Welcome to our blog about political literacy!

Nowadays, the state of affairs in Poland has kept everyone in suspense. The reformations, of which the abortion law is just the tip of tNowadays, the state of affairs in Poland has kept everyone in suspense. The reformations, of which the abortion law is just the tip of the ice berg, has put pressure on the Polish democracy. Furthermore, the political reformations caused a legal dispute between Poland and the EU in October. In our blogs, we wanted to explore the challenges faced by the Polish government. Here, we will discuss the different impacts that political literacy can have on the political situation in Poland and how this effects the EU. But before we can do that, a little clarification on the definition of political literacy is needed.

What is Political Literacy?

Political literacy can be defined in several ways. However, we perceived that the definition of Cassel and Lo (1997) is the most clear one. Political literacy is described by these authors as: “the knowledge and understanding of the political process and political issues which enables people to perform their roles as citizens effectively” (p. 320). This knowledge will create a political involvement construct, also known as political participation. Political participation entails, as Cassel and Lo (1997) described, that people can effectively perform their role as a citizen. In our blogs, we focus on political participation as the voter turn-out during elections.

There are a lot of factors that have an impact on the political literacy and, in turn, the political participation of Polish citizens. In 2015, the national-conservative party PiS won the Polish elections. This party made severe reformations, which attacked the judiciary and the independence of the media. Even worse, it threatened the principles of the rule of law. How is it possible that this democratic backsliding can occur?

In our blogs, we will address these factors, how they affect political literacy and, therefore, also the political participation of the citizens of Poland. The first factors that has an impact on the political literacy is the political instability in Poland and the socio-economic status of the Polish citizens. Moreover, it is perceived that education is an important aspect that affects the political literacy, in the way the education system and the way it is structured to contribute to political education. At last, the other ‘socialisation agents’ or cultural norms have an effect on the political understanding of citizens. These factors are thoroughly examined and discussed in our blogs to help us analyse the evolution of political literacy in society.

These factors are examined and discussed in our blogs to help us analyse the evolution of political literacy in Polish society and which factors are causing political illiteracy. Political literacy could be the key to unlock the true potential of politically unstable societies, and aid individuals to make change for themselves. As described by Fredric Gale, political literacy is not merely a skill, “the process of literacy is empowering only if we see literacy as enabling people to have real agency.” Political literacy is therefore a power, and in today’s European society it should be a right.

About the Authors

Our writing team is made up of second year European Studies students Adina, Renee and Rozemarijn. As mentioned above, our blog posts will be centred around the effects of specific themes on political literacy in Poland and aim to explore what makes political literacy levels in Poland so complex. In our individual introduction you can read the specific themes all of us are focusing on!
We hope you enjoy our blogs!!

* Featured Image by Christian Lue on Unsplash