Concepts of and Proposals for Constitutional Reforms in the Views of Polish Political Societies in Exile in 1830s: The Case of Young Poland

Abstract

The article analyses the concepts of and proposals for constitutional reforms put forward by one of the Polish democratic political groups, which was established in exile after the fall of the November Uprising (1830-1831). Young Poland, which was a part of an international conspiratorial organisation founded by Giuseppe Mazzini (Young Europe), an organisation marked by revolutionary democratism, which, according to Polish emigrants, meant primarily striving for national character, seeing its goal in regaining national independence lost by Poland as a result of partitions. In addition, however, the concepts of members of Young Poland strongly emphasized both Christian and Utopian socialist themes. The foundation of these concepts referred to republican ideas that arose from the Great French Revolution and were based on the principles of freedom, equality and fraternity.

Keywords

• history of political and legal doctrines
• history of constitutional law
• constitutionalism
• political system of the state
• social reforms
• women’s rights