The Kosciuszko Foundation Online Programs present the lecture The Crisis of Democracy in Interwar Poland, The Obstacles to the Establishment of a Democratic and Pluralistic Polish State, focusing on the political system in Poland between the WWI and the WWII, by Prof. Antony Polonsky.
The First World War was widely seen as a victory for democracy over autocracy. Yet almost none of the new states which emerged in East-Central Europe after 1918 were able successfully to operate a democratic constitution. In his lecture, Professor Polonsky discusses why the constitution of March 1921 failed to establish a stable political system in Poland and what replaced it. He also examines the obstacles to the establishment of a democratic and pluralistic Polish state and the lessons we can draw from the failure of the 1921 constitution. These have a new relevance given the widespread contemporary challenge to liberal and constitutional principles.
The lecture is part of the Studying Poland Today talk series presented jointly by the Kosciuszko Foundation and the Project on Poland Past and Present. Its purpose is to raise the level of expert knowledge about Poland in foreign countries and, in particular, to strengthen Polish Studies in the universities of the English-speaking world.
The webinar is free and open to the public. Spots are limited. Registration is required.