Marcin Gajek
Securitologia, No 2 (28), 2018, pp. 120 - 142
https://doi.org/10.4467/24497436SCU.18.019.11596The spectacular result of Stanisław Tymiński in the 1990 Polish presidential election not only shocked a substantial segment of public opinion but also confounded numerous commentators of Polish political life, who started to seek the causes of the enigmatic candidate’s success. The explanations given by both publicists and social scientists were dominated by the opinion that Tymiński’s success resulted from the demagogical nature of his political program, and the immaturity of Polish society, which at that time had not yet adapted to democracy after 45 years of real socialism. In contrast to those explanations, the present paper attempts to demonstrate that Stan Tymiński possessed numerous traits of a charismatic leader (or, at least, he consequently created his image in that direction), which in turn, allows us to understand the results of 1990 Polish presidential election better.x
Marcin Gajek
Wolność i Solidarność, nr 9, 2016, pp. 85 - 97
https://doi.org/10.4467/25434942WS.16.007.13109The paper argues that – regardless of neo-Marxist inspirations – many views of Václav Havel, Adam Michnik, or Jacek Kuroń on civil society bear a surprising resemblance to political philosophy of Aristotle or Cicero. This, in turn, makes it possible to argue that Havel’s concept of “anti-political politics” is not anti-political at all but to the contrary – political par excellence, if only one adopts a sourcing understanding of politics characteristic for classical republican tradition. Moreover, those republican traces are especially well-visible in both the structure and the way of operating of Polish Solidarity movement.