|
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
|
|
|
|
Poland's pre-WWII activities helped to sow the seeds of defeat of Nazi Germany in the global war
kwiecień 15, 2005
Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski
|
Gówno zawsze wypływa na wierzch
styczeń 21, 2006
PAP
|
MODLITWA POD KAMIENNYM WESTCHNIENIEM
czerwiec 7, 2007
ZYGMUNT JAN PRUSIŃSKI
|
Do Bronka Wildstaina
maj 19, 2006
TATAR
|
Re: “Świadectwo Polakòw Anno Domini 2005 dla potomnych”.
sierpień 29, 2005
Aleksander Jantar
|
Polityczna Niepoprawność
marzec 18, 2008
Marek Jastrząb
|
Lewe monety
wrzesień 15, 2006
Mirosław Naleziński, Gdynia
|
2003-01-13
styczeń 12, 2003
zaprasza.net
|
Według PAP złodziej to biznesmen
październik 30, 2005
PAP
|
Palestyński labirynt
grudzień 25, 2006
Ignacio Ramonet
|
Sejm zdrady
grudzień 20, 2007
...
|
Pilnie potrzebna powszechna edukacja obywatelska
kwiecień 20, 2005
Leszek Skonka
|
Inteligenci jadą do Stoczni Gdańskiej
(jak powstała grupa "ekspertów" MKS)
czerwiec 2, 2002
Tadeusz Kowalik
|
"Solidarność kłamstwa" na temat Grodna oraz Mińska
sierpień 12, 2005
Marek Głogoczewski
|
Plama na imażu i na stole – hipokryzja w mediach
luty 20, 2009
Mirosław Naleziński, Gdynia
|
Koszty aneksji do UE (5).
Wpłaty do budżetu Unii Europejskiej i inne
marzec 26, 2003
Włodzimierz Bojarski
|
2009.03.03. Serwis wiadomości ze świata bez cenzury
marzec 3, 2009
tłumacz
|
Poprawny politycznie
styczeń 7, 2007
Bogusław
|
"Gospodarka działa normalnie"
kwiecień 1, 2004
PAP
|
Spreparowane umysły
marzec 12, 2003
|
|
|