Public Policy in a Sociological Vacuum

The author presents the socio-cultural framework of the process of formulating and implementing public policies/activities (including their analysis and evaluation). He gives grounds for the idea that socio-cultural factors have a deciding influence on the present low level of effectiveness of public activities/policies in Poland (although structural and economic factors also have an impact). Reference to the phenomenon of a ‘sociological vacuum’ and its consequences (such as minute interest in public issues, and lack of responsibility for public activities and for meeting the needs of others) is important in the analysis. The author points to the historical origins of the phenomenon and refers to earlier studies. He claims this vacuum is responsible for the clumsiness characterizing present attempts to deal with various collective problems—particularly the more complicated ones, whose resolution would require considerable social capital, analytical capacity, and the connection of social and economic resources. In his opinion, public politics in Poland could remain for a long time in its present shape—characterized by the creation of legal regulations without much use of analytics, and by unilateral actions of the political class and the strongest interest groups