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Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Fall 1998

Political Research in Martial Law Poland

David S. Mason Butler University, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Mason, David S., "Political Research in Martial Law Poland" IREX Frontline / (Fall 1998): 8-8. Available at https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/facsch_papers/31

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Digital Commons @ Butler University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Butler University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Permission to post this publication in our archive was granted by the copyright holder, IREX: International Research & Exchanges Board (http://www.irex.org/index.asp). This copy should be used for educational and research purposes only.

The original publication appeared at: Mason, David S. "Political Research in Martial Law Poland," IREX Frontline, vol. 3, no. 3 (Fall 1998), p. 8.

DOI: not available IREX Frontline Fall 1998 - Forty Years of Exchanges

Political Research in Martial Law Poland

By David S. Mason Washington, I also applied for Professor of Political Science, one at the Polish Embassy in Lon­ Butler University, and don, with little expectation of any IREX Long-Term Research results. But within two weeks, the fellow, 1982 visa arrived (the Polish bureau­ cratic right hand not knowing INDIANAPOLIs-In early 1981, atthe what the left hand was doing?) height of the Solidarity revolu­ and in early February [ took off tion, 1 was accepted by lREX to for Warsaw on a British Air flight spend the spring 1982 semester with only a few passengers and in Warsaw for my project on the most ofthe passenger cabin filled developmen t of the workers' with cargo. I was one of the first movement and the formation of Americans allowed entry into Po­ Solidarity. My family and I were land after the declaration of mar­ to fly to Poland ju.,t after Christ­ tiallaw. mas of 1981. But on December Solidarity demonstrators in front of gates to University of Warsaw on May 3, 13, martial law was declared, and Like most [REX first-timers, Ihad 1982 Photo by David Mason. the Polish borders were sealed. I only a vague notion of how to had taken a leave ofabsence from navigate the research libraries tremely active in conducting pub­ darity period to examine the Butler University, and we had al­ and archives of Poland, and the lie opinion surveys, through the public's responses to the dra­ ready rented out our house, so we situation was complicated by the universities, the Academy, Soli­ matic events of that period, as were stranded. political restrictions on the Uni­ darity, and even the Communist opposed to the political battles versity and the Academy of Sci­ Party (the Polish United Work­ on high between Solidarity and lREX responded with its usual ences. But through the helpful­ ers Party). Many of these surveys the regime. • support and flexibility, agreeing ness of my sponsor, a sociologist had been reported in limited cir­ to support my research at the at the University of Warsaw, I culation publications, or were This exposure to public opinion British Library in London while 1 gradually began to meet people, unlikely to see the light of day at research also led me in a new di­ waited for an opportunity to en­ establish con tacts, conduct inter­ all in the new circumstances. rection, as I began to do further ter Poland. In London, I found a views, and ask questions. Thus, many of the academics re­ work on popular attitudes in Po­ treasure trove of Solidarity pub­ sponsible for the surveys were land, then in other East European lications, which promised to keep It turned out that dming the Soli­ anxious to share them, in hopes countries, and then western me busy. Even though my Polish darity period, the sociological that they would be analyzed and countries as welL Over the last 10 visa application was on hold in community had become ex- reported by someone. years, [ have coordinated the In­ ternational Social Justice Project, Having the opportunity to ex­ a collaborative effort studying plore these data, sometimes in and comparing popular beliefs printed form, and sometimes and attitudes about social and po­ even on computers, I quickly litical justice in 13 countries, in­ scrapped my original research cluding eight post-communist agenda to concentrate on gather­ states. All of this evolved from ing as many of the surveys as [ that one crucial research experi­ could. They provided a revealing ence in Poland, sponsored by picture of Poland in a period of IREX .•:. heretofore unprecedented tur­ moil and openness, and I pub­ David Mason's 1982 exchange lished the results in my first book, grant was made possible by the Public Opinion and Political US Department ofState and the Change in Poland (Cambridge National Endowment for the Solidarity demonstrators being teargassed and water·hosed by motorized riot Humanities. police (ZOMO) In Castle Square. Warsaw, Poland on May 3,1982, Photo taken University Press, 1985). Thiswas illegally by lREX scholar David Mason. one of the first studies of the Soli­