Négociation de groupe et participation en Pologne

In: Revue d'études comparatives est-ouest: RECEO, Volume 6, Issue 1, p. 143-162

Abstract

Group Bargaining and Participation in Poland.
In order to understand the current state of bargaining between various large social groups in present day Poland it is not enough to be acquainted with the mechanism of the Soviet style communism. The local historical tradition also explains a lot. It is necessary to always remember that Poland is one of the few countries in Europe in which the gentry used to be very numerous and at the same time particularly influential. Poland constituted for centuries a gentry commonwealth in which not only kings were elected, but where even the powerful aristocratic circles were dependent to a large extent on the support of the lower and the middle gentry. It is therefore quite understandable that the Polish national ideology even now is still under a strong influence of the values and social patterns originated by the gentry and afterwards cultivated by the intelligentsia. There is a long tradition of deep socio-cultural divisions between various strata, widespread elitist inclinations, devotion to popular national myths, selectivity of societal contacts, a warm attitude towards friends and guests, but a distance or even prejudice towards strangers, a reserved attitude toward formal authorities.
The democratization of the whole Polish present day system becomes a very tempting solution. However, it seems almost impossible to reconcile the authori- tiarian political system, based on a single ideology and one Party rule, with the local self-government and freedom of collective initiative. Any new organizational project oriented towards stimulation of entrepreneurship and public will becomes effectively challenged sooner or later by the totalitarian aspects of the whole system. In several cases local democracy just does not work because nobody really bothers to confront the blueprint with the reality. Originators of a particular project are just too happy with the product of their imagination and therefore neglect to attend to how it works in social practice. The elected or nominated représentants haves vested interests in gaining as much power as possible without bothering with the common will. People at the bottom of the hierarchy keep quiet because they fear that things will turn worse.