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Article: Civil society and social capital in Upper Silesia, a region on its way to the European union (1).(Column)
- Article from:
- East European Quarterly
- Article date:
- March 22, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 East European Quarterly. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Introduction
In the opinion of the Polish Ombudsman Andrzej Zoll the Polish are very poor as citizens. It is visible in the lack of awareness of human rights and participation in communities and political life. The consequence of this situation is a decrease in security in the state. "As long as we fail to improve this aspect of life out of responsibility for other human beings, we cannot feel safe"--he said (Zoll 2001).
There are two very important points which arise from this quotation. Firstly, responsibility has become one of the crucial civic virtues and secondly the limitation of freedom should characterise not only citizens but also the ...