The revivals of the Jagiellonian idea : political and normative contexts

The article has two major aims. First, it provides a short analysis of three revivals of the Jagiellonian idea which took place in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries in different historical and political circumstances. Second, it locates these revivals within the political and normative contexts of the time, and looks at different reasons that explain the persistence of the concept. The article also addresses more general questions, such as the ways that the Jagiellonian idea can be conceptualized, debates over its practicality and usefulness and its lasting presence in Polish national memory. Although there does not seem to be an agreement on the very meaning of the Jagiellonian idea, it certainly has enough normative or symbolic potential to animate strategic policy visions even in the twenty-first century

Civic and institutional dimensions of democratization in Ukraine : the role of civic unity

The theoretical analysis presented in this article links the social and institutional conditions of democratization by looking at two rarely associated concepts, civic unity and the rule of law. It attempts to bring a novel approach to the study of democratization in a divided society such as Ukraine, building on a selection of the existing literature on the subject and focusing on the civic dimension of the process. It follows the approach of those political scientists who have challenged the “no precondition’ line in democratization research by looking precisely at context specific conditions that may sustain democracy. It is argued that the common sense of citizenship and belonging to a political community, supported by legal and institutional mechanisms and conscious effort of political elites, would contribute to the development of civil society and perhaps even democratic consolidation in the long run. Thus the civic and institutional dimensions of democratization should not be separated, especially in case of some post-communist societies such as Ukraine. The relationship between these two dimensions, however, is problematic at least from a methodological point of view and requires careful examinatio

Normative political theory

Normative political theory was developed in ancient Greece and provided the foundations for political research. Its role was never questioned until the rise of logical positivism and empirical social science with its claims to be truly scientific' that is, value neutral. The article starts with a short overview of this controversy and provides an analysis of the nature of normative theorizing, the structure of a normative argument and the role of normative political theory. The last section focuses on the problematic relationship between empirical and normative research. It is argued that political philosophy can be practical, but before it becomes oriented towards practical goals, it should deal with purely deductive fact-insensitive principles

Deliberative democracy and citizenship

The model of deliberative democracy poses a number of dificult questions about individual rationality, public reason and justification, public spiritedness, and an active and supportive public sphere. It also raises the question about what kind of civic involvement is required for the practices of democratic deliberation to be effective. The aim of this article is to examine the last question by looking at the role and value of citizenship understood in terms of participation. It argues that deliberative democracy implies a category of democratic citizens; its institutional framework calls for the activity and competence of citizenry, and consequently, the participatory forms of deliberative democracy come closest to the democratic ideal as such. Also, the model of participatory-deliberative democracy is more attractive as a truly democratic ideal than the model of formal deliberative democracy, but it certainly faces more dificulties when it comes to the practicalities, and especially the institutional design. This problem is raised in the last section of the article where the possible applicability of such a model to post-communist democracies is addressed. The major dificulty that the participatory-deliberative model poses for the post-communist democratization can be explained by a reference to the cultural approach towards democratization and to the revised modernization theory presented by Inglehart and Welzel. The problem of the applicability of such a model in the post-communist context seems to support the thesis presented here which suggests that active citizenship, civic skills and civic culture are indispensable for the development of deliberative politics

Liberalne, demokratyczne czy obywatelske? Społeczeństwo obywatelskie a liberalna demokracja

"Współcześni autorzy, niejako idąc w ślady Alexisa de Tocqueville’a, bardzo mocno podkreślają związek teoretyczny i praktyczny pomiędzy społeczeństwem obywatelskim a liberalną demokracją, uznając istnienie społeczeństwa obywatelskiego za warunek sine qua non dobrze funkcjonującego porządku demokratycznego. Aby zbadać ów związek, konieczne jest wpierw przyjrzenie się mu z perspektywy dziewiętnastowiecznej myśli politycznej opisującej fenomen liberalnej demokracji, tak jak czynił to Tocquevilic na przykładzie Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki, wysnuwając wnioski teoretyczne, które służyć miały pogrążonej w rewolucjach Europie, oraz John Stuart Mili, poszukujący takiego ideału porządku społecznego i politycznego, który najlepiej realizowałby liberalną ideę wolności indywidualnej. W eseju tym interesować nas będzie powiązanie liberalnej idei wolności z określonym porządkiem społecznym, tj. porządkiem demokratycznym, a co za tym idzie znaczenie kategorii społeczeństwa obywatelskiego dla teorii liberalnej demokracji."(...

Wolność w ujęciu Jana-Jakuba Rousseau : pomiędzy starożytnymi a nowożytnymi

Rousseau's philosophy can be situated as a continuum between the ancient and the modern traditions; we argue that it does not fully belong to either and this is particularly evident in his discussion of liberty. Our point of departure is a view that in order to grasp peculiarity of Rousseaus' understanding of liberty we need to go beyond the liberal tradition and its scheme of thinking about freedom as well as beyond the intuitive understanding of liberty. The second part of the article presents an analysis of the four different meanings of liberty that we find in Rousseau's theory: natural, social, moral and civil. The most important for political philosophy is his discussion of the shift from the natural to social and civil liberty and the insistence that true freedom cannot be totally separated from morality. Finally, we discuss some of the contemporary interpretations of Rousseau's political thought which often emphasize one of the different meanings of liberty that we find in his writings