Is Left-Wing Liberalism Possible in Poland?

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Is Left-Wing Liberalism Possible in Poland?

Journal Title: Athenaeum. Polskie Studia Politologiczne - Year 2018, Vol 0, Issue 59

Abstract

The liberal trend which emerged in Poland was not a doctrine deeply rooted in social awareness. Quite the opposite, its essence and meaning were alien to Polish tradition or hardly recognizable. The interpretation of the concept of freedom only in the negative sense was imposed on the public opinion by the elites. Thus, as new ideas were adopted without any reflection, the state’s function was reduced to the role of a “night watchman”, and citizens were to adapt to it. Both sides did not enter into discussion on the possible creation of the role of the state as an institution involved in the social sphere. This seems to have been the main cause of the failure of the liberals and of the values they advocated in the public space. The Polish model of liberalism was not on the path towards modernity, but – by treating values selectively – it represented the anachronistic approach to liberal ideas. Polish liberals forgot that in the second half of the 20th century, the welfare state came into being owing to the recognition of Berlin’s notion of positive freedom and his unquestioning attitude to the plurality of values. Unfortunately, these two elements did not appear (or appeared too rarely) in the liberals’ concepts, so left-wing liberalism could not develop in Poland, and its foundations in the economic sphere were taken over by political options other than liberal ones.

Authors and Affiliations

Danuta Plecka

Keywords

Longin Pastusiak, Prezydent dobrych intencji. Polityka zagraniczna Baracka Obamy, Oficyna Wydawniczo-Poligraficzna „ADAM ”, Warszawa 2015, ss. 267

recenzja

EP ID EP664263
DOI 10.15804/athena.2018.59.02
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