Pandemia COVID-19 i polityka „Wielkiego Zamknięcia” jako wyzwanie dla demokracji (Akademia Ignatianum w Krakowie, 2021)
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, provoked government responses in the form of so-called lockdowns, or restrictions on freedom of movement and assembly. In Poland we remember similar solutions from the period of martial law in 1981. Then, however, it was politically determined, while today the primary cause of these decisions is the coronavirus and a threat to public health. Even a cursory observation of these processes seems to confirm the thesis that we are dealing with a policy of growing authoritarianism in some democracies, justified, however, by the threat of a pandemic and its destructive effects on society. In the whole family of democratic countries we can currently see various model solutions, one of which can be particularly disturbing. It concerns the so-called authoritarian democracy. In order to understand the evolutionary processes taking place today, it would be necessary to refer to some historical examples we have had to deal with. One should discuss the situation of the Weimar Republic at the beginning of the 1930’s. At that time also in Poland important political transformations were taking place, changing its system in an authoritarian direction. Finally, it is necessary to focus attention on the current situation in Europe and the United States in terms of possible threats to traditional models of democracy and Turkey, which, as a strong NATO member, is undergoing disturbing political transformations. Since the beginning of 2020, one of the most important factors determining the shape of politics is the coronavirus pandemic, which has become a pretext for initiating the so-called process of “armoring democracy” (Karl Loewenstein’s original militant democracy). Thus, the aim of the publication is to analyze and describe the processes occurring with varying intensity in some democratic states, heralding a “shift” of the regime towards authoritarianism, with particular emphasis on pandemic circumstances. The work is methodologically based on Karl Loewenstein’s concept of militant democracy, developed in Poland by a team led by Roman Bäcker with a team of researchers from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic that the international community has been dealing with since 2020 has, in addition to its health effects, initiated a number of politically motivated transformations. For many governments, the pandemic has become a pretext for toughening the course towards society or selected social groups that, in a liberal democracy, enjoyed extensive rights and civil liberties. Undoubtedly, these freedoms in a typical liberal democracy paradoxically make the work of governments more difficult, especially when they intend to implement political programs that are socially unpopular or contrary to the promises made during election campaigns. Under such conditions, “covidium justification” for unpopular decisions becomes extremely helpful. We have observed these actions in the form of so-called lockdowns (closures) and restrictions on movement. After all, a general quarantine is a kind of state of emergency, when, under the guise of concern for the health of citizens, attempts can be made to achieve other goals, aimed at the opposition, for example.
Keywords: nauki o polityce i administracji