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This chapter describes the situation of Polish women in the process of democratic transition in Poland. Its analysis includes the participation of women in political life, the activities of women's organizations, and the social situation of Polish women. The first part of this work concerns the period of real socialism; analyzes the main points of the media discussion about the problems of women in processes of democratization in 1989; the political system after 1989, including a possible guarantee in achieving the quota of female representation on electoral lists, which certainly will increase the political representation of women in Polish political institutions.

Depending on the adopted principles of their domestic energy policy, individual countries responded in different ways to the information coming in from Japan. The majority of European countries having atomic power stations recommended inspection of the installations, particularly of those of older types. Discussion concerning the safety of nuclear installations also flared up. Opponents of the atomic power industry and environmentalists, asexpected, pointed to a need to lean energy production toward so-called renewable energy sources. This chapter explores public debate on the planned construction of nuclear power station in Poland in the aftermath of the Chernobyl and Japanese nuclear reactor explosions.

General presidential elections are the achievements of the democratic forces and always arouse a multitude of social excitement. The presidential campaigns in years 1990; 1995; 2000; 2005; 2010; and present in 2015 became more and more professional. The role of planning and effective campaigns also increased. After more than 25 years of independence and after successfully carrying out the transformation of a new generation of voters born, raised, and educated in a democratic country whose political decisions are not conditioned in comparison to situation, Communist Poland has grown up and voted in 2015. The expectations of this generation are attributable to a good job, the ability to travel, and actively shaping their own lives. The existing political and party system no longer reflects the new social divisions which are becoming increasingly visible in the country.

After 1945 all countries of the communist Eastern Europe implemented a uniform model of health-care system and health policies called socialist Health Services that provided universal, free of charge health care to all citizens. The initial model underwent many reforms with the largest change taking place during the country's democratization and transition to a market economy system after 1989. The processes of the democratization of the political life and economic changes included privatization of the health-care and medical services. In addition to state hospitals, medical care was provided by private doctors and these services were fully paid for by patients. The private medical care was greatly available but was not controlled by the state until a few years later when the state developed networks of state-regulated services, including public and independent health-care centers. Among other changes of the recent decades was establishment of accreditation system in Polish medical institutions implemented in Poland after 1997. As of 2011 there are 98 accredited Polish hospitals. The prevailing mix-health-care system (private and public) is divided by differences in quality of services, with much higher quality medical services being offered by private clinics than by state-sponsored hospitals.

At the time of its spread, globalization was perceived as pervasive, loosely controlled worldwide force that shaped societal opportunities, global equity, and equality of countries and of individual citizens within each country. As this volume demonstrates the forces of globalization are not uncontrollable and the states are much more forceful in determining the formation and the activity of social institutions and international organizations. When analyzing globalization the interaction of local and global milieu provides the best platform to understand processes and developments of the contemporary world.