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On Barriers to Pluralism in Pluralist Poland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Ewa Morawska
Ewa Morawska*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania
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Extract

Having crushed the Solidarity movement’s unprecedented attempt to pluralize postwar Polish society, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the first secretary of the Polish United Workers’ party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza or PZPR) ordered a special commission of the party’s Central Committee to study the causes of the political crises that have repeatedly convulsed Poland during forty years of Communist rule and have resulted in the downfall of successive first secretaries and their principal associates. After several months of labor, the commission declared that one of the main causes was that the authorities ignored popular opinion and discouraged local initiatives for independent action and reforms. To show that it had learned its lesson, the PZPR adopted “socialist pluralism” as one of the principal points of its program for “normalization” and “renewal” soon after martial law was lifted in 1982.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , Winter 1988 , pp. 627 - 641
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1988

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References

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10. On the opposition to current economic reforms by the entrenched bureaucracy in Polish manufacturing and planning establishments, see Jerzy Kleer, “Gospodarka Nie Jest z Plasteliny,” Polityka, no. 48 (21 November 1987): 4, and idem, “Czas Nadzwyczajny,” Polityka, no. 21 (21 May 1988): 4. On the second economy and its interfusion with state-owned enterprises see Marek Bednarski, “Gospodarka Drugiego Obiegu w Polsce a Kryzys Lat 80-tych,” manuscript, Warsaw University, Department of Economics, 1987; Łoś, Maria, “The Double Economic Structure of Communist Societies,” Contemporary Crises, no. 11 (1987): 25–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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12. Paris-Match, 24 June 1983 (cf. also Nowy Dziennik [New York] 8–9 October 1983, p. 2). TheFrench poll, taken during May and June 1983, had a national sample of 600 persons. For similar findings onparty preferences of the Poles in hypothetical free elections (opinion surveys from 1974 to 1980) see also Anthony Jones et al., “Public Opinion and Political Disruption” in Polish Politics, p. 157. On the low (lessthan 20 percent of respondents in the 1984 national opinion poll) level of acceptance of the existing politicalorder in Poland, see Marody, Mirosława, Warunki Trwania i Zmiany Ładu Społecznego w Relacji do Stanu Świadomości Społecznej (Warsaw: Warsaw University, Institute of Sociology 1986), 6–9, 75–79 Google Scholar; alsoSpołeczećstwo Polskie Drugiej Połowy Lai 80-tych. Próba Diagnozy Stanu Świadomosci Społecznej.

13. Examples of the hardliners’ unsuccessful attempts to take over the PZPR's leadership are Moczar'sin 1969, Grabski's and Olszowski's in 1976 and 1980–1981. Grabski is also said to combine preference forhardline political measures with “market socialism.” Andrei Gromyko, the long-time Soviet foreign ministerand still a member of the Soviet Politburo, and his associates are considered by Polish party insiders to bea heavy-handed influence (compare Flora Lewis, “Another Sad Polish Joke. Why Stefan Olszowski Story IsNot Hilarious,” New York Times, 25 May 1988, p. A27. On the Soviet leaders’ views of Poland, see MichalHeller, , Polska w Oczach Moskwy (Paris: Institut Litteraire, 1984 Google Scholar.

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15. Particularly bold in this kind of allusions are weekly front-page satirical cartoons in Polityka by Szymon Kobylićski. Almost explicit in the acknowledgment of incredibility of the official pronouncements and renewal initiatives was, for instance, Hieronim Kubiak, former Politburo member (1981–1982), in thearticle “Udawanie to Bardzo Kiepska Polityka,” Polityka, no. 49 (5 December 1987): 3

16. Czesław Kiszczak, “Będę Rozmawiał z Każdym … ,” Polityka, no. 24 (14 June 1986): 1, 4–12. On subsequent political amnesty-police intimidation action of the authorities, see “Poland Will FreePolitical Inmates,” New York Times, 12 September 1986, pp. 1, D20. For the official media's “handling” ofthe spring 1988 strikes see Zygmunt Szeliga, “Błędne Koło,” Polityka, no. 19 (7 May 1988): 1–7; Jerzy Baczyriski et al., “Zmęczenie Materiału,” Polityka, no. 20 (14 May 1988): 4–5; “Poland's Bishops Name 5 Mediators in Labor Conflict,” New York Times, 5 May 1988, pp. 1, A6.

