TRUST AND EMERGING DEMOCRACY - LESSONS FROM POLAND

The former communist societies of Eastern Central Europe (e.g. Poland) repeatedly experience barriers and blockades on the road toward an op en, democratic, market society of the Western type. The author claims that most of the problems are due to the deficiency of cultural resour ces, the central of which is trust. A theory of trust is proposed, inf ormed by the author's earlier work on 'social becoming'. The 'culture of distrust' is found to pervade Polish society at all levels of socia l life. Part of that syndrome derives from the legacy of real socialis m, but more attention should be focused on current conditions: the new 'risk environments', widespread anomie, inefficiency of political eli tes, and an enhanced feeling of relative deprivation after revolutiona ry elation and unrealistic hopes. To restore trust, an indispensable c omponent of robust social tissue, the consistency of reforms must be s afeguarded, the rule of law meticulously observed, integration with We stern democracies speeded up and trust itself turned into a recognized social value.