Kilka uwag o miejscu i roli nauk politycznych w Polsce w okresie międzywojennym

Abstract

The first Polish school of political science was created before the First World War in the Polish territory under Austrian rule – in Lviv (1902) and Cracow (1911). Władysław Studnicki and Michał Rostworowski – initiators and founders of both academies as well as sociologist Ludwik Gumplowicz and lawyer Franciszek Kasparek, can be regarded as the fathers of Polish politology. The next step in the development of political science in Poland was the formation of the School of Political Science on the initiative of Edmund Reyman in 1915 in Warsaw. Then, after the First World War had ended, the School of Political Science in Cracow resumed its activity. Apart from that, the School of Political Science attached to the Scientific Research Institute of Eastern Europe was founded at the beginning of the thirties in Vilnius – the first Polish sovietologist centre. In the interwar period, political science was treated as practical skills on account of their utilitarian character. Therefore, they were not included in the classifications of fields of sciences of that time in Poland. Social activists and academists such as above mentioned Reyman and Konstanty Krzeczkowski, who claimed that political skills’ attempts at the elaboration of their own methodology is the best proof of their scientific character, endeavored to change this state of affairs. It was not until the mid-thirties when the School of Political Science, the biggest institution of this type in Poland, was transformed into the Academy of Political Science, which can be treated as part of the process of the emergence of political science as a separate branch of science.