Dysfunkcje dyskursu wokół apatii politycznej w Polsce

Low level of the Poles’ participation in political life has been a problem widely discussed in the literature. For over twenty years many research works have undertaken this problem and described such phenomena as the exceptionalism of the political culture and the mentality of the Polish society. This paper delivers an overview and a critical analysis of the state of the scientific reflection. It focuses on semantics of this reflection, a problem of the language as well as the terminology used by the Polish authors. The main thesis is that the discourse on the Poles’ (as citizens) political apathy is a dysfunction of public sphere. The features of the discourse (such as genetism, eclecticism of the concept and ideas or inconclusiveness) provide no grounds for making practical recommendations.