CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Szeligowska, Dorota Anita |
|---|---|
| Title | The dynamics of Polish patriotism after 1989: concepts, debates, identities |
| Summary | During rapid social changes, such as democratic transition, both intellectual and political elites discuss the essence of key political concepts. After 1989, in Poland, during such intellectual debates academics, editorialists and politicians have discussed extensively the legacy of the communist regime, and the nature of the new democratic regime, and have redefined important concepts. Particularly, discussions over the concept of patriotism or its re-definition have occurred with astonishing frequency since 25 years. Already in 1990, the renowned historian of ideas Andrzej Walicki suggested that “a new kind of Polish patriotism must be developed: a patriotism free from the archaic features of the democratic legacy of Old Poland, critical of Romantic illusions, but no less critical of [Roman] Dmowski’s version of political realism.” This statement built on the idea of civic patriotism, proposed by a dissident left-wing intellectual Jan Józef Lipski, in his significant essay “Dwie ojczyzny, dwa patriotyzmy (Two fatherlands, two patriotisms),” published in 1981. Since 1989, many other important intellectuals of various ideological allegiances have debated the desirable new formula of patriotism adapted for the times of peace and for future (Marek A. Cichocki, Dariusz Gawin, Jerzy Jedlicki, Marcin Król, Wojciech Sadurski, Władysław Stróżewski, Jerzy Szacki, Magdalena Środa, etc.). This research project analyzes a number of public debates in which the meaning of patriotism was discussed. The approach is indebted to applied political theory, and history of political thought, using the methods of conceptual history. In order to grasp the entire contestation over the meaning of political concepts and conceptual change, the analysis is threefold: textual, contextual and morphological. The use of concepts and changes in their meaning is not only due to individual authorial attempts and the influence of contextual elements, but also to the situating of concepts in specific constellations, broader chains of concepts and counter concepts. The work of interpretation, to be complete, needs to address both synchronic and diachronic perspectives of political languages/discourses and their continuous or discontinuous use in political arguments. Understanding the dynamics of these debates, the nature of the contestation over the meaning of patriotism, and why and how patriotism is made into a politically relevant concept makes it possible to explain the importance of this concept for the public sphere, political culture and thought in Poland after 1989, linking it to earlier developments. The analysis contributes to a better understanding of the re-construction of political community at the critical juncture of regime change, and of intellectual preoccupations linked to the foundations of a democratic regime. Starting from the definition of patriotism as ‘love of one’s country,’ I show how in the first decade of the democratic transition the uncertainty linked to the social, political and economic transformation pushed the discussion towards the ‘country’ aspect of the definition, the object of the allegiance. Later ‘discursive events’ offered different openings for discussing the ‘love’ aspect of the definition and the nature of allegiance. While discussions prior to 2000 attempted to find a compromise solution and middle ground in the quest for the conceptual definition, later on the debate gradually became increasingly polarized. However, despite conservative attempts at monopolization of the concept, a discursive closure has not happened, and a variety of ideological positions are still available, and continue to be put forward by emerging strong circles of conservative, left-wing or liberal intellectuals. |
| Supervisor | Sgier Lea |
| Department | Political Science PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/szeligowska_dorota.pdf |
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