Political tolerance in poland and the United States

Abstract

Some experts say that in Eastern Europe, under the surface of pro-democratic attitudes, persists an authoritarian and intolerant political culture. Synchronic and diachronic comparisons of tolerance in Poland (1993 Polish General Social Survey, N = 1649) and the U.S. (1954 Stouffer's data and NORC GSS data, 1972-93) do not support this view. Polish opinions appear nearly as tolerant as contemporaryAmerican opinions, and more tolerant than American opinions in the past. Education, stratification, and age predict tolerance similarly in Poland and America. Combined with findings from previous research, these data suggest that intolerance in Eastern Europe may be a transient result of recent and current conflicts rather than a primordial politico-cultural element. It is asserted that democracy in Eastern Europe faces an unfavorable political culture, a mixture of Leninist and precommunist authoritarian legacies (see Jowitt 1992:50-87, 121-58, 284-305). In the absence of democratic traditions, local political cultures are lacking the notions of pluralism and toleration (Hill 1994:276-77). They generate "totalitarian consciousness " (Gozman & Etkind 1992; Vainshtein 1994) and perceptions of freedom as a license for anarchy (Shlapentokh 1995). Experts predict that in postcommunist society «political diversity will be constrained by public hostility " (Berliner 1994:384-85). Under these circumstances, transition to some form of authoritarian oligarchy, or even reemergence of aggressive revolutionary regimes are believed to be more likely than successful democratization (Jowitt 1992:300; 1996:7)