Unless you have been living with your head under a rock or on a deserted island, you are aware of the headlines all over the news about liberal democracies being under pressure. There is no shortage of stories on the abortion laws in Poland, the recent rulings from Poland´s constitutional court, the anti-LGBT law in Hungary and how leaders such as Victor Orban enacted a decree on March 30^th, in which he can rule by decree, bypassing the Parliament until the Corona virus crisis is over.

Why is this alarming and why should we care? First of all, in our case study, Poland an ex-communist country, represented the ‘’jewel in the crown’’ of Western integration. I believe a very important moment was marked by the final negotiations on December 13, 2002 between the Polish Prime Minister Miller, at that time, and the EU representatives, followed by a declaration full of hope and great expectation from the future:

‘’We have removed the heavy burden of the Yalta agreement and the postwar division of Europe. From Polish Solidarity, which won freedom and democracy for Central and Eastern Europe, we are approaching the true solidarity of Europe and of Europeans.’‘

In my blog I argue that there is an interlink between political literacy and a healthy liberal democracy where citizens engage in it by voting and by living the liberal values and a lack of it leads to a soft authoritarianism, monopoly of power that, while it looks democratic it controls the media, all the channels of communications and interferes with personal freedoms.

I want to add here that transition periods, such as the one from communism to democracy, while it was tough and messy it was also full of hopes and dreams. I believe it was very easy to be embraced by everyone without hesitations in comparison to what was left behind, the alternative of an authoritarian regime. Reflecting on the period of the 1990´s, people´s views and opinions were primarily shaped by their upbringing, circle of friends, acquaintances, newspapers and television, and education at school was the major pillar in creating engaging citizens. However, nowadays, everyone has access to social media and with the new algorithms it is easier to influence and target certain segments of the population into believing stories without critically assessing them or think about the interests behind it.

I will start by defining the key concepts such us political literacy, liberal versus illiberal democracy, and I will base my claims on the IEA surveys conducted in 1999 as well as on the Eurobarometer survey on Values and Identities of European citizens conducted between October – November 2020. While it is quite controversial to try to define such a complex term as ”political literacy”, we felt more inclined to use the one given by Cassel and Lo (1997) in which they define political literacy not only as knowledge but also ability to perform our roles as citizens effectively. Even though I could dedicate a full paper on defining ”democracy”, I have chosen the one by Therborn (1977) who lists ‘’popular representation, universal and equal suffrage, and freedoms of speech, assembly, organization, and the press’’ as crucial variables of democracy. In order to define the term ‘’illiberal democracy’’ I used Nyyssonen & Metsala (2020) definition which describes it as countries that still adhere to the forms and rituals of democracy, such as elections but where civil and political liberties and rule of law are highly questionable.

Contrary to popular belief, I found a very interesting study conducted in 1999 by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) which revealed that despite its neighboring countries in CEE, which have also undergone major political and social transformations in the 1980’s and had significantly lower civic knowledge, Polish students have scored above the standard in comparison with students from stable Western democracies. Trying to better understand the excellent results from the survey, I discovered that in 1992 the Ministry of Education in Poland, together with the Ohio State University in the USA, developed a program called Education for Democratic Citizenship in Poland. This program was created to capacitate the Polish educators but also to create a space for an open dialogue among scholars, academics, educational leaders on democratic education. This initiative was successful and there is a link between the excellent scores in the IEA Survey but also in tracing the steps on how to successfully transition not only at an institutional level but also in educating young generations on how to become conscious citizens.

I got a lot of insights also from studying the answers from the Eurobarometer Report from October – November 2020 conducted in all 27 EU Member States. From the answers given by the participants, Poland scored higher with 56% with regards to valuing self-enhancement, defined as preoccupation with outward signs of wealth and also traditional values and ways of thinking 62%. In terms of socio-demographic differences, people who left school at age 15, who identify with the working class, who live in rural villages, right political orientation and who have strong religious beliefs are more likely to place importance on the value of tradition. Also Polish citizens scored high 72% when asked how much they identify with their religion or with their political views 69%. On the question about equality before law and the right to a fair trial, respondents in Poland are 73% less likely to support equality before law.

Of course these results are in no way representative for the whole population of Poland as the sample size was quite small, only 1,017 interviews. We can not generalize or draw any definite conclusion however, this was the first of its kind survey which intended to understand the citizens opinions about religious values, EU values, personal beliefs and even more about what they consider their identity.

For me personally it was important to get a glimpse into what is important for Polish citizens so that I better understand where they most probably get their information from, and where do certain beliefs stem from and what is the relation between age, education, social class, living standards and support for a healthy liberal democracy.