Stan Tymiński – the Unrecognized Charismatic Leader
Stan Tymiński – the Unrecognized Charismatic Leader

Summary/Abstract: The spectacular result of Stanisław Tymiński in the 1990 Polish presidential election not only shocked a substantial segment of public opinion but also confounded numerous commentators of Polish political life, who started to seek the causes of the enigmatic candidate’s success. The explanations given by both publicists and social scientists were dominated by the opinion that Tymiński’s success resulted from the demagogical nature of his political program, and the immaturity of Polish society, which at that time had not yet adapted to democracy after 45 years of real socialism. In contrast to those explanations, the present paper attempts to demonstrate that Stan Tymiński possessed numerous traits of a charismatic leader (or, at least, he consequently created his image in that direction), which in turn, allows us to understand the results of 1990 Polish presidential election better.

• Details
• Contents