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Joachim Lelewel’s Idea of Republicanism in the Context of the “Distinctness” of the Archetype of Polish Political Culture
Agnieszka Puszkow-Bańka
Abstract
When examining Polish political thought, one cannot help but notice that what engages Polish thinkers in reflection on the state and society is the problem of freedom. This is a characteristic feature of Polish political thought and is responsible for the special nature of the heritage of Polish political culture. In the secondary literature,the idea even appears that – historically – the fate of Poland and Polish people in the cultural, intellectual, and political spheres can be understood as, on the one hand, a reflection on the “republican paradigm” characteristic of Polish culture, and on the other, as this paradigm’s impact (positive or negative) on the history of Poland
and Poles. The goal of this article is to attempt to explain the idea of republicanism in the socio-political thought of Joachim Lelewel. In the article, we propose the thesis that if – according to assumptions accepted by scholars – the archetype of every nation is, by definition, unchanging and untranslatable into any other archetype, and Lelewel defines it as republican, then in his view: firstly, Polish republicanism is distinct from European republicanism; and secondly, political life in Poland can only be organized within the bounds of the “republican paradigm.” The success of Poland depends upon whether the value of this paradigm will be recognized. However paradoxical it may sound, the requirement for “strong rule” in Poland consists in taking into account the “republican soul” of Poles. We also point to the issue – raised by Lelewel – of the fundamental “distinctness” of the archetype of Polish political culture (which is subsumed within the “republican paradigm”) from the archetype of European culture.
Keywords
republicanism ; Joachim Lelewel ; socio-political freedom ; Poland and Europe ; Christian civilization
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