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THE FILE PHILOSOPHY. A POLITICIAN’S FILE OR A FILE ON A POLITICIAN (SOME OBSERVATIONS REGARDING POLISH ELECTION CAMPAIGNS)
 
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Instytut Nauk Politycznych Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
 
 
Publication date: 2020-01-28
 
 
Studia Politologiczne 2002;6
 
ABSTRACT
Modern parliamentary democracy allows for political activity to be conceived on a wide scale, under one condition however – it has to abide by the law. Otherwise, the activity is deemed unacceptable and even prosecuted under the law. As often is the case, however, the “out-of-the-ordinary” methods are much more effective than the so called “law-abiding” ones. Libel and slander, false accusations, smearing and, finally, blackmail and acts of terror, form the repertoire of those politicians who lack the arguments. Having in mind that electoral law is very precise in setting the calendar of particular stages of the electoral process, it is enough for someone to employ one of the above methods at the right time to ensure that any rectification of that action would be possible only AFTER the elections had been resolved. On the other hand, the use of such methods “in-between elections” has the aim of destabilising the incumbent governing political group, the elimination of an inconvenient politician, the attraction of an electorate of one’s own for the coming elections. The topic of the article is a “Polish speciality”, as far as the many unconventional methods of political warfare are concerned, i.e. “pulling out a file on one’s opponent”, in other words – claiming or just hinting to have documented evidence against that person. The article recalls the events relating to Stan Tymiƒski, Lech WaΠ´sa, Aleksander KwaÊniewski and Józef Oleksy, and although the given examples do not exhaust the subject, they serve as a backdrop for observations, of a more general nature, on the political culture of the so called Polish political elites.
ISSN:1640-8888
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