|
Already in the XVIth century Poland were ideas also fundamental to contemporary political theory, according to Norman Davies of Oxford University:
|
|
During the First Polish Republic, or around the year 1600, one million free citizens lived in Poland, a record in the world history of representative government. These citizens had the right to run for the office of King in a free general election. Men and women had the same property and inheritance rights. The Polish indigenous legislative process shaped the national culture. While in Western and Eastern Europe monarchs became more and more authoritarian, Poland elected its kings and passed its laws in the Sejm (Parliament). The predatory powers that conquered Poland in the late 18th century made sure that the knowledge of Polish liberty faded away from European memory.
Slavic tradition of elective system in tribal democracies was strengthened in Poland by Europe's unique Polish national defense system, based on an alliance of the king with landowners. In the rest of Europe national defense was based on the king's alliance with fortified towns as it happened within all of western Christianity. In Poland there was a unique alliance between the king and the masses of landowners. This happened because foreign immigrants flooded Polish towns after the devastation by Mongol invasions starting in 1241 and it took generations for the immigrants to acquire Polish national identity - Jewish immigrants, with a few exceptions, never did assimilate because of the clear mandate of the Talmudic laws.
These ideas were introduced in Poland, the middle ground of Europe, by the development of the indigenous Polish democratic process, which matured in the sixteenth century. It was created by citizens of the First Polish Republic, using ideas that were modern even by today's standards. These ideas are also fundamental to contemporary political theory, according to Norman Davies of Oxford University:
*general elections by all citizens (called viritim)
*a social contract between government and citizens
*the principle of government by consent
* personal freedom
*civil rights of the individual
*freedom of religion
*the value of self-reliance
* prevention of the growth of authoritarian power of the state
*the prevention of rule by any form of oligarchy
These ideas were spread when the first printing press was set up in Kraków in 1473. It is estimated that between 1561 and 1600 seventeen printing houses in Poland published over 120 titles per year, with 500 copies as the average edition size. The first complete translation of the Bible into Polish was produced in 1561 by Jan Leopolita. Around that time the first Polish orthography dictionary was published (by Stanislaw Murzynowski in 1551); grammar books and dictionaries also proliferated. The Polish Renaissance was bilingual, with the masses of noble citizens speaking a mixture of Polish and Latin, and various authors oscillating between Polish, Latin, and a mixture of those two languages. Latin was the language of science and diplomacy in all of Western Christianity.
www.pogonowski.com
|
|
17 listopad 2011
|
|
Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski
|
|
|
|
Kilka słów prawdy o bezrobociu
marzec 17, 2004
Adrian Dudkiewicz
|
O Suwerenność Narodu Polskiego. Proklamacja
sierpień 26, 2007
Jerzy Rachowski
|
Polscy patrioci a polakożerca
kwiecień 26, 2003
przesłała Elżbieta
|
Pacyfikacja ale nie wojna w Iraku
luty 2, 2006
Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski
|
Farelka i paplanina - nazwiskowe związki
styczeń 4, 2008
Mirosław Naleziński, Gdynia
|
Kontrola przez demoralizacje
czerwiec 27, 2003
prof. Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski
|
"Rząd nie będzie umierał za media publiczne"
październik 11, 2004
PAP
|
Bp Pieronek: pielgrzymka papieża obaliła kilka mitów
sierpień 20, 2002
PAP
|
Splastyfikowani manekini
marzec 18, 2005
Mirosław Naleziński
|
Rosja zapowiada, że uderzy w terrorystów na całym świecie
wrzesień 8, 2004
|
Ziemia, planeta ORANUSIAN?
styczeń 6, 2007
Marek Głogoczowski
|
Próba rozmycia odpowiedzialnosci -
czyli "doradcy prywatyzacji"
styczeń 30, 2003
zaprasza.net
|
Jak kradli tak kradną dalej.
90 tys. zł dla 4 osób
kwiecień 1, 2003
PAP
|
List
lipiec 29, 2003
Jerzy Przystawa
|
Izrael Szamir - Przyparty do muru
lipiec 9, 2008
Izrael Szamir
|
Historia białego człowieka: Asyria i Persja
sierpień 25, 2006
Zbyszek Koreywo
|
Polska widziana przez pryzmat prowincjonalnego miasteczka...
sierpień 7, 2008
jobstalker
|
Pięć "reform" AWS
marzec 23, 2007
Artur Łoboda
|
I am an angry man
grudzień 15, 2003
|
Ważna książka
marzec 29, 2005
Jan Klass
|
|
|