17. On the coexistence of these attitudes in Polish political tradition, see Davies, Norman, God's Playground. A History of Poland (Oxford: Clarendon, 1981) 2: esp. chaps. 1, 7, 8, 19Google Scholar; Martin Malia, “Poland'sEternal Return,” New York Review of Books, 30 September 1983; I Volgyes, van, Politics in Eastern Europe (Chicago: Dorsey, 1986, pp. 117–121 Google Scholar. Compare also Król, Marcin, “A Frozen Image of the Past,” Survey, no. 110 (1980): 100–110 Google Scholar, and idem, “Powrót Nacjonalizmu?” Res Publico, no. 2 (1987): 2–11; Jeleński, Konstanty, “Paradoxes of Połish Nationalism,” Survey, no. 26 (1982): 176–183.Google Scholar

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19. Mason, Public Opinion and Political Change in Poland, pp. 69–71, 78–79, 84. Compare alsoLena Kolarska and Andrzej Rychard, “Visions of Social Order” in Crises and Conflicts; The Case of Poland, 1980–1981, Sisyphus Sociological Studies, vol. 3 (Warsaw 1982), p. 207. On the authoritarian tendenciesin Solidarity, see Staniszkis, Poland's Self-Limiting Revolution, pp. 51–52, 110–115 and passim.

20. Skalski, Ernest, “Opinie Spofeczenstwa o Gospodarce i Polityce Gospodarczej,” Tygodnik Powszechny, no. 34, (2 August 1986): 1–2.Google Scholar

21. Marek Ziółkowski, “Individuals and the Social System: Values, Perceptions, and BehavioralStrategies,” manuscript, Poznan University, Institute of Sociology, 1986, pp. 16–17, 20. Similar findingsindicating a high third position for the Polish army (behind the Roman Catholic Church and Solidarity) in the “trust ranking,” by respondents polled in two independent sociological surveys conducted in 1981 by theSociological Research Center of the Mazowsze region of Solidarity and by the National Opinion ResearchCenter (OBOP), are reported in Mason, Public Opinion and Political Change in Poland, p. 118.

22. Paris-Match, 24 June 1983 (see also Nowy Dziennik [New York] 8–9 October 1983, p. 2). Onthe respect accorded to the Polish Roman Catholic Church, see Marody, Warunki Trwania i Zmiany LduSpotecznego, pp. 24–25.

23. On the pervasive authoritarianism of the Polish Roman Catholic hierarchy, see the interview with Dominik Morawski, “Korespondencja z Rzymu,” Kultura [Paris], nos. 1–2 (1987): 74–80. The interviewwas originally to appear in the Polish Roman Catholic monthly Więź (Warsaw), but the Warsaw Archdiocese intervened to stop its publication.

24. Staniszkis, Poland's Self-Limiting Revolution.

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26. Jasiewiez, Krzysztof, “In the Face of a Political Crisis” in Crises and Conflicts 3: 185–187 Google Scholar.

27. For a review and discussion of different sociological studies of this issue, see Kolankiewicz andTaras, “Poland: Socialism for Everyman?” pp. 101–131; Mason, Public Opinion and Political Change inPoland, 41, 56–58, 62–66; Nowak, Stefan, “Values and Attitudes of Polish People,” Scientific American, no. 245 (1981); 45–53 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jones et al., “Public Opinion and Political Disruption,” pp. 160–162.

28. Staniszkis, Poland's Self-Limiting Revolution, chaps. 1 and 2. David Mason, “Solidarity and Socialism, “in Polish Politics, pp. 118–138.

29. Polacy 1980. Wyniki Badań Ankietowych (Warsaw: Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, 1981); Lena Kolarska, “Poland Under Crisis: Unreformable Society or Establishment? “paper presented at the Conference on Social and Political Responses to the Economic Crises, Oxford University, 7–9 September 1987. At the same time, however, the majority of the respondents in these and similar surveys declare themselves in favor of remuneration strictly according to the efficiency and quality of work (for the discussion of this apparent contradiction, see Kolarska and Rychard, “Visions of SocialOrder,” pp. 206–223).

30. “Jacy Tacy Przeciętniacy,” Polityka, no. 11 (15 March 1986): 1, 7; no. 12 (22 March 1986): 3;no. 19 (10 May 1986): 3; no. 23 (7 June 1986): 1, 7; also Ewa Nowakowska, “Kamyk w Bucie,” Polityka, no. 48 (28 November 1987): 5, and Marody, Mirosława, “Antynomie Społecznej Świadamości,” Odra, no. 1 (1987): 49 Google Scholar. On “invidious egalitarianism” as a widespread attitude among the Poles, compare a report fromthe 1986 Polish Sociological Congress, “Lustro Społeczeństwa,” Polityka, no. 39 (27 September 1986): 7.

31. Private communication from Poland.

32. Compare Davies, God's Playground!: chaps. 1, 9.

33. Ibid., 2: 19.

34. J. Lipski, Jan, “Two Fatherlands, Two Patriotisms,” Survey, no. 26 (1982), part 2: 159–171 Google Scholar. See also Król, “Powrót Nacjonalizmu?” 2–11, and Smolar, Alexander, “Jews as a Polish Problem,” Daedalus, no. 2 (1987): 31–75.Google Scholar