Was Another Modernisation Possible? Liberal and Leftist Critique of the Transformation in the Public Debate in Poland

The article regards the public debate focusing on the assessment of the political transformation and the model of modernisation implemented in Poland after 1989. In recent years, the conservative and right-wing criticism, which focused on pro-Western modernisation and the liberal discourse of transformational success, is more and more often accompanied with self-criticising statements uttered by the former liberal leaders of the democratic transformation and with appeals for a radical retribution of the past which are put forward by the young generation of Polish intellectuals. On the basis of the analysis of the public discourse between 2013 and 2017, the author differentiates between the retribution and reckoning dimensions of the liberal and leftist discourse, reconstructing its interpretative and argumentative structures. The discourse of ‘being disappointed with the transformation’ is considered a symptom of the condition of public debate in Poland.