In my opinion, no. Democracy is a system that is difficult to practice and difficult to take root. That's what I thought when I read in “Free Sobota” an interview with Aleksander Kwaśniewski, who said that he was proud of the Polish constitution.
However, I think that our constitution has major shortcomings, and Kwaśniewski can be satisfied that the constitution was created at all during his presidency, but the socio-political context in which the constitution operates has changed and our constitution remains in place. I think her most important weakness is that she allowed it PiS to legal breweries aimed at changing the system.
The American constitution, on which the Polish Constitution was modeled, already has nearly thirty amendments, and the earliest ones, in the form of the so-called Bill of Rights, were adopted four years after the constitution. Our constitution was adopted in 1997 and nothing significant has changed so far.
Joseph Schumpeter, considered one of the most important economists of the 20th century, was a scientist who, according to today's nomenclature, would be classified as a political scientist, and his work “Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy” combines political, sociological and economic approaches. In this book, published in 1976 (the only Polish edition – PWN 2009), there are chapters devoted to democracy and the conditions that favor it and those that hinder and sometimes prevent the development of democracy.
I am of the opinion that in our area – I am thinking about the geographical location – we are faced with a preponderance of difficulties and therefore if one of the small neighboring countries manages to develop democracy – against all odds – the world is delighted and encourages us to join together this way. It works for some time, but at some point Orban shows up.
And what does he do? He explains to the nation that democracy is not an invention for him, because it introduces chaos and uncertainty into orderly life. This approach is gaining supporters step by step, democracy is turning into a sovereign democracy. The democratic process, which requires effort, is replaced by a process of democratic decay.
So let's take a look at what promotes democracy.
The first condition conducive to democracy is the right human material. According to Schumpeter, “in order for the human material of politics – that is, people constituting the party machinery, elected to parliament, or appointed to positions in the cabinet – to represent a sufficient level of quality (…), the only effective guarantee is the existence of a social layer, which itself is the result of rigorous selection process. Schumpeter believes that this layer “cannot be too hermetic or too easily accessible to outsiders.” Then it will provide candidates not only for political careers, but also people who will be useful and beneficial in other areas of public life, because they will have a “common professional code and a common set of views.”
Another necessary condition for the functioning of democracy – according to Schumpeter – is that the democratic government can have the services of a “well-trained bureaucracy”. This bureaucracy, according to Schumpeter, should be a carrier of appropriate traditions, must have a strong sense of duty and “no less strong esprit de corps”.
The next set of conditions can be described as “democratic self-control”. Politicians in parliament must resist the temptation to cause difficulties for the government whenever possible. This condition, according to Schumpeter, is frequently violated. And this unfortunately means the end of democracy.
The last condition for the proper functioning of democracy is the acceptance of tolerance for differences of opinion in the fight for leadership. It is difficult to conclude that the above-mentioned conditions are met in Poland. Therefore, I think that the democratic method has no chance of taking root soon in our country.
And that's what I'm very worried about.
As a consolation, I can add that so far none of my political prophecies have come true. And since the text about democracy was a prediction – there is no room for democracy in Poland in the near future – I hope that this prediction will not come true and we will enjoy democracy after the elections.
Opinions expressed in columns for tvn24.pl do not constitute the editorial office's position.
Maciej Wierzyński – television journalist, publicist. After the introduction of martial law, he was released from TVP. In 1984 he emigrated to USA. He was a scholarship holder of Stanford University and Penn State University. He founded the first multi-hour Polish-language channel Polvision on the “Group W” cable television in the USA. In the years 1992-2000 he was the head of the Polish Section of the Voice of America in Washington. Since 2000, editor-in-chief of the New York “Nowy Dziennik”. Since 2005, he has been associated with TVN24.
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