Furnishing Democracy at the End of the Century: The Polish Round Table and Others Cover Image
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Furnishing Democracy at the End of the Century: The Polish Round Table and Others
Furnishing Democracy at the End of the Century: The Polish Round Table and Others

Author(s): Elżbieta Matynia
Subject(s): Political history, Government/Political systems, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Post-Communist Transformation
Published by: SAGE Publications Ltd
Keywords: Poland; political history; postcommunist transformation; Polish Round Table talks; political change; democracy;

Summary/Abstract: The Polish Round Table talks began on 6 February 1989, and concluded on April 5, at a time when to most people the communist system throughout the Bloc still seemed to be going strong. Clearly those talks were a lot less visually spectacular and telegenic than all that joyous hammering at the Berlin Wall half a year later. And yet, looked at from the distance of a decade, the Round Table can be seen not only as having an important place in the series of events that opened a Pandora's box in the Eastern Bloc: even more importantly, perhaps, it can also be seen as one of a small number of cases over the past quarter of a century in which people have devised and tested a new formula for bringing about thoroughgoing political change without violence or the use of force. [...]

  • Issue Year: 15/2001
  • Issue No: 02
  • Page Range: 454-471
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: English