The exclusive interview with Mr Lech Wałęsa, the legendary leader of “Solidarity” Trade Union, the Noble Peace Prize Laureate in 1983 and the President of Poland from 1990 to 1995, on the state of democracy in Poland and Europe, presents Mr Wałęsa’s perspective on challenges that contemporary political leaders have to face. It discusses four major areas: a historical consideration of Poland’s post-communist transformation, a today’s perspective on democracy in Poland, an evaluation of country’s role in united Europe and a discussion of processes that threaten democracy in Poland and Europe. In the interview, Mr Wałęsa shares his hopes and fears, and he presents main ideas for the new political times. His assessments do not focus only on the today’s state of democracy, but he also tries to consider how the democracy may look like in the future. As a result, the Polish Political Science Yearbook publishes a unique conversation with the legend of the struggle against Communist dictatorships in Europe that shows Mr Wałęsa’s personal remarks on the democracy, the globalised World and modern technologies. 

The problem of justice, one of the key problems of contemporary political philosophy, is reconsidered in the light of a new paradigm: Otfried Höffe’s theory of transcendental exchange. The main research question is how this theory influences our understanding of the ways of formation of just moral and legal grounds in contemporary society. In order to understand justice adequately, it is important to regard it as personal responsibility, deeply related to attitudes of solidarity and recognition. There is an attempt to fuse moral and material grounds of social existence in order to overcome social injustice. Freedom and justice are rooted in the living world and are based on formal norms and procedures of morality and law. This gives us methodological grounds for understanding Höffe’s philosophy of political justice, which regards freedom and justice as the main conditions of human existence.

For most of September and October 2005, the Polish news media were busy covering the parliamentary and the presidential elections in that country. Beginning two weeks apart from one another, with the presidential run-off election following two weeks later, these overlapping campaigns became the most important media and political events of the year. Their conjunction was an occurrence expected to happen once in 20 years because of Poland’s five-year presidential term and a four-year parliamentary term. For the first time since 1989, the result was that the President, the upper house of the parliament (Senat) and the lower house (Sejm) of the parliament are now controlled by the same party, Law and Justice (PiS). For the first time since Solidarity swept both elections, the Polish electorate has also made a definite turn to the right, voting for a political party that supports radical change, the symbolic setting up of a Fourth Republic which will be a morally superior country in contrast to the third Republic, the independent Polish state established after the Solidarity revolution when Poland was the first country in the former Soviet Block to end communism. This essay analyzes the 2005 presidential campaign from the point of view of agenda setting theory of how political communication is framed in campaign messages, media use and media coverage.

Election posters of “Citizens’ committee with Lech Wałęsa” candidates

The article solves the mystery of the “Citizens’ Committee with Lech Wałęsa” election posters that paved the way to the victory of Solidarity in June 1989. For 25 years the issue of posters has not raised any controversy. The historians presupposed that each member of the Committee had had an election poster with the leader of Solidarity movement on it. The article refutes that myth. Having analyzed historical documents and eyewitness memories, the author uncovers which candidates did not have this kind of poster.

NSZZ “Solidarność” years 1980 – 1990 as an integrated factor of Kujawsko-Pomorskie region

Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity” did not accept the disintegration of the state by dividing into 49 small provinces and districts liquidation – both in the program and operations sought to community actions. Similarly happened in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region, where “Solidarity” unionists in the public and conspiracy activities sought to create a macro-region of their trade union within the limits of the liquidated in 1975 Bydgoszcz-region. By 1989 cooperation between regions: Bydgoszcz, Toruń and Włocławek was very good. The experience of “Solidarity” can now be used in the process of integration of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region, as an idea of regional solidarity – a sense of mutual dependence and mutual responsibility for the prosperity and development of the entire region.

