ENEMIES IN THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF THE PUWP - KRYSTYNA WIESŁAWA TREMBICKA

The monograph "Enemies in the Political Thought of the Polish United Workers' Party" is an in-depth analysis of one of the key categories of political thought, which has a direct impact on shaping politics. The author, Krystyna Wiesława Trembicka, drawing on the findings of Carl Schmidt and the classics of totalitarian theory, justifies the need to study this category and outlines its structure.

• Analysis of the political thought of the Polish United Workers' Party
• References to the theories of Carl Schmidt and the classics of totalitarianism
• Study of the category of the enemy in a political context
• Considerations on the division into enemies and allies
• Assessment of reality in the context of threats to identity
• Identification of enemies in subjective and symbolic terms

Schmidt, defining the essence of politics as a constant confrontation with the opponent, defined its boundaries through the friend-enemy relationship. This division, according to Schmidt, distinguished the political sphere from other aspects of social life. Actors operating in the public sphere, in order to be effective, had to assess and classify the political scene into enemies and allies. Therefore, political thought had to take into account hostile or competing political actors.

Equally important was the assessment of reality, which made it possible to recognize phenomena and moments that threatened the identity and existence of a given entity. This particularly concerned the processes of transformation of social structures, political systems, property changes or intellectual currents. As a result, two types of entities were considered enemies: the enemy in subjective terms, i.e. literal, and in the case of the PUWP, in addition to the real enemies of the communist movement, also the so-called objective and potential enemies, and the enemy in symbolic (objective) terms.

This monograph is a valuable source of knowledge for historians, political scientists and all those interested in analyzing the mechanisms of power and the influence of ideology on shaping the political reality in Poland during the Polish People's Republic. The publication of the Publishing House of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin presents a high level of content and is an important contribution to research on the recent history of Poland.

Pages: 416, Format: 240x170x23 mm, Year of publication: 2013, cover: paperback. Publisher: UMCS. Number of pages: 416. Cover: paperback. Format: 240x170x23 mm. The monograph is available in the Ateneum offer.