance, understood as the capacity of institutions to adapt, learn, and transform. However, adaptive practices introduce new challenges regarding how responsibility is distributed and how institutional performance is evaluated under uncertainty. Existing research tends to address resilience and accountability separately, leaving a gap in understanding their interaction. This study aims to develop and empirically test a model explaining how responsibility practices shape institutional resilience across different European Union contexts. It seeks to identify the conditions under which responsibility enhances the adaptive capacity and democratic legitimacy of public institutions.