Poland and Russia Flashcards
Which party won the Polish parliamentary elections 2015?
Law and Justice (PiS)
When did PiS control the Polish parliament?
2015 - December 2023
What is monism?
A theory or doctrine that denies the existence of a distinction or duality in a particular sphere.
What do Stanley Bill and Ben Stanley argue PiS has done since 2015 with regards to monism?
“the denial of credible alternative paths of development. Since 2015, PiS has re-politicised many of these areas of policy,
but its executive aggrandisement and exclusionist nativism have instantiated new forms of monism.”
How was liberalism viewed in Poland after 1989?
“an obligatory syntax of political thought”
For many, this was simply the logical corollary of a rejection of the preceding system: liberalism was “inverted Marxism”
less an ideology, more just the politics of normality.
How is the shift to liberalism after communism referred to?
the liberal consensus
What are the three aspects of the liberal consensus?
- Economic: belief in the superiority of the free market and in the economic rationality of the individual.
- Civic: an emphasis on the free and active participation of individuals in civil society and the political process.
- Cultural: openness and cultural plurality
What has historically been the relationship between the Polish nation and state?
Poland has been a nation without a state.
What has the relationship between the Polish nation and state meant for liberalism after 1989 according to Polish sociologist Jerzy Szacki?
It compelled Poles “to pay special attention to moral unity” and to reject divisions and
conflicts within society as threats to vital national interests.
What is the difference between Polish and Western liberalism?
While Western liberalism was rooted in political, class, ethnic and moral heterogeneity, the homogeneity of contemporary Poland had created a heavily asymmetrical relationship between the dominant group and those who were at best tolerated, rather than regarded as moral equals.
How do Bill and Stanley describe liberalism’s transformation in Poland since the 1990s?
“liberalism became associated with a strain of “moderation” that ran across several different ideological groups of the political mainstream. Although this ethos was not always realised in practice, its essence inhered in the “common moral and prudential commitment” to protecting
the constitution, defending liberty against its opponents, and searching for solutions”
What was the reaction of conservative groups in Poland during the post-communist transition?
From the beginning of transition, conservative groups and social movements
had chafed at liberalism’s assumption of its natural superiority. While these voices were
disparate, isolated and largely ineffectual during the 1990s, over the next decade they
became increasingly influential, particularly after the economic crisis of 2008.
How did a rejection of liberal cultural attitudes manifest themselves as conservative viewpoints gained traction?
How does PiS describe post-communist transitions?
They use “a populist narrative which explains post-communist politics as a betrayal of “the nation” (naród) – or ordinary, “authentic” Poles – by “false” domestic elites supposedly in league with foreign interests.”
What was Poland left with after 4 decades of communist rule?
A one-party system characterised by the dominance of the Polish United Workers’ Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR) over all other key institutions: the judiciary, the legislature, the media, and local government.
How did PiS present itself before gaining power in 2015?
“During PiS’s period in opposition, the party developed and strengthened its claims to represent the interests of “real Poles” against the designs of an inauthentic and usurping elite”
What do many see as the only legitimate source of moral values in Poland?
The Catholic Church
How are those who advocate for pluralist conceptions of Polish identity undermined by PiS?
“the ruling party questions or dismisses the morality or “Polishness” of those who would defend alternative models of identity”
How are LGBT people and their supporters characterised?
“the “LGBT and gender ideology” was a foreign import responsible for the “sexualisation of children”, and threatening “our identity, our nation, its survival, and thus the Polish state”
What is now the second biggest fear behind climate change amongst Poles as a result of political rhetoric?
“gender” ideology and the LGBT movement
What do Bill and Stanley suggest is the reason behind PiS’s anti-LGBT rhetoric?
tactical reasons: firstly, to mobilise its religiously conservative base to vote; and, secondly, to compete for the young male vote against the even more radical anti-LGBT posture of far-right Confederation, (Konfederacja). More generally, PiS’s cultural policy has been informed by a long-term strategy to absorb radical positions in order to embrace the broadest political spectrum and to eliminate right-wing opponents: in Kaczyński’s words, to ensure that “only the wall can be to the right of us” .
How did Kaczyński describe PiS’s aim in using populist rhetoric, as seen in their anti-LGBT language?
To ensure that “only the wall can be to the right of us”
What has PiS created in response to the supposed tyranny of political correctness and LGBT ideology imported from the West?
PiS has constructed its own anti-pluralist cultural ideology. Those who espouse a different value system to the preferred Catholic traditionalism are not merely political opponents, but constitute an existential threat to the very life of the nation.
What was the ‘mono-power’ that PiS sought to undermine and replace when it came to power in 2015?
The liberal democracy that had been gradually increasing since 1989.
Who was the Polish state divided between in the first partition?
Russia, Prussia, and Austria
When was the first partition of Poland?
August 1772
Which states divided Poland in the second partition?
Russia and Prussia
When was the second partition?
September 1793
When was the third partition?
January 1797
Who was involved in the third partition?
The same three nations as the first.
What does Robert Brier see Poland’s most important political struggles evolving around?
“cultural orientations and biographical patterns,” which in turn expose “diverging
moral-symbolic horizons and ways of thinking,”
What does Miroslawa Grabowska interpret Poland’s religious and national prominence as?
