The Bill of Rights and the Emerging Democracies

Today, the influence of the US Bill of Rights can be traced through its remote offspring, including the Helsinki Agreement, the German Basic Law, the post-war French constitutions, and the European Convention on Human Rights. These documents have influenced recent developments in the emerging democracies of eastern and central Europe

Institutionalized Hypocrisy: Sex, Money and Law

This paper draws on analysis by social historians ranging from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance in France to recent administrative history in Poland to illustrate basic contradictions in Western thought about sexuality. These have resulted over time in policies which range from prohibition of sex work to tolerance of the need to meet physical needs accompanied by an appreciation of the financial profits to be obtained by the state as well as the individual, combined with abhorrence of female adultery. The paper closes with original data on current public attitudes towards the impact on reputation of a range of behaviours in Poland, including sexual activities, and finds a high level of agreement about the damaging impact on reputation of not sexwork itself but of living off the proceeds of sexwork. Este art&iacute;culo se basa en los an&aacute;lisis de historiadores sociales de Francia de finales de la Edad Media y el Renacimiento, as&iacute; como en la historia administrativa reciente de Polonia, para ilustrar contradicciones b&aacute;sicas en el pensamiento occidental sobre la sexualidad. &Eacute;stas, a lo largo del tiempo, han producido pol&iacute;ticas que van desde prohibir el trabajo sexual hasta tolerar la satisfacci&oacute;n de necesidades f&iacute;sicas, acompa&ntilde;ado por el aprecio de los beneficios econ&oacute;micos que obtienen el Estado y los individuos, combinado con la repulsa al adulterio femenino. El art&iacute;culo se cierra con datos originales sobre actitudes p&uacute;blicas contempor&aacute;neas en Polonia sobre el impacto en la reputaci&oacute;n de una serie de comportamientos, y halla una gran unanimidad sobre el impacto negativo, no del trabajo sexual en s&iacute;, sino de vivir del producto del trabajo sexual. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=3296258</a

Silesian Nobel Prize Winners and the Silesian Town Mayor. Use of Collage as Narrative Technique in Sociology

Autor w prezentowanym artykule próbuje ukazać kontrastujące elementy relacji przedstawione przez różnych autorów, przy różnych okazjach społecznych odnoszących się do skomplikowanych relacji lokalnych polityków i ich następstw w środowisku lokalnym. Prezentowany przypadek opisuje sytuację społeczności lokalnej małego śląskiego miasteczka rządzonego przez 12 lat przez burmistrza wywodzącego się z mniejszości niemieckiej. Decyzja o nadaniu imienia Śląskich Noblistów Polsko-Niemieckiej Szkole Podstawowej przyczyniła się do silnej krystalizacji antagonizmu w środowisku lokalnym. Uważna analiza biografii noblistów ukazała, że jeden z nich wg opinii polskich mieszkańców badanej społeczności był zbrodniarzem wojennym. Projekt nadania szkole imienia Noblistów został powstrzymany ponieważ kandydatura jednego z nich (Fritza Habera) została zakwestionowana. Taka decyzja została podjęta pomimo tego, że popiersie Fritza Habera zostało uhonorowane na wystawie Wielkich Ludzi Wrocławia przez władze lokalne tego miasta.The author attempts in the paper to show how contrastive elements of stories told by various actors on various occasions may be linked together in order to show the complicate relationships between the local politics and wider and further issues. The case describes situation of small Silesian town where major coming from significant German minority ruled for 12 years. The decision to name the Polish-German school after the Silesian Nobel Prize winners strongly defended against the resistance on part of Polish politicians had led to the crystallization of Polish-German antagonism at the local level. The careful analysis of the biographies of the Nobelists led to discovery of one who was war criminal. The project of naming the school was stopped though the man in question (Fritz Haber) was only one among the dozen or so Nobelists and despite the fact that in the city of Wroclaw, where there is no active German minority the bust of Fritz Haber was exhibited by the local authorities in the Gallery of Great Wroclaw People

The Spoiled Drama of Emancipation: Conflicting Narratives

This paper focuses on the negative narratives of the transformation in Poland, which describe the Round Table talks in 1989 as having been an act, showing at least the domination of the communist leaders, if not the betrayal by the opposition leaders. This is continued in the institutionalized procedures of lustration, in searching for secret police agents amongst others. The persistence of the topic as the foremost in the post-1989 political life of democratic Poland is explained by reference to the dramaturgical structure of the transformation as an emancipation that should have led to a cathartic culmination. In fact, in Poland the social drama (Turner 1974 ) had started much earlier, witnessed by the summer strikes of 1980 and the establishment of Solidarność but was spoiled by martial law which was introduced by the communists on January 13th, 1981. Thus the freezing stage followed instead, while the emancipation was effected ten years later from above as a result of negotiated compromise. Apart from that emancipation, this meant the introduction of a capitalist economy while political freedom and democracy were the only elements kept on the publicly agreed upon agenda of the anti-communist movement. The negative narratives result from frustration, which in turn leads to symbolic lustration attempts at scapegoating the opposition leader(s)

