Attitudes of Poles towards the state

Abstract

The article analyses attitudes of Poles towards the state. The attitudes are shaped by four factors: both recent and past history, experiences of the young liberal-democratic republic and opening of Poland to the world. Research, conducted on all-national sample in November, 2007, shows that for the majority of citizens of Poland state is an intrinsic value, however they have various visions of its optimal model (from nearly authoritarian to libertarian). Welfare expectations towards the state are widely spread. This attitude has strong positive affective ground, which, however, does not eliminate critical assessment of ways the state is actually functioning. Particularly the criticism is related to unequal treatment of various groups of citizens.