Poland's Transformation by Bjorn Kurten

Author:Bjorn Kurten [Kurten, Bjorn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, General, Political Science
ISBN: 9781351499323
Google: Zx0uDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-07-12T01:45:18+00:00

6.12 Conclusion

Even during the decades of communist rule, Poland was never quite like the other countries within the Soviet orb. Oppressed as they were, Poles never forgot the centuries during which features of constitutional democracy took root, however imperfectly. Moreover, as the communist system neared collapse, Poland already had alternative sources of influence, such as the Church and Solidarity, emerging to challenge the ruling party’s hegemony. Thus, while external forces were crucial to democracy’s dawn in the region, Poland was, in some respects, already further along to the road to the period of transition than most of its neighbors.

In the years since 1989, the pace and extent of change in Poland has been impressive. Institutions bolstering the rule of law, such as the Constitutional Tribunal, are working effectively. Free elections have taken place, and losers have stepped aside to allow the winners peacefully to take office. Political life is open and lively. Progress has been made, both on the political and the economic scenes, in bringing Poland into the family of Europe’s constitutional democracies.

Much remains to be done. Communism’s legacies still linger, among them the mentalities of corruption and self-interest that corroded civil society in the years before 1989. Many Poles feel left out during the transition to a market economy, and the hardshipsare real. Poland’s progress is to some extent hostage to the fluctuations of the international economy and to the policies of other countries, especially in Western Europe.

Whatever the challenges, Poland is surely on the road to taking its place alongside the world’s established democracies. In Freedom House’s Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties for 2000-2001, Poland ranks as high as several of the western democracies, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Belgium. Once Poland gains membership in the European Union, constitutionalism, democracy, and the rule of law will be yet more secure. History teaches us never to assume that a country’s progress cannot be reversed. Poles would be the first to say as much, as they have been the subject of many of modern history’s unhappier chapters. But, anyone who remembers, as I do, what it was like in Warsaw during the Cold War era, can rejoice that today’s Poland is redeeming many of the aspirations that have been held by its more enlightened leaders and citizens throughout history.

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