The volume of «Studia Politologiczne» presented here is devoted to constitutional issues of the states of Eastern Europe. As indicated by the authors of particular analyses included in it, three groups of problems are of fundamental importance for the functioning of the state’s political institutions. The first one is the normative dimension, i.e. the way in which the law maker designed particular institutions, the way in which they established the structural and functional relations between them and the effects they wanted to achieve. Secondly, it is the issue of political practice, i.e. what content particular institutions are filled in by the participants of political relations, in what scope and with what intensity practice follows the norms of law (above all, those of constitutional importance), and in what scope it tries to avoid, neglect or distort in some other way, or – while seeing the inadequacy and archaic character of legal regulation – adjust them (by means of a variety of techniques to interpret the law) to the changing political circumstances. And finally, the third important area of political reflection is the effect of external, non-state factor and changes enforced by them, both in the field of the establishment of acts of law and in political practice. The third area is frequently ignored while analyzing the political issues of contemporary states, whereas it is sometimes of key importance. It suffices to refer to the problem of causative mechanisms of so-called colour revolutions in post-Soviet or Arab states. Were they the result of political behaviours of the citizens in particular countries where the so-called colour revolutions took place, a radical attempt to adjust the political practice to the constitutional models, or, respectively, a wish to change those constitutional models? Or maybe, as some researchers of the political systems of contemporary states argue, their driving force should be sought outside the territory of particular states, in an attempt to enforce political changes mainly desired by the major participants of international relations, those changes fitting in with the processes of globalization of international relations? While aiming at a comprehensive explanation of the ongoing political processes, it is not worth avoiding such research questions and seeking answers to them.