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The article is an expression of search for the motivational role of religiosity in individuals' civic activity. Mature civic attitude is shaped by the person's values, individual and communal needs, and experience. The main thesis of the presented study is that the relation between religiosity and human will in many points overlap with the factors which determine the citizen's activity for the benefit of the community. Stefan Huber's Centrality of Religiosity Scale emphasizing the primary importance of the motivational value of religiosity and an original scale measuring civic involvement were used in the study (N = 732). The study proved that religiosity mostly serves as a civic involvement predictor among women from the middle age group. Although a higher level of civic involvement was found in men, religiosity did not prove to be a significant factor explaining its higher level, which means that the determinants for it need to be sought in other spheres.

The aim ot the article is to analyze the barriers that hinder the development of active civic attitudes in Poland. The author reflects on three areas, corresponding to her research hypotheses. The first area concerns trust, which has remained at similarly low levels in Poland for years. The author argues that behavior and attitudes implied by a higher level of trust can successfully regulate cooperation among people, which may replace legal provisions in many fields.The second barrier is an area of religiousness, specific to Poland, which catalyzes citizens' activity. The third area of analysis pertains to the quality of political discourse in Poland, which becomes more and more suffused with agression with the aim of attracting attention of potential constituents rather than substantive discussion.

The article is an attempt to analyze the relations between political trust and one of the greatest problems of the public domain: political corruption. It seems obvious that corrupt behaviors revealed in the public space are supposed to undermine citizens' political trust. This thesis has been empirically verified many times. The author of the paper presents the cause and effect model with institutional trust as the independent variable. The article is an attempt to analyze the possible directions of its influence on political corrupt behaviors, assuming political trust to be the starting point, not the consequence, of the "social disease" occurring in the public domain.

European Parliament elections are a special area for the analysis of electoral volatility understood as changes of electoral support for individual parties occurring in time. Firstly, it is so because they are referred to as second-order elections. Secondly, because despite their supranational character, voting behaviours occurring in them are to a considerable extent moderated by the national context. The article discusses the qualities of European elections which generate electoral volatility at various analysis levels.

AbstractGreat diversity - racial and cultural as well as in terms of quality of life - in the United States forces versatility of electoral activities, pushing them to a certain level of generality, as specific, defined solutions may turn out too narrow for a broad electorate. In specific campaigns, psychological mechanisms become particularly important, especially those which in many ways provide a sense of closeness to the preferred candidate and build a relationship that leads to support and casting a vote in the elections. The present study focuses on three important - from a psychological point of view - issues, which are perfectly represented in the American elections - the narrative of the political image; communities created on the Internet thanks to management of specific electoral groups by politicians, and the presence of humor and satire in the campaign.

Electoral activity in Poland is not entrenched in law in the sense that there is no institutional compulsion to vote. All law is largely the result of a lack of trust, as it clearly and explicitly outlines a series of expectations and requirements, and the consequences of failure to comply with them. Th us, political and electoral activation of the citizens requires a foundation that will motivate individuals to exercise their right to vote. Cooperation, commitment to common goals, and social development require cooperation and risk-taking associated with the division of responsibilities for joint action. Ability to deal with risk, in turn, requires at least a minimum degree of certainty, which is the essence of trust. "All the research shows that success and the wealth of nations depends on three interrelated factors: optimism, conviction of the people that they have infl uence over state aff airs, and trust that makes us relate to others in an open, kind way, in the hope that we will not be cheated, or lied to. Only then can democracy make full use of its social capital"43. Democracy in itself does not guarantee trust, or cooperation of the citizens. It is the only ground for the fl ourishing of trust, at all times when people show even the smallest desire to believe in others. Th is situation only opens the possibility for the effi cient transformation of the diff erent areas of social life, and implementing reforms that will support the development of society.

We live in the twenty-first century, which witnessed by far the most intensive marketing of politics, and traditional approaches (The Great Man Theory, situational, relational) to the process of emergence of political leader-ship are simply not enough. Cooperation between leaders and their followers is determined by cultural and social context, specific political situation of the time, patterns of social behavior. Development of new information technolo-gies and dissemination of the means of mass communication have introduced another factor to the analyzed process, forced by civilisational changes. These changes initiated the processes shaping the emergence of a fourth approach to political leadership, which we may call reactive. Reactivity is an active process of management of the changing image of the leader, responding to the evolving social preferences, and subsequently disseminated through the media.

The paper looks at the issue of the psychological conditioning of the preferences concerning the shape of governance system and the system of political parties in Poland in the light of empirical research (N=1086), carried out in 2009. The analysis takes into account the variables of self-assessment, dispositional optimism, self-efficacy and dispositional fear. These variables, accounting for the cognitive functioning of individuals, the level of their involvement and motivation, have turned out to be significant when differentiating individuals' preferences concerning political systems. ; The paper looks at the issue of the psychological conditioning of the preferences concerning the shape of governance system and the system of political parties in Poland in the light of empirical research (N=1086), carried out in 2009. The analysis takes into account the variables of self-assessment, dispositional optimism, self-efficacy and dispositional fear. These variables, accounting for the cognitive functioning of individuals, the level of their involvement and motivation, have turned out to be significant when differentiating individuals' preferences concerning political systems.

We investigated the relationships between political beliefs regarding two aspects of the right-left distinction (cultural and economic) and the acceptance of the pandemic restrictions using variable-centred and person-centred approaches. The community sample consisted of 305 participants. Four groups of the restrictions were considered. Religious fundamentalism predicted positively the acceptance of the restrictions associated with the limitations of labour rights and those limiting civil rights without a direct impact on safety. Anti-welfare negatively predicted the acceptance of the restrictions regarding social distancing and those limiting civil rights and increasing safety. These associations were discussed in relation to basic needs and values which motivate persons who endorse right-wing or left-wing political views. The latent profile analysis revealed three profiles of political beliefs, which were termed "Conservative Statists," "Liberal Laissez-fairists," and "Conservative Laissez-fairists." The profiles differed in terms of acceptance of the pandemic restrictions, and the patterns of these relationships were different for particular groups of restrictions.

The paper analyzes the potential impact of individuals exercising their mandate and running for re-election (incumbents) on the instrumentalization of the electoral competition. The context chosen for this analysis is provided by local elections and by mechanisms used by politicians to improve their electoral chances. As in other types of elections, the personal dimension of manipulation in local elections is asymmetrical in its nature. Due to their position and resources held, incumbents are the ones who have a higher manipulative potential than their challengers. The aim of the paper is to analyze the advantage of incumbents in local elections by indicating the electoral manipulations used with regard to three basic types: institutional, communicative, and psychological. The analysis is conducted on the basis of Polish electoral experience and illustrated with examples justifying the importance of the individual manipulations in the electoral competition.