SOCIAL EFFECTS OF THE CONFIDENCE CRISIS; THE CASE OF A VILLAGE IN WIELKOPOLSKA REGION

The authoress of the article presents the results of an opinion poll conducted in 2003 among 189 residents of a village situated in the region of Wielkopolska. The poll marked an attempt at finding out whether confidence played an important role in social and economic life. The results of the poll have shown that social confidence has a great significance for the functioning of individuals and communities and, consequently, also for the organization of social life and the level of social and economic development. Confidence, or its lack, generates phenomena that shape the general attitude towards the existing reality, which is reflected in collective behaviours such as caution, passivity, disintegration of bonds linking individuals and groups. In the opinion of the polled residents of the village the absence of confidence characterizing social life should be blamed on the deepening social and material differences between various groups of Poland's population and the tendency to treat the rural community as a burden slowing down the country's development. The poll is indicated that confidence plays an important role in social and economic life and that it has become one of the factors which decide about the development potential of communities and about the pro-social and pro-economic attitudes of individuals and social groups.