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Kaczyzm

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Protest against anti-pandemic measures in Warsaw in 2020. The poster has the text which reads "Freedom YES, kaczyzm NO".

Kaczyzm (lit. 'Kaczism') is a Polish neologism and an ideological concept (ideologeme) pejoratively or satirically describing the rule of the Law and Justice party (PiS), derived from the names of Polish politicians, brothers Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński. As an ironic or propaganda term, it is used by opponents of the political groups of the Kaczyński brothers, while considered inaccurate and offensive by PiS supporters. Although in recent years the phrase has been reappropriated by supporters of Law and Justice and is sometimes compared to Trumpism in the United States.

History

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This term was coined by Stanisław Janecki [pl], the first deputy editor-in-chief of the weekly Wprost, which was then first in February 2005 by the columnists of this periodical, Robert Mazurek and Igor Zalewski [pl], in an article titled Triumf kaczyzmu (lit. The triumph of Kaczyzm),[1] as a pejorative definition of the political doctrine and vision of the state by Jarosław Kaczyński.[2][3]

Shortly thereafter, during a debate in the Sejm on May 5 that year, in a heated debate between the then governing Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and the opposition Law and Justice deputies, this term was used by deputy Joanna Senyszyn, who asserted that the latter party would, if it were to come to power following the parliamentary and presidential elections in autumn that year, institute a "non-democratic, fascist Fourth Polish Republic", which she saw as "kaczyzm approaching".[4] She then added that "a specter is haunting Poland—the specter of kaczyzm",[5] thus paraphrasing the first sentence of the Communist Manifesto.[2][6] Due to her popularization of the slogan, the authorship is sometimes mistakenly attributed to Senyszyn.[7][8]

Usage and meaning

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Kaczyzm, as a neologism for political ideology, is a type of an ideological concept or an ideologeme.[9] It is one of the best known Polish-language examples of the linguistic construction in the form of derogatory neologisms based on the names of politicians and occurring in the context of political discourse.[2] The popularity of this particular term may, as Bolt and Szerszunowicz say, be attributed to the fact that Kaczyński brothers are often pejoratively nicknamed Kaczory (lit. drakes) or Kaczki (lit. ducks).[10][11] A few derivative terms, which are also pejorative, also exist, such as kaczysta (lit. Kaczist, a supporter of Kaczyński's policies) and antykaczyzm (lit. anti-Kaczism), of which the latter was used by Jarosław Kaczyński himself.[12]

Similar terms exist in Polish (e.g. lepperyzm, tuskizm), and other languages, including English (see Stalinism, McCarthyism, Thatcherism).[2][13][14] They are usually pejorative and intend to emphasize the boundaries of "we" vs "others", and to easily "label" political opponents.[9][15][16]

This concept is still often used on the pages of the media outlets critical of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, such as the weekly Newsweek Polska.[9] In an interview to the left-wing "NIE" newspaper December 2005, when asked to clarify what kaczyzm meant to her, Joanna Senyszyn defined the term as "the Polish variation of 21st-century totalitarianism... [in which] everything mixes: limitations on democracy, a peculiar type of oppression, censorship... [Kaczyzm] exists in a camouflaged form. It is dressed in the garment of social solidarity, patriotism and moral renewal".[8][15] According to Wojciech Szalkiewicz, kaczyzm means a system based on "permanent control, investigative scandals, appointing super-offices and ad hoc commissions of inquiry",[6] while Leszek Balcerowicz described Kaczism as "unprecedented attacks on the institutions combined with unsubstantiated attacks against judges".[17]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Triumf kaczyzmu". Wprost (in Polish). 2005-02-27. Retrieved 2021-10-12.
  2. ^ a b c d Zimny, Rafał; Nowak, Paweł (2009). Słownik polszczyzny politycznej po roku 1989 (in Polish). Wydawn. Naukowe PWN. p. 103. ISBN 978-83-01-15996-2.
  3. ^ Mazurek, Robert; Zalewski, Igor (2006-06-25). "Z życia opozycji". Wprost (in Polish). Retrieved 2021-10-12.
  4. ^ "4 kadencja, 102 posiedzenie, 2 dzień - Poseł Joanna Senyszyn". orka2.sejm.gov.pl. Retrieved 2021-10-12.
  5. ^ "4 kadencja, 102 posiedzenie, 2 dzień - Poseł Joanna Senyszyn". orka2.sejm.gov.pl. Retrieved 2021-10-12.
  6. ^ a b Szalkiewicz, Wojciech Krzysztof (2007). Słownik polityczny IV RP (in Polish). Oficyna Wydawnicza "Atut". pp. 142–144. ISBN 978-83-7432-275-1.
  7. ^ "piłsudczyk - Poradnia językowa PWN". sjp.pwn.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2021-10-12.
  8. ^ a b "Dama zawsze się czerwieni". Tygodnik "NIE". 2009-08-27. Archived from the original on 2009-08-27. Retrieved 2021-10-12.
  9. ^ a b c Kananowicz, Tatiana (2018). "Walka ideologii na łamach tygodników "Newsweek Polska" i "Sieci": kaczyzm vs układ". Język Polski (in Polish) (4): 38–46. ISSN 0021-6941.
  10. ^ Vidović Bolt, Ivana; Szerszunowicz, Joanna (2017). "On the systematic equivalence of modern culture-specific words from a Polish-Croatian perspective". Neofilologia dla przyszłości (PDF). Vol. 2. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Lingwistycznej Szkoły Wyższej w Warszawie. pp. 269–280. ISBN 978-83-926356-7-3.
  11. ^ Uniwersytet w Białymstoku; Ewelina, Sokalska (2018). "Wartościujące nazwy osób w komentarzach internetowych na portalu Onet.pl". Białostockie Archiwum Językowe. 18 (18): 277–299. doi:10.15290/baj.2018.18.17.
  12. ^ Dobrzyńska, Teresa (2008-12-31). "Zabawy językowe jako forma perswazji w dyskursie publicznym". Stylistyka (in Polish). 17: 185–199. ISSN 2545-1669.
  13. ^ Rozprawy Komisji Językowej (in Polish). Wrocław: Wrocławskie Towarzystwo Naukowe. 2005. p. 209.
  14. ^ Góralczyk, Iwona; Paszenda, Joanna (2020-09-17). "Name-based derivatives suffixed with -izm /-yzm in the current political discourse in Poland". Prace Językoznawcze. 22 (4): 21–40. doi:10.31648/pj.5885. ISSN 1509-5304. S2CID 231800945.
  15. ^ a b Pająk-Patkowska, Beata (2010-03-15). "Wymiar lewica–prawica w Polsce – podziały ideologiczne w polskim społeczeństwie". Środkowoeuropejskie Studia Polityczne (in Polish) (1): 79. doi:10.14746/ssp.2010.1.05. ISSN 1731-7517.
  16. ^ Romaniuk, Svitlana (2020-12-30). "Wyjątkowość modelowania sloganów reklamy politycznej (na przykładzie kampanii prezydenckiej na Ukrainie w 2019 roku)". Acta Polono-Ruthenica. 4 (XXV): 115–130. doi:10.31648/apr.5945. ISSN 2450-0844. S2CID 234403315.
  17. ^ "Kurs na Białoruś". Newsweek.pl (in Polish). 15 January 2017. Retrieved 2021-10-12.
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