Z historii socjologii polskiej — Leona Winiarskiego koncepcja rozwoju społecznego

Abstract

Scholarly work of Leon Winiarski, the nineteenth century Polish sociologist is generally not much known. He was a member of a mechanistic and energetistic trend in sociology. Before he formulated his theoretical generalizations in this scope he was interested in the problems of social development. „Social Relations in En-gland", one his earlier works, published in 1889, is of a particular importance. It began the emigrational library edition of "European Review", In this work L. Winiarski discusses pathways of development of English capitalism, political organizations and a question of English working class. The choice of English society is explained by its model character. L. Winiarski's reasoning is grounded on a claim that historical process has a natural and necessary character. Development tendencies of particular societies allow for a transition from one form of production to another. A trend of production concentration (forming a „great enterprise") is a natural historical propensity. According to Winiarski the expansion of capitalism had trigerred a natural tendency of historical process towards socialism. This trend implies the economical and political strife of the working class, gaining power by this class is the most important act on the way to socialism. The sociologist however does not state expressly the character of power transition be it by means of revolution or parlamentary change Progress of technology is considered to be a core element in socio-economic changes and consequently, in transformation of political institutions. Transition to socialism can only be accomplished by the effort of the working class which is organized in a political party. The way to create the party is through trade unions' work.