The Polish Solidarity Movement: Revolution, Democracy and Natural Rights

by Cirtautas,Arista M.

• ISBN13: 9780415169400
• ISBN10: 0415169402
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-11-10
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book provides a groundbreaking analysis of democratization in Poland by placing Solidarity in the context of the major democratic upheavals of modernity: the French and American Revolutions. Departing from case studies of Solidarity that treat the movement in isolation, this study undertakes the first full historical comparison of the Polish movement with the ideals and institutions of democracy achieved in the last three centuries. Arista Maria Cirtautas explains that the institutionalization of a strong democracy in Poland will ultimately depend upon whether the similarities to the great tradition of democratic revolution outweighs the differences.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Introduction: revolution, democracy and Solidarity	p. 1
A Weberian alternative	p. 15
The charismatic presentation of natural rights: a Weberian theory of democracy	p. 21
The spirit of modern democracy	p. 21
The will to freedom: the legitimating power of natural law	p. 31
Democracy and charisma: the charismatic presentation of natural law	p. 36
Reason and the institutionalization of rights	p. 41
Formal natural rights and the American Revolution	p. 52
Natural rights and the charismatic creation of citizens	p. 53
Antecedents	p. 55
The natural rights doctrine	p. 57
Charismatic communities	p. 62
Institutional consequences	p. 67
Substantive natural rights and the French Revolution	p. 75
Antecedents	p. 78
The natural rights doctrine	p. 82
Charismatic communities	p. 88
Institutional consequences	p. 93
Natural rights and liberal capitalist development: an overview	p. 105
Revolutionary conditions	p. 105
Origins of the free market	p. 109
The Marxist--Leninist response to natural rights and liberal capitalism	p. 133
Marx's critique of natural rights	p. 135
Lenin's creation of a charismatic party	p. 143
The institutional domains of Leninism	p. 146
Poland: antecedents	p. 153
Solidarity's articulation of natural rights	p. 165
The natural rights doctrine	p. 166
Charismatic communities	p. 192
Solidarity and liberal capitalism	p. 206
Solidarity's weaknesses: the failure to construct institutional domains	p. 209
Solidarity's strengths: the impact on the domains of liberal capitalism	p. 231
Epilogue: the Polish Revolution in comparative context	p. 256
Notes	p. 263
Bibliography	p. 301
Index	p. 313
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