The authors study the principle of solidarity in the sense of exercising the right to social dialogue in the context of globalization. The authors are convinced that without civic association there can be no direct influence of citizens on social processes in the state and certain spheres of public life. Solidarity in this sense is the social unity of individuals united by a certain property in the awareness of the need for such a combination to achieve a specific positive goal. In this way, solidarity is different from any other combination that exists for its own sake, and not to achieve a certain result. This understanding is especially important in the labor sphere in the exercise of the right to social dialogue. In today’s globalized world, the problem of the ineffectiveness of social dialogue must be considered not only in the institutional, legal or cultural aspect, but in terms of the possibility of social solidarity. The authors point out that the modern state can’t always meet the challenges of modernity, in particular, with the strong influence of transnational corporations as the main actors in globalization. That’s why the state needs the solidarity of citizens around this problem when solving the tasks of ensuring social justice in the labor sphere. The authors believe that the result of such solidarity should be the active implementation in the practice of social dialogue of international framework agreements between transnational corporations, the state and citizens, represented by specialized trade unions, including international ones.

The Mothers of democracy. The involvement of women in the fight for a free Poland in the 1980s

The purpose of this article is to present a cross-section of the 1980s in Poland from the perspective of female protagonists and to describe the role they played in the process of democratic changes, their involvement in the active opposition, strikes and later the Solidarity underground. The aim is to describe how they coped with everyday struggles, what roles they took on in life and highlight their contribution to the gradual liberation from the communist regime. Women took an active part in the struggle for Poland’s independence. Women described in this article manifested their opinions on politics, labor and civil rights. In presenting the activities of women’s resistance, the authors took into account gender and cultural perspectives. The article was written based on historical publications, interviews with witnesses of the aforementioned events and opposition activists themselves, as well as articles on the subject.

Otfried Hoeffe’s philosophy of political justice

The paper covers an issue of justice in the light of a new paradigm in political philosophy proposed by Otfried Hoeffe’s theory of the exchange of justice. The author analyses the impact of this approach to justice upon understanding of how could contemporary society develop its fair moral and legal grounds. It is proved that for an adequate understanding of justice is its understanding as a personal responsibility, organically related to guidance on solidarity and recognition. Their interpretations of as well attempts to join moral and material grounds of social life to overcome of injustice are in the author’s focus. It is showed that freedom and justice are enrooted in a lifeword, as well relay upon formal norms and procedures of moral and justice. It gives a methodology for understanding of O. Hoeffe’s philosophy of political justice that states freedom and justice as basic conditions of human being.

“Self-governing Republic” – the ideological signpost of “Solidarity”

In the autumn of 1981, the 1st National Congress of Delegates of the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity” took place, which democratically elected its authorities and adopted a modern program. The program covered all areas of life. Its basis was supposed to be workers’ self-government. The gradual implementation of the program was to lead to the democratization of the system through free elections at the regional and then national level. The introduction of martial law made it impossible to start reforms and delayed the political transformation. During the system change in 1989, during the Round Table talks, some of the provisions contained in the “Solidarity” program were used. We can acknowledge that the 1st National Congress of Solidarity Delegates played a role in the process of political and social transformation in Poland. Further implementation of the postulates was possible in a democratic system.

Cultural changes with war in the background – eliminating Russian culture from the space of Western culture as a form of solidarity with the nation and culture of Ukraine

The main axis of the article is the socio-cultural phenomena occurring since the outbreak of the Russian invasion in Ukraine in 2022, which has caused important changes not only in Europe, but also in other regions of the world. These changes have obvious political, economic, demographic, social and less obvious cultural dimensions. The latter take various forms, among which one is particularly controversial – it is the elimination of Russian culture from the cultural space of Western and other countries, among them Poland. This stems from solidarity with the Ukrainian people and an attempt to influence the attitudes of the Russian society, who, as research indicates, endorse the Russian invasion. The boycott mainly concerns artistic culture, symbolic in terms of the works of both living and deceased artists, contemporary and classical creations, both proand anti-war artists. Against this background, a public discussion unfolds on the legitimacy of all forms of boycott and the issue of collective responsibility. The theoretical context for the consideration of these phenomena is the concept of cancel culture. Empirical illustrations, on the other hand, are the studies on the discussed phenomena based on the opinion of students of social sciences.

The article aims to investigate the system of the social market economy in Poland and Italy. It compares constitutional provisions, distinguishing national commonalities and discrepancies. They are the basis for the identification of the precepts common to all social market economies in Europe. The analysis concludes that combining economic rights with social interests is essential to establishing the social market economy.