Many people expect, just as they did then, "those at the top" to make all their decisions for them: Please get us work, and take care of our rent. These people vote for those who shout the loudest and deliver promises that are ultimately impossible to fulfill.

As a historian I refuse to recognize an epochal boundary before the fact.

Poland didn't experience a groundbreaking moment in 1989. We didn't storm the secret police building. The squads of secret police, with all their political baggage, remained unscathed.

Many people expect, just as they did then, "those at the top" to make all their decisions for them: Please get us work, and take care of our rent. These people vote for those who shout the loudest and deliver promises that are ultimately impossible to fulfill.

I have made it a habit not to speculate over the psychological state of our elected leaders.

Unfortunately the niveau of political culture is not particularly high in Poland - a relic of the communist past.