Polish Hertitage Club of Madison, Wisconsin
with support of CREECA
(UW-Madison Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia)

presents

An Amazing Story:
Parties, Elections and Democracy in post 1989 Poland

 
Given Poland's experience in the first ninety years of the 20th century very few observers - foreign and domestic - were optimistic about its citizens' ability to forge a political system that has been as truly democratic in spirit and in operation as that which emerged in Third Republic Poland from 1989.

 
In his remarks Dr. Pienkos will discuss what that system has been about and why and how it has happened. Specifically, he will be looking at the character, results, consequences, and significance of Poland's many Presidential and Legislative elections that have been held over the past three decades. He will also attempt to provide an explanation as to how and why the present political party alignment has emerged in the way that it has.

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About the speaker: Donald Pienkos is Professor Emeritus (Political Science) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. There he taught courses on Soviet and  post-Soviet politics and foreign policy, and the politics of Eastern Europe from 1969 to 2013. Don completed his M.A., Ph.D, and Certificate in Russian Area Studies at the University of Wisconsin and earned his doctorate under the guidance of one of the University’s foremost scholars, Prof. John A. Armstrong. At UW-Milwaukee, Don was a founder of its Russian and East European Studies Committee in 1970 and its Polish Studies Committee in 1979. His many publications have focused on Poland and the Polish diaspora in America. In the 1990s he was engaged in Poland’s, the Czech Republic’s, and the Hungarian republic’s admission into the NATO Alliance. His work has been recognized on a number of occasions, most notably in 2010 when he received the Officer’s Cross of Service from the president of Poland.

The Polish Heritage Club will host a reception
immediately after the talk
in space outside Room 225.