Disabled citizens – defining their own role in the political process. An empirical analysis of the attitudes of disabled people in Poland in 2002–2014

Abstract

Define our own role in the process of political participation determines the manner of its implementation, and therefore the attitude we adopt the operating entity in the wider political community. This may be the attitude of an active actor co-responsible for the direction and quality of the policy, or lacking a sense of agency. In the case of disabled persons adopt the first of them it is difficult due to both objective barriers associated with perceptual-motor constraints, and because of the subjective, deeply rooted in society and among the disabled themselves, stereotyping ways of thinking about the functioning of this social category in society. Going beyond this scheme requires the realization of the social model of disability, in which persons with disabilities are active participants in social life, contributing to its development. The aim of the article is to present the dynamics of change in the perception of people with disabilities in Poland, their subjectivity in the political dimension. The analysis will cover issues such as: interest in politics, trust in political institutions and the generalized others, their capacity to co-create the policy. The data used in the empirical analysis is derived from European Social Survey (2002–2014).

Keywords

• disability
• political subjectivity
• citizenship
• European Social Survey