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Israel's party system has been characterized by the bipolar rivalry between the left-wing and right-wing blocks since the late 1970s. In recent years we could have seen at least two trends that seem to diverge from this model. For the last 9 years the Likud party has formed three successive governments which has made Benjamin Netanyahu the longest continuously serving prime minister in the history of Israel. Another new occurrence is the preservation of a significant representation of the center parties for four Knesset terms in the row. The aim of the paper is to verify whether Israel's party system has departed from the two-blocs bipolar model. Based on the empirical data (election results, government formation, party's political platforms) it examines whether the parties' rivalry in the years 2009-2018 differed qualitatively from the previous period. To answer this question the paper investigates three hypotheses. First-Likud has become a dominant party in Israel. Second-a dominant and stable Israeli right-wing parties' bloc has formed. Third-an enduring and relevant center sector has emerged in Israel's party system.

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Public funding of churches and religious associations in Poland: Analysis of political debates on the liquidation of the Church Property Commission and the Church Fund The paper contains a case study of the political debate concerning public funding for the religious institutions. It deals with the parliamentary discussions in the years 2004‑2015 on the abolishing of two public bodies: Church Property Commission (Komisja Majątkowa) and Church Fund (Fundusz Kościelny). The paper has two main objectives. First of them is providing the description of the debate (most important themes in the discourse, argumentative strategies, rhetorical instruments used by the interlocutors). The characteristics of the discourse let us draw a picture of the social relations and the place of religion in the public sphere. Therefore, the second objective of the paper is to describe the dominant narratives in the public debate on the role of religion in society and the state.

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