A rejection of communist culture that was present prior to 1989.
What was the adoption of liberalism predicted to lead to eventually, and has it?
A restructuring of party competition along economic lines rather than cultural and symbolic ones, but it has not happened in Poland as predicted.
Which is Polands major right-wing party?
Law and Justice (PiS)
What are the four broad periods of the Polish nation’s history?
- First Polish Republic (1569–1795)
- Second Polish Republic (1918–1939)
- Polish People’s Republic (1947–1989)
- Third Polish Republic (since 1989)
When was the First Polish Republic?
1569-1795
When was the Second Polish Republic?
1918-1939
When was the Polish People’s Republic?
1947-1989
When was the Third Polish Republic?
1989-present
What campaign did PiS launch in 2003?
A political campaign based on the assertion that the Third Republic is characterized by fundamental structural deficiencies and needs to be replaced by a Fourth Republic.
What would the Fourth Republic look like?
The product of a moral revolution entailing a rebirth of religious and patriotic values, an uncompromising decommunization, and the strengthening of collective memory.
What would the Fourth Republic be the completion of?
Moreover, the PiS characterizes the foundation of this new state as the fulfillment of the 1980s Solidarity revolution, while portraying their opponents as people who betrayed Polish identity and the legacy of the democratic opposition.
Who is the Electoral Action Solidarity (AWS)?
A coalition of right-wing and conservative parties in Poland that were successors to Solidarity.
When was AWS formed?
1996, as the new constitution was being prepared.
Who dominated the parliament that drafted Poland’s 1997 constitution?
Left-wing and communist successor parties.
How did AWS portrat the draft of the new Polish constitution?
“The draft was worked out in a parliament in which political forces of a leftist, and especially communist, orientation dominate. And the draft has just such a character. It reflects only one ideological orientation.”
In whose name was Solidarity’s draft of a Polish constitution adopted?
God
What did the Solidarity trade union do in 1994?
Write its own constitution for a new Polish state.
What was the Solidarity constitution presented as?
The continuation of the historic achievement, consciousness, culture, and judicial tradition of the Polish nation.
What was the cultural identity expressed in the Solidarity constitution linked to?
This identity was, second, presented as being fundamentally linked with a religious value system.
What did the official constitution not do in the eyes of AWS?
Represent the true Polish nation, being the product of a minority of left-wing elites.
How was socila conflict in the 1980s framed?
As a biopolar conflict between society/nation and the state/system.
What does Geneviève Zubrzycki argue Poles understood the transition to democracy as?
The recovery of a nation state and independence.
How does Jan Kubik define culture?
“A historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men [sic] communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life.”
What was the significance of Catholicism to dissidents under communism?
It broke the cultural hegemony of the totalitarian communist state, and provided a different, more fundamental source of dignity and rights that the communist regime could be criticised for violating.
What is the usual relationship between nationalism and religion and how is it different in Poland?
Usually nationalism replaces religion and can even become a religion itself, but in Poland religion has become integral to the national idea instead of being replaced by it.
What does Robert Brier suggest some believe would happen if religion were to dissapear from Poland?
The Polish nation whose fate is assumed to be so indissolubly linked with Catholicism would virtually cease to exist if it was deprived of its—alleged—spiritual
identity.
How did the Catholic nation differ from the national idea promoted during communist rule in the People’s Republic?
The Catholic nation narrative claimed that the moral community of the Polish nation, albeit oppressed, already existed. It needed not to be built but saved. The Solidarity paradigm thus claimed merely to reconstitute something that was, allegedly, already there.
If communism offered the vision of a new society, what did the Polish Catholic nation offer?
The vision of a recreated society - one that had been there throughout history but had been oppressed and needed to be given expression.
When was Pope John Paul II elected?
1978
How long had it been since there was last a non-Italian Pope?
455 years
When were the Polish Round Table Talks?
February - April 1989
When was the Round Table Agreement signed?
6 April 1989
What were 3 significant outcomes of the Round Table Agreement?
- Legalization of independent trade unions
- The introduction of the office of President (thereby annulling the power of the Communist party general secretary), who would be elected to a 6-year term
- The formation of a Senate
What was the significance of creating the office of President in the Round Table Agreement?
It annulled the power of the Communist party secretary.
How much of the Senate and Sejm were allowed to be freely contested after to Round Table Agreement?
100% of the Senate, 35% of the Sejm.
What percentage of Senate and Sejm seats did Solidarity win in the June 1989 elections?
99% of the Senate, all of the 35% freely contestable seats in the Sejm.
How had the Solidarity revolution supposedly been betrayed?
Instead of being seen as bringing about society’s cultural restitution, The Round Table was viewed as an agreement that Solidarity’s “treasonous” left-wing
liberals struck with the communists to their mutual advantage and at the expenses of
the Polish nation.
How did the Round Table influence approaches to the drafting of the new constitution?
The arguments of the opponents of the official draft were shot through with references to the communist past, and the new constitution’s adoption was described as a continuation of the Round Table.
When was the Polish Constitution ratified?
April 1997
How did the AWS present their draft of a Polish Constitution?
As an attempt to “finish the revolution”.
