The ”shared” vision of a better world

After the fall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe in 1989, the transition from communism to democratic government has been a very salient topic and to no surprise it still generates heated debates about what really happened and the outcomes we experience today. Just like its Latin roots suggests, the word ‘’communism’’, in Latin, ‘’communis’’, means ‘’shared’’ or ‘’common’’. Ideal versions of communism in which everyone is equal have appeared as far back as the 4^th century when Plato envisions a governing class which served the interest of the whole community. Private ownership of goods was seen as encouraging selfishness and instead, Plato argued that the governing class should share all their material goods and live as a large family.

While I do acknowledge Karl Marx’s 1848 critique of capitalism and its inequalities, the way communism was implemented in Eastern Europe did not only touch the surface by replacing private property but it undermined the most fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of thought, to  publicly disagree and access to an education which encourages you to think critically about the political class, their ideas and if they are acting for the common good of the society. Political indoctrination in Eastern Europe took place by the interference of the Communist Party at the universities, who were involved in all major decisions. They also had no interest in further encouraging research and innovation and every paper had to bear the seal of the censorship offices. The governance system of the universities was based on deans and reactors who were not elected but appointed by higher authority. Despite all these challenges, we have information that Polish academics still managed to cooperate with peers from Western Universities and took full advantage of the limited Western fellowships. Highly educated people were often seen as threatening and potentially dangerous for the stability of the regime.

The problems of transition

Luckily, the late 1980s brought an end to the division of Europe and in most parts of the communist rule. However, the question remained whether these countries could develop, after 40 years of communism, multiple party systems, effective presidency that could be held accountable through an elected parliament?

And how can you build a market economy when there is no tradition of entrepreneurship, and no institutions such as stock markets, accountants, and commercial banks? The 1989 Revolution and taking down the old communist regime were a step forward, however, until the value system was changed, we could see that it took a long time for the countries to experience some type of balance and prosperity. Interestingly enough, countries like Poland and Hungary, which are now retreating from the standards of liberal democracy by not respecting the independence of the media, judiciary and basic human rights such as abortion, were the leaders of the 1989 Revolution. While in Romania, any opposition during the communist regime was immediately suppressed by violence, in Poland, the Solidarity movement gathered ten million members between 1980-1981. Solidarity movement involved cooperation between Roman Catholic Church, intellectuals, and workers. Interesting to point out, the main drivers of the movement, Lech Walesa and his advisers were actually political prepared to negotiate in round tables with communist leadership and this paved the way to partially free elections in June 1989. These were the actions that further inspired other Easter European countries to follow their lead and carry round table negotiations.

Some researchers followed the history of Polish national legislation in higher education and what they found out was that 53 years out of the 90 years it has been in place, its autonomy has been eliminated by refusal of democratically electing its rectors. It was only when the Polish political system changed through democratic elections that autonomy was granted as well in the law of higher education. For the Polish universities autonomy translated in independent self-governance because even though the legal acts included freedom of research, art, and education, it was only beautiful, wrapped words if the system was dominated by an academic oligarchy. University autonomy was highly important for the Polish academic community who envisioned an ‘’ivory tower’’ model which denied any external interference in the university.

A more recent study, POLPAN, interviews adult Poles every five years since 1988. The survey is conducted via face-to-face interviews and covers several different spheres such as: the person´s life, educational background, political views: democratic and authoritarian attitudes, social class, cognitive abilities, along with details regarding gender and age.

Conclusion of Study

According to this study, age does not have a direct impact on the democratic values of the Poles when the other areas such as education, gender, class are also being taken into consideration. Other interesting ideas were that not all education leads to critical thinking, and some are only doing the job of providing diplomas. Definitely, students that are exposed to critical debates of political and social values will develop intellectually differently than those for example who major in engineering.

On the other hand, while we may think that education is the backbone to successful transition periods, the Polish General Survey points out to other ideological factors correlated with voting for the Right, such as anti-communist feelings, a powerful Roman Catholic religious tradition and free market values.

Opposite to common believes new studies has shown that post socialism economic ‘’losers’’ with less education and lower income, were not more likely to turn to the Right and the Poles with more years of education were forming the new base of part support. A very controversial topic which I will address in my future blog is the interference of the Roman Catholic Church in all spheres of life and while it can not offer solution to economic problems that the society faces today, it does provide the support for right wing political leaders to engage the Poles in hatred speech, anger on a social and ideological basis.

Conservative cultural values such questions as abortion, women’s role in society, religious education, homosexuality, have deep roots in the Polish identity.

During the drafting of the Constitution in 1996 the right-wing parties fought to base the document on Christian values and Catholic traditions and to abolish the separation between church and state. The church can offer no solutions to the economic problems that many Poles face today, but it does provide a means for right wing political leaders to organize anger on a social or ideological basis.