Recently, the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Poland and the Czech Republic has increased, which has translated into a growing tendency to change the procedures for social assistance provision. However, the relationships between public administration and non-governmental organisations differ in both countries. The Najam Four-C’s Model is used in this paper to describe how NGOs and public administration approach the problem of homelessness in the Czech Republic and Poland. To explore this issue, the authors conducted interviews with public servants and NGOs’ mangers in both countries. The findings show that, as far as homelessness is concerned, NGOs and state authorities function on the basis of complementarity in Poland as well as in the Czech Republic.

W artykule scharakteryzowano wykorzystywane przez gminy narzędzia komunikowania z mieszkańcami. Podstawą do przygotowania artykułu były badania jakościowe (wywiady pogłębione) i ilościowe (wybrane pytanie z kwestionariusza ankiety) przeprowadzone w wyodrębnionej grupie gmin z koabitacją w kadencji 2014-2018. Celem artykułu jest wskazanie czy i jakiego rodzaju narzędzia komunikowania z mieszkańcami stosują władze gminy? Jaka jest skuteczność tych narzędzi? Czy rodzaj koabitacji: konfliktowa vs. pokojowa ma wpływ na sposób informowania mieszkańców? Jak wprowadzone w styczniu 2018 zmiany w prawie samorządowym (których celem było m.in. zwiększenie transparentności funkcjonowania władz samorządowych) wpłyną na sposób komunikowania się władz z mieszkańcami?

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In the present legal state, the mayor is an important political leader in Polish municipalities. On account of being elected in direct elections and enjoying a broad range of powers, he/she is a natural local leader. Another municipal authority is the council, which fulfills decision-making and supervisory functions. Whether the mayor can effectively act depends on the outcome of elections and, in consequence, the council’s composition. Elections may lead to the phenomenon of cohabitation. This occurs when the mayor does not have the support of an absolute majority in the council or represents the opposite political camp to the members of the municipal council. Taking into account 1,737 questionnaires and 74 interviews, it turns out that mayors do not operate in a political and administrative vacuum. Even if they make decisions on their own, they need internal (councilors, local government employees) and external (entrepreneurs, representatives of NGOs, the Catholic Church, political parties) help.

This paper gathers Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s selected statements relating to thereception of his most significant work of art The Red Wheel. The conditions of “properreading” are depicted in Solzhenitsyn’s interviews, journalistic texts and fragmentsof the narrative included in his epic. The author of the paper explores the writer’srequirements that concern the influence of literature and a reader’s response to thehistorical novel. The reconstruction of Solzhenitsyn’s model reception also enablesto define the writer’s attitude towards his reader. The author of The Red Wheel believesin the social role of literature and the universal meaning of a literary text concentratedon truth, thus Solzhenitsyn’s approach stresses the ethical dimension of literature andthe figure of writer as a guide.