%0 Journal Article
%T Round Table Talks Did Not Happen in a Vacuum: The Political Solidarity Model of Social Change and Polish Transition to Democracy
%A Paulina G¨®rska
%J -
%D 2019
%R 10.32872/spb.v14i4.2313
%X Theories of social change developed within social psychology are rarely employed to interpret historical events. This is a serious neglect, as a social-psychological perspective has the capacity to inform our understanding of long-term processes that prepare the ground for major political breakthroughs. In this commentary, I utilize the political solidarity model of social change (Suba£¿i£¿, Reynolds, & Turner, 2008, https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868308323223) to examine Poland¡¯s path to democracy. Using a tripolar division for the authority (i.e., communist leaders), the minority (i.e., democratic opposition), and the majority (i.e., unengaged citizens), I argue that the Round Table Talks of 1989 originated from two interdependent social processes that precipitated in the late ¡¯70s. Whereas one of these processes encompassed the loss of popular support for the Communist Party, the other one involved an increase in the majority¡¯s identification with the democratic opposition. I propose that without the co-occurrence of these two processes, the Round Table agreements would not have been possible
%K [social change
%K political solidarity model of social change
%K democratic transition]
%U https://spb.psychopen.eu/index.php/spb/article/view/2313