Turning points at the Round Table Talks

Daniel Druckman,Dominika Bulska,Łukasz Jochemczyk

doi:10.32872/spb.v14i4.2329

Abstract

At the beginning of the 1990s the “winds of change” blew through Europe, leading to the fall of Communism and regime change in several Eastern-European countries. The domino effect started in Poland with the Round Table negotiations that ultimately led to democratization of the country. The context that allowed this historical event to occur has been studied, but the talks themselves have not been analyzed in detail. In this article, we undertake this task. Using several complementary analytical approaches – negotiation theory, turning points analysis and dynamical systems – we study the process of getting to an agreement, focusing on the seven key issues of the negotiations. We treat the Round Table Talks both as a unique case of negotiations, given its structure and the context in which it happened, as well as an event comparable to other negotiations and connecting to the broader negotiation literature. Results of our inquiries show the importance of procedures during the talks and highlight the role played by motivation in propelling the negotiating parties to an agreement. We discuss the implications of our findings for negotiation theory and for the broader context of the historical event.

Highlights

At the beginning of the 1990s the “winds of change” blew through Europe, leading to the fall of Communism and regime change in several Eastern-European countries
The domino effect started in Poland with the Round Table negotiations that led to democratization of the country
Using several complementary analytical approaches – negotiation theory, turning points analysis and dynamical systems – we study the process of getting to an agreement, focusing on the seven key issues of the negotiations

Summary

Summary of the Turning Points Analyses

In the seven process traces that we created, 60% of the precipitants were procedural They included consultation with third parties, informal (unofficial) meetings, changing the composition of delegates at the table, and changing the topic. A summary process trace results from our attempt to aggregate across the seven traces It takes the following form: procedural precipitant (60%) → abrupt departure (57%) → de-escalatory consequences (86%). This trace is a shorthand depiction of the dominant pattern for the Round Table Talks. It shows that procedures were important for producing abrupt departures and that most of the turning points resulted in de-escalatory consequences. It is worth noting that this summary trace is similar to those that occur more generally in political negotiations (Druckman, 2001)

A System of Interacting Issues

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion