Polskie racje stanu. Populizm zwycięski wobec liberalnego minimum

Abstract

The paper discusses Liberalism after Communism by Jerzy Szacki in the light of the commonly accepted (including by Szacki himself) research method and his idea of history and the general attitude towards the past. The paper focuses on how Szacki tackles the problem of transporting the liberal ideas onto the Polish ground after 1989; on how he discloses dilemmas and restrictions of the Polish liberalism; on the historical dimension of the Polish liberalism; on whether the liberal Weltanschauung is universal or incidental. In the end, the paper attempts to look at the problem of the liberal minimum in Szacki’s analyses in the context of the Polish raison d’état and of the question of populism, as well as the current political crisis in Poland.