1
Political Contingencies and Cross-border Practices
of Civil Society. Polish Case Studies Iwona
Sagan

•  
•  
•  

• Civil society as a precondition and a solution to
  the successful EU Neighbourhood Policy
• Two Polish case studies similarities and
  differences
• Eastern and Western idea of civil society
• Possible ways of civil society transnational
  cooperation
• improvements

2
Why the civil society perspective is so important
for EU policy of integration and neighbourhood?
One of the most significant difference between
totalitarian ideologies like communism and
western liberalism is the existence of the civil
society with its voluntary associations like
trade unions, political parties, religious
communities, pressure and lobby groups and clubs,
which fill the space between the family and the
state. Gellner
3
Civil society as the precondition for a social
change
Civil society is sorely needed to fill the
communicative and the democratic space that
divides the European Union internally and from
its neighbours. A bottom-up process of civil
society activity might bring together different
economic, social and political spaces of EU and
its neighbours more effectively and substantially
than the efforts of top-down information
campaigns.
4
The power of civil society - Solidarity movement
in Poland

• Solidarity was a nation-wide civil society
  movement perceived by majority of people as
  another embodiment of Polish struggle for
  independence
• national identity and dignity became the main
  task of Solidarity
• Solidarity confirmed the power of values in
  political life
• Solidarity emerged as an organization not only
  independent from
• the state but first of all opposing the state
  apparatus - this showed
• that people could organize themselves without the
  state support
• and that this organization worked even better
  than the state
• provided services

5
Polish Case Studies

• case study
• Poland Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast)
• case study
• Poland - Ukraine

6
Common phenomena

• young borders 1945
• common past - ethnic minorities on both sides of
  borders
• closeness of languages, mentalities, everyday
  cultures
• weak regional economies on both sides
• mainly agriculture,
• old industry
• high unemployment
• low enterprise activity
• 1945 1989 borders were dividing lines
• cross- border interactions were limited to few
  border crossing points cooperation limited to
  border security issues
• after the transition cooperation has started to
  develop in both cases

7
Different transformational pathways Polish
Russian border line
Strongly asymmetrical civil societies
development being a result of democratization
processes advancement - on the Polish side
deep going tradition of CS mobilization
well formally rooted and politically independent
CSOs numerous active networks and organizations
interested in CBC - on the Russian side the
lack of CS tradition central state controlled
and politically dependent CSOs reluctant
partners in CBC reflecting political preferences
and interests of Centre in their activity and
attitude In the result the Polish-Russian border
is still a border line with border crossing
points perceived as a source of problems and with
a lack of regional and local networks able to
build the bottom-up cross-border neighbourhood
relations.
8
Different transformational pathways Polish
Ukrainian border zone
Although still asymmetrical in a stage of
development civil societies heading for the same
pattern on both sides of a border. The Orange
Revolution was a civil society mobilisation
momentum which significantly intensified and
improve the cross-border relations. The civil
society movement though concentrated around
values has triggered good neighbourhood practices
in social and economic spheres as well. The
unification power of civil society activity is
strongly present despite the troublesome history
dividing the nations. Poland has become an
accepted model and supporter in the
democratization and transition processes. In
the result the Polish-Ukrainian border has become
a border zone with developed regional and local
networks of cooperation able to build the
bottom-up cross-border neighbourhood relations.
9
Eastern and Western idea of civil society
Eastern European perspective Western European perspective
differences in vision of civil society differences in vision of civil society
ethical standards, unity around values, anti-state and anti-politics attitude plurality, fragmentation, citizens involvement in grassroots activity
the main aim the main aim
to renew the role of trust in the social relationships to introduce more plurality in the social life to oppose and to supplement the pragmatic states administration
similarities similarities
to develop the strategy, which enable people to participate more in public life to reformulate the idea of citizenship and the relationship between ethics and politics to develope the civil society for freedom to develop the strategy, which enable people to participate more in public life to reformulate the idea of citizenship and the relationship between ethics and politics to develope the civil society for freedom
based on Koczanowicz, 2003
10
How to institutionalize the Eastern idea of civil
society?
From the Polish-Ukrainian case it is clear that
only pragmatic values and procedures are not
enough to motivate people to be involved in
public issues. The emotional engagement of people
is necessary to motivate them to organise
themselves to act for the common good. One of
the fundamental tasks but also one of the most
difficult tasks in the process of EU integration
and neighbourhood policy is to turn the evoked
common commitment to values into permanent
structures of CSOs. The voluntary associations of
CS must be complemented by a set of practices and
institutional frameworks that link them to the
local, regional and state units instead of only
opposing them. It may lay the solid fundament
for European public sphere not isolated by the
border lines.
11
The possible strategies to strengthen CS
cooperation
The development of education - with special
emphasis on social sciences Boundaries are
not natural phenomena, they are produced by
social and political interactions in human
history. That is why the role of social and
humanistic sciences is crucial in their
understanding, reading and deconstructing
them. examples - CentralEastern Europe
Institute in Lublin - Institute of European
Integration of Ivan Franko National University
- Civic Education Project funded by the Open
Society Institute revitalizing the social
sciences in Eastern Europe to strengthen the
foundations upon which democracy can develope
12
The possible strategies to strengthen CS
cooperation
The development of communication -
environmental and cultural heritage joint
projects realised by NGOs example renovation of
the Polish cemetery in Lviv - or music
events are one of the most effective way of
communication - the role of Internet