Freedom and Authority: the case of Poland

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

In 1989 Poland became the cradle of socio-political transformation and the birthplace of democracy in Central Europe; since 2004 Poland has been a border country of the European Union in the East. Polish political and social history is vast and complex. Within a thousand years Poland has been under the influence of a variety of political and military forces from the East and the West. In this context, Poland presents a lens through which complex conflicts between Western, Central and Eastern Europe, between liberalism and authoritarianism, can be explored. The course offers an overview of the essential questions of freedom and authority in the Polish context throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.