Democracy or Republic? The Critique of the Liberal Democracy in the Discourse of the Contemporary Polish Republicanism

Poland in the recent years has undergone a turbulent debate concerning the fundamental principles of the country's liberal-democratic regime. It was acelerated by the crisis of the Polish post-communist government (2003-2005) and a subsequent period of the domination of the conservative right (2005-2007) which attempted to re-define the paradigm of Polish politics valid since 1989. This intended conservative revolution was symblically expressed in the idea of the transition from the 3rd to 4th Polish Republic. The diploma thesis Democracy or Republic? traces the genealogy and precepts of one of the most influntial currents in the formation of the 4th Republic discourse, defined as "Polish neo-republicanism". The thesis concentrates upon the main themes of the neo-republican discourse (politics of remembrance, relation between tradition and modernization, subjectivity of the body politic) which constitute not only a critique of the state of Polish postcommunist democracy, but also a more general corrective to the prevailing interpretations of the liberal democratic ethos. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org