The article deals with evaluation in the political process. Presented theoretical discourse, practice of international institutions, and empirical research results allow to answer the question when an evaluation is a tool of a critical analysis and when its role is limited to an instrumental element of know-how.

Polish educational system has been in the recent years the playground for incessant reforms and experiments. The purpose of that paper is therefore, to present the changes that took place in the last decade, hence influencing Polish educational policy, in particular pedagogical control. Moreover, the analysis of legislative acts, organizational documents and the literature regarding the area of pedagogical control aim at assessing the effectiveness of such policy.

The article analyses the policy of Conservative and Labour Parties concluded towards local government between 1979–2010. The authoress focuses on reforms and changes introduced to local administration by conservative cabinets of Thatcher and Major and Labour one of Blair and Brown. The conclusion forms an attempt to present fi ndings from British experiences in local reforms.

The following paper critically evaluates the health care system in Poland, including the market reform of the Polish healthcare system between 1999 and 2010. The article presents the  process of ownership transformation, including the scale and dynamics of the introduced reform. Apart from analysing the core assumptions and aims of the long-term programme entitled „Wsparcie jednostek samorządu terytorialnego w działaniach stabilizujących system ochrony zdrowia” (Support for Local Authorities in Healthcare System Stabilization) the paper analyses proposed solutions based on the so called „health acts package” including the health care activity bill.
The main aim of this paper is to critically evaluate the health care system reform in Poland, mainly focusing on the process of commercialisation of public hospitals. As a conclusion it is suggested that the introduced reform does not solve the most important problems of the Polish healthcare system in a comprehensive and suffi cient manner.

Foresight is an instrument of strategic planning proved in enterprises and in public policy. The aim of this paper is presentation of the foresight role as well as related to it experiences during creation of regional development policy with a special attention laid to key success factor

The aim of this article is to analyze the status of implementation of the development of the leisure industry policy within The Malopolska Region Development Strategy for 2007–2013. On the base of analysis of the strategic documents and analysis of the indicators for the  evaluation of the implementation of the policy, the authors made an assessment of the activities of the Malopolska Region in the field of the development of the culture industry.

The article omits the role of the Krakow Festival Office in the Krakow cultural system. Krakow Festival Office is the institution which organizational profile and a kind of proposed cultural events is quite different from the traditional cultural institutions that have been characterized so far. Krakow Festival Office implements projects that are far broader and far more expensive than other institutions. It is difficult not to notice that Krakow Festival Office is privileged when considering international cultural projects in the Strategy of Culture Development in Krakow. Theatres and exhibition institutions have some chances for growth considering the statements in the Strategy. However the situation of libraries and cultural houses ma get worse. The strength of cultural institutions lies also in the strength of cultural houses and libraries. It seems though that the authors of the Strategy neglect the role of institutions mentioned above in the social capital building. Reading the Strategy of Culture Development in Cracow one may have justifies doubts whether the interests of the local citizens are sufficiently taken care of. It seems that the Strategy centrates more on promotional marketing for the Krakow brand and  ess on the cultural needs of Krakow’s citizens. Both directions of cultural policy do not exclude each other. The proper research on the needs of Krakow’s citizens is missing. Thus it is difficult to rationalize the spending on culture in Krakow including the need of Krakow’s citizens as well as the investment in the promotion of culture in Krakow in the international area.

The article covers the issue of cooperation between the public and nongovernment sector starting with the review of problems connected to the legał operation of the nongovernmental sector in Poland, through the descriptions of relationships and correlations between the two sectors, to finish with an attempt of critical analysis of cooperation programs between communes and nongovernmental organizations in the cultural policies illustrated with an example of the cities – Cracow and Warsaw.

Mobility of students, mobility of scientists and ECT system — implementation of the Bologna Process in Polish universities

The article introduces the idea of the Bologna Process – a European-wide initiative which focuses on changes in the higher education system. The strategic aim of this policy is to create a European Higher Education Area and to improve its international competitiveness.
The authors analyze the genesis of the idea of the Bologna Process, briefly discuss its strategic objectives, the tools used to achieve them and describe the stakeholders taking part in the implementation of the policy at the European and national levels. The essay concentrates on the description of the two out of six main tools of the Bologna Process: mobility and ECTS system as well as their implementation in Polish universities

According to strategic objectives of European Union the Doctoral studies in Higher Education Policy represents a crucial human resource for knowledge based innovation economy. The  results of the empirical research about careers of doctorate holders show the effectiveness of this priority in Poland

This article aims at critical analysis of the M Recommendation which is related to the operational risk management in banks. Such risk may consist of four factors: human errors, system errors, process defi ciencies as well as external infl uence. To exemplify the results of wrong risk management, some bank bankruptcy together with the scale of internal and external fraud have been presented