Self-Identification Structure in Opole Silesia and the Kashubia: A Comparative Analysis

Data from surveys made in 2005/6 in small towns in two ethnically mixed regions-Opole Silesia and Kashubian Pomerania-are compared on issue of the local/ethnic/regional/national/European identification. Two regional profiles are different. In Silesia, there are two oppositions that account for most of identifications: Slesian versus non-Silesian and Polish versus non-Polish with some Silesians considering themselves Poles. In Kashubia almost all Kashubians consider themselves Poles but differ from non-Kashubian Poles. European identity is the least important, while local one is next to it with national and ethnic dominant

Democracy Under the Law a Review of Experiences

The paper seeks to answer, from the perspective of the sociologist, to what extent four years after the Round Table talks the Polish system may legitimately be defined as democracy under the law. It presents the dynamic process of the system changes, both institutional and personal, in the period from the mid 1989 to the mid 1993. In view of these changes the paper distinguishes four successive stages which vary according to the type of relation between the main actors of the political stage: 1) the stage of the supremacy of the contractual Sejm over the elected president which it had elected, 2) the stage of unbalance between the president elected democratically in general election and the contractual Sejm, 3) the stage of unbalance between the democratically elected president and the democratically elected Sejm, and 4) the stage of the supremacy of the president over the Sejm. The author emphasizes the role of three institutions: the Constitutional Tribunal, the Spokesman of Citizens’ Rights, and the Highest Chamber of Control. These institutions, in fact, were established in the previous period, but they play a principal role in the forming of the elements of the reign of the law in the new regime. The author mentions a progressive plurality in opinions and points at the three basic normative orientations in Poles: liberal, oriented at the individual rights and freedom; fundamentalist, stressing the traditional values of national culture; and social, which is expressed in the tendency towards executing from the authorities the social and economic rights. Basing himself on his own research of the years 1988 and 1992 the author concludes that the individual and liberal attitudes as well as little decrease in the rate of those expecting general welfare from the state still exist. At the same time people expect from the state a guarantee of the social minimum and employment. The author states that Polish farmers, workers of state enterprises and the workers of the budget sphere, and also the class of businessmen under formation, from various reasons still act for the sake of the State control of economy in the measure that is most convenient for them. Due to these pressures, though there are other reasons as well, the public administration plays a more and more important role in the process of the system transformation. The author presents a still strong position of Trade Unions and the Church in the public life of Poland. 1992 findings point out that the majority of Poles (68%) opt for a total separation between the State and the matters of religion. According to them it is political parties (65%), country entrepreneurs (43%), trade unions (41%) and common people (43%) that should influence what is going on in Poland. Claiming that Poland is indeed a democratic legal State (democratically elected parliament, the law formed in a democratic manner, the principle of equality towards the law, the right of individuals to an individual complaint to the European authorities, since Poland has ratified the European Convention of Human Rights). The author points at the threats which lie here, among which he quotes the weakness of the Polish middle class as the most important one

EITHER RIGHTLY OR LIKE A CROOK: LEGAL CULTURE OF POLISH SOCIETY AFTER COMMUNISM

The paper presents the results of research projects conducted by the Chair of Sociology of Custom and Law, Institute of Applied Social Sciences, Warsaw University, on the chosen components of the Third Republic of Poland's legal culture. The popular legal culture is distinguished here from the professional one. The latter is not a subject of this paper, although their direct points of junction are indicated: law-makers, social origin and environment of lawyers and the participation of non-lawyers in the administration of justice. All of them make treating the legal culture as an autonomous entity hardly possible. General legal attitudes are discussed with reference to the 1964 pioneer studies of Adam Podgórecki, and the patterns and practices of dispute resolution. The instrumental treatment of law by political elites is debated; those who use the law as an instrument of political struggle and the political advantage for those who pass the laws. Finally, fi ve general conclusions are drawn. According to the most important one, in the Polish culture the most common is the interest in claiming 'one's own' right by using both legal and illegal means to obtain it, which is linked to the toleration of similar behavior of others. The latter occurs if such a behavior does not interfere with the fulfillment of one's own aims

Továrna na právo :otázka politické reprezentace v polské Třetí republice

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