Samorządna Rzeczpospolita – samorządna wyspa na niedemokratycznym oceanie. Koncepcje samoorganizacji społecznej w czasach pierwszej „Solidarności”

Abstract

In the times of the “First Solidarity” (1980-1981), the idea of self-government was one of the
key fragments of the socio-political system change concept. The specific connection of the
bottom-up activity of the working class with the activity of the political and intellectual elites
resulted in the appearance of numerous, different models and solutions, the culmination of
which was the concept of “Self-governing Republic”. The central category and basic way of its
realization was in the mechanism of self-organization of the society, and its purpose was to
democratize the political system. The change of the political situation, started by introducing
the martial law caused the slow abandonment of the earlier suggested solutions. Among the
criticism directed towards the “Self-governing Republic” there were the accusations of its
utopianism and uselessness. The concept that seemed revelatory in its time, turned out to be
useless in the new reality, but its creator ideas survived.
Key words: Self-governing Republic, NSZZ Solidarity, concepts of the government
self-organization